Problems exiting on X with nvidia nforce 430 MB and ati hd5750.
 

Oh, and this is my first post, I go by Trash_Can, I like long walks on the beach and I play air tuba.
Anyway, I've got a couple installs on a couple machines under my belt, but this one stumped me and I couldn't really find anything on the subject.

Slack works. Works great. Till I try to exit X. Then my monitor goes blank. It's not just one Desktop Environment either. All of them included in the stock distribution have the same problems.

To be honest I don't know where to find error logs. But it doesn't crash the system, I can still [CODE]shutdown[CODE] or hit the power and reset buttons, and just about every input device works just fine (laser mouse brightening up, various "*lock" keys respond...).

I have a sinking suspicion I'm doing something stupid, not the system...

Try checking /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if there is anything interesting in there.

When the screen goes blank, can you ssh into the system from another computer and try to kill X?

Have you tried ctl-alt-F1 to see a console? (or ctl-alt-F2 for a login screen)
You can hit ctl-alt-F7 to get back.

Just a couple of ideas...

Are you booting into runlevel 3, and use startx to get to the desktop? If so KDM won't be loaded and kicker>leave>reboot won't work then.

Yes. I like RL 3. It allows me to change window managers arbitrarily. I like learning this stuff... Typically I'm not trying to actually reboot when I log out, just change run level so I can start a different desktop to play with. I typically avoid KDE...

@optics_guy: Well, Seems both ctrl alt f1 and ctrl alt f2 yield the same blank screen. And just as you had predicted, Ctrl Alt f7 took me right back to my x session (currently Xfce). Oh and by blank screen I mean the monitor acts like the computer shut the screen off. It doesn't whine about not getting a signal, the power lite just goes from green to orange.

As for the log file, I don't really know what to look for. What sections would be relevant to post?

@JackHair: Starting with KDM did indeed allow me to log in, log out, shut down, restart, and change window managers, however, once told to shutdown or restart, the monitor still just goes to sleep without going to prompt.

@optics_guy: I thought about ssh'ing in from the get go, but I currently lack the networking hardware or the means to obtain it.

I need my run level 3. That's just where I'm at, this point in the learning experience. I also have a slack box working just fine that doesn't have this problem, and this box has all my best hardware. So with Neverwinter Nights needing 3d acceleration, mint kinda won by default.

I think I just can't read at all; edited my complete post away ;-)

Do you have multiple graphics adapters running on your box? Do both screens do the same thing?

I assume (but you might need to google a bit to check this out) that your NVIDIA adapter uses the nvidia driver, and the ati adapter uses the ati(radeon) driver. If you look at the log, you should see some entries that begin with those, and you should be able to see if anything is generating errors.

The only reason I can think of that your screen should go blank like that is that the signal is going somewhere else.

Perhaps you might check the output of "lspci | grep VGA" to see if there are multiple entries, and look at the output of lsmod to see what modules are loaded; do you see ati or nvidia in there?

Sorry if I am not being very helpful; you can probably tell I am confused too. :-)

Good luck

If you do init 4 from RL3 (as root) the DM will get loaded, this way you can at least switch WM/reboot/shutdown till you find a solution for the screen going black. Seems the screen turning off is a driver issue. Maybe you can try with 2 monitors 1 connected to each card. Perhaps the image goes to the other card.