Installed SuSE 10.1 - Blank Screen, no Video Input.
 

:mad: :newbie: Hi, I badly need help. Last week I installed Novell SuSE 10.1 from a DVD, on an 8GB HDD, as a trial, I played for a few days, no prob's. I was very happy with it so I installed again on a 80GB HDD, intending to use it & to learn Linux properly. The drive was empty, I set it up with fdisk as one active partition & formatted with DOS. The install was OK, I basicaly accepted all defaults, (a difference to my trial 8GB HDD setup was,on the Partition setup,it shrank the Windows Partition /dev/hda1 to 25.4GB, I did not know that there was a Windows Partition)this did not happen with the trial 8GB setup, The online updates took forever - about 3hrs, on a 1GB Broadband Connection, (another difference to my 8GB setup, the online updates then took about 1hr).
Anyway all was well, the install reported a successfull finish, have fun, & rebooted.
Then disaster - the welcome/boot screen came up I chose the normal SuSE 10.1 boot option, the scrolling screen went by, then a blank black screen with a message from the Monitor
(NEC LCD 1980 SXI, Digital/Analogue) to the effect - No Input, No Video. I shut down & tried again but still the same. I shut down and this time chose SuSE 10.1 - Failsafe, on the boot screen, the scrolling screen went OK, but in black & white, whereas the normal one has some colour, finaly asking for my name & password, then showing the command prompt. As a complete Newbie I was then lost & had to shut down. I tried the normal boot option again, but got the blank screen again :cry:
Can anyone help?, please don't tell me that I need to start over, it took me about 4hrs to do the install start to finish :eek: Thanks.

You don't need to start over. The fix should be a snap after I get some information:

Video Card
Monitor Brand Name and Model # (so I can look up the specs)
Computer Specs (Processor, RAM, HDD Partitions, etc)

And any other information you might feel is helpful. BTW: Does the monitor work well under windows? Since you implied a dual boot config.

same problem as OP
 

I am having the same exact problem as the OP. Thought of using this thread instead of starting a new one. Here is my configuration:

OS's installed: (dual boot)
- Windows MCE
- Suse 10.1

Processor:
- X86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel ~3299 Mhz

Storage Drive:
- 2 Seagate 200 GB. Windows is installed on the first one and Linux on the second one.

Graphics Card:
-- ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Series

RAM - 2GB

When I select windows, the machine boots up completely normally.

Thanks,
Prasad

What type of monitor?

Did you install the ATI proprietary driver? If you did not you need to download the driver from ATI website. Although you have a blank screen you should be able to boot up into Suse Failsafe mode to install the driver.

Let me know if this helps

Blank Screen
 

HI, usaf,
Monitor - NEC LCD 1980 SXI, Digital/Analogue)
Graph - Nvidia N Force 3
CPU - AMD - Athlone + 3400
HDD - 80 GB SuSE Linux 10.1 only, not dual boot
All works well when using Windows XP,
different HDD.
Thanks very much, John.

First thing to do is to install the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia.com website. Let me know what happens then. Also check the connections both at the computer and the back of the monitor.

If you do not have good results from installing the driver, in SaX2 set the Monitor type to LCD and the Refresh rate to 60 HZ.

Make sure that you check with the monitor's website or check the paperwork that came with your monitor for Maximum and Minium refresh rates before changing these setting in SaX2.

Good Luck.

If you need detailed instruction just let me know.

P.S.- Do not mess with the xorg.conf file just yet!

Thank you usaf_sp.

I was able to use sax2 and get it working.

sax2 -m 0=vesa

Thanks,
Prasad

Flatstan-

Since you have an Nvidia card, you need to install the proprietary driver. Without the driver 3d graphics will be disabled. Go to the nvidia website to download it. The instructions on installing it are pretty straight forward and it should install without a hitch.

Yarlagdd-
Same thing, just go to ATI website.

Blank Screen
 

Thanks very much, I'll do that. Regards John. :D

Guys, in all cases - the first thing you do before trying something else is check if you have your TV out cable plugged into your computer. There is a problem with suse and TV OUT or dualhead modes before installing the latest drivers. If you get a blank screen on start up - just pullout your tv out cable and reboot. It should boot normally.

Afterwards go to the Nvidia / Ati drivers page and update. Then enable dual head mode and plug back in the tvout cable, setting up your second monitor as vesa 1024*768 @60Hz.

Reboot and enjoy. It works for sure on nvidia board NV5500. I hope the same will work for Ati.

LCD-unfriendly settings
 

I think I am seeing a pattern here. I have a system with a flat-panel LCD used in analog mode.

When I booted from the SUSE install disk, I saw the startup screen, from which I selected Install. Then all went blank, except for a message from the monitor itself complaining that the inputs were out of range.

I eventually connected an old CRT, and then I could see what was happening. The CRT reported the signal as 46.4 kHz horizontal, 87 Hz vertical, and inspection of the scan pattern revealed that the scan was INTERLACED! Very unkind to flat panels.

Once all was installed, I set the allowable frequency values to the ranges allowed by my monitor, and I now had a working display on the FP.

The issue seems to be that the default video modes are far from universal. Either there should be instructions on how to override the installer's default video settings on the startup screen, or (preferably) the default settings in the installer should be changed to less aggressive values.

Ok I am haivn gthe same problem but it goes a little different. I have had SUSE linux 10.1 installed for a couple months and it has been working fine... I used it for at least one month before getting the drivers from Nvidia and installing them. Once I got those installed it said that 3d graphics was running. I have a Nvidia Geforce craphics card and My monitor is some old CRT thing. So any ways Im just tooling around choseing some MP3s to play and suddenly the whole monitor went blank. I rebooted and nothing I pulled the card and put it back in I unplugged the monitor and plugged it back in and rebooted again still nothing. I figured the card was dead I unplugged left it unplugged for a week and then one night I decided to plug the video card back in and I tried it with a new monitor. and BAM it works I was really excited. Then I tried to get an internet connection and suddenly that didnt work anymore so I tried to reboot and once I rebooted it didnt work again now when I try and turn it on still no video and also the thingking light just stays on solid forever still I get sick of looking at it... How can I boot in safe mode? Is my computer fried? I thought I had found the answer here but it seems my problem is a bit worse than these....

Just wanted to add that, the reason it shrank the 'windows ' partition is because you formatted it. You didn't need to format it with DOS, so now that 25.4GB partition is just empty space, but you can still use it for storage space. You could have selected do 'Delete' the windows partition, that would have given you the entire 80GB for Linux.


Edit: Oops, didn't realize the original poster's thread was 4 months old...lol

Thanks for all your replies & help, my system is all OK now.
I have found out since that when installing SuSE - when the Graphics config comes up, hitting F2 will enable you to set the resolution of your choice, I suggest choosing something low ie 600 X 800, a more realistic resolution can be set at any time later when all is up & running.