Black Screen instead of Login screen in Graphical Mode
 

I've been having the same black screen of death @ the login screen. I hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart X and I get the same black screen. I hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 to go to console and everything works fine. I've tried this with SUSE Linux 10.1 and OpenSUSE 10.2. I'm running an AMD Athlon64 X2 +4800 (dual core 2.4GHz) with all onboard nVidia video components with two nVidia GeForce 7600 GS video cards running in SLI configuration. Please tell me what is going wrong, I want my SUSE to run. I've tried a livecd of Elive and it runs great, but I really want my SUSE back.

Hi I had a simmilar problem once. How is your graphical mode setup? can you run sax2 from the command line or does it go to the black screen once you type "sax2"? My problem was a misconfigured driver (I was using an ati product though) and it sounds like yours is too. Are you running the nvidia driver or the stock vesa driver? If your running the vesa driver try installing the nvidia driver from the command line, go to nvidia's web site and do it the right way not through yast. I do not know what the status of the vesa driver and sli setups is but I have a feeling that it is not there yet. Oh and use opensuse 10.2. Post back if you've done all this or need more explanation.

I'm running the nVidia drivers that came with OpenSuSE 10.2, I don't know how to install any drivers without GUI. When I run SaX2 first it says access to display is denied, then it brings up a graphical screen that says "Display 2. Configuration on display 1." but I can't do anything here, this is the same screen I get when I try to access the graphics options on the console version of YaST. I'm verymuch a newbie, but still. Coule it be because the version of OpenSuSE 10.2 I have says all over it that it's for Intel processors and I have an AMD, cause I know that my SuSE Linux 10.1 DOES support AMD64 but I have the same problems.

Don't worry we were all new guys once but it's time to use text mode every linux user has to, and the sooner the better. 1st start from the command line as the root user. then type yast it should bring up the yast utility in text mode. You are going to go to software management then search for links, lynx and pico install all three. Links and lynx are text based web browsers, pico is a text based editor they will all be very important in your future as a linux user. Next fire up links or lynx (I forget which I usually use) and point it to the nvidia website [www.nvidia.com]. Download the driver that is appropriate to your system note: only download the 64-bit driver if you are running suse-64 otherwise download the x86 driver. Go to where the dirver was downloaded (if you are root it should download it to the /root folder meaning no changing of directory) type "ls" to make sure it is there. then to start the installer tool type "sh NVIDIA*.run" (short version the long way is to type everything you see as the name of the file) The nvidia installer is very nice and easy just answer the questions. When it's all done type "sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia" and see what happens.
Good luck.

nice explanation below
http://en.opensuse.org/NVIDIA
p.s. pico was not needed here but might be important in the future. There are many console text editors and feel free to experiment but I always remember pico so thats what I use.
p.p.s I don't believe that is has anything to do with your distro. I am 99.9% sure it is a conflict with X and your driver meaning that whatever distro you use your likely to get a same to similar results

Things I forgot
1) make sure you are in run level 3 by typing telinit 3
2) tab, space and the arrow keys do almost everything in the text based menus
3) don't type the "" type what is inside
4) "su" will switch to your root user if you didn't know that
5) when you are done type telinit 5 to get to graphical mode

Here's the problem, I don't have internet access on my linux box, I do however have a dvd with the new drivers on it but I can't seem to access the dvd. It won't mount, it won't access as a directory. I don't know what to do.

wow your in a rough way
try removing one of your graphics cards
boot to root
type sax2 -r -m 0=vesa
set-up
type in telinit 5
see if kde or gnome starts
then see if you can access your dvd drive through kde or gnome
copy the nvidia driver somewhere you can find it
put in your second card (make sure to turn your computer off) and try to set it up again

p.s. did you look in /media for your dvd drive thats where mine hides

if my dvd drive were in media I would be fine to fix it all myself. But unfortunately both of my optical drives are only showing in the /dev (devices) directory. The only things that show up in my /media directory are the floppy drive and my zip drive, but for some reason I'm having trouble getting my zip drive to work with my windows pc, but that's another problem altogether.

well you could try to mount the disk manually, just do a forum or google search for the mount command and it's usage. As another piece of obvious information it's not the drive that mounts in the /media folder but the disk, have you tried other disks to see if they mount? Also look in yast to see if your drives are being properly recognized [hardware -> hardware information].