Hi,

So here's what I've got ...

OpenSuse 11.4 32 bit -- fresh install
Thinkpad T42 on a 2878 Dock/Port Replicator.
KDE
VGA Monitor

Note: The laptop screen remains lit and works properly in all cases listed below.
o The GRUB boot screen initially display's on both the VGA and the laptop screens.
o Once the boot process begins the VGA goes blank.
o Once runlevel 5 is reached the VGA lights up again with the login screen.
o After login everything works normally under KDE on the VGA screen.
o When I press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to open a text session the VGA screen goes dark.
o If I create a new graphics session and toggle to it via Ctrl+Alt+F8 the VGA works fine.
o It seems that the graphic sessions work fine on both the VGA and laptop screens.
o The non-graphic sessions only work on the laptop screen.

I've run suse 9.2, 10.3, 11.1 and 11.2 (a fresh install each time -- no upgrades) on this same model T42 Thinkpad and dock without incident. It seems that it is an issue only with 11.4

Any Ideas ???

I found the solution ...

It's very simple. Add nomodeset to the grub boot options in /boot/grub/menu.lst

The fix was discovered on an opensuse.org forum but I figured I'd post it here as well for anyone who might have the same trouble.