Thinkpads Forum

This is now already my second try to install OpenSuse 10.3 on my T61p and everything seems to work fine until X starts. Then, I only see a black screen and that's it. I am not changing anything during the installation. I started the failsafe boot option and everything is working until I type in startx. Then the black screen appears.

Since I am pretty much an Linux Dummy, I have no clue what to do, and would like to know, if somebody has tried to install Suse 10.3, and could give me a hint what I have to do. Please in easy steps if possible.

Thanks a lot, MCheiron

i have a similar problem with my T61.
i tried installing ubuntu 7.10 today, and i got the black screen as well.
i set the BIOS to AHCI and compatible. neither of the two worked.

the cpu is still techinically 'on'. my keyboard and mouse are still lit up.

Thanks for your answer. At least I am not alone. Changing the SATA mode has no impact, but I read that it should be supported out of the box (at least at Suse 10.3).

I think there is a problem with the graphics card because mine becomes black and stops when X is starting or I type in startx to start it in the failsafe startup mode.

Thanks for your help.

MCheiron

From the command prompt in failsafe mode, logon as your user then su to root. Type the following command. If sax2 starts up, test, save, exit and reboot.

sax2 -m 0=vesa

MCheiron,

My T61p went to black screen during the install, and would also die booting into failsafe because it wanted to complete the installation. I ended up booting into the install CD, select rescue system and did the following:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... p?t=462538

1) Boot from your SuSE installation disk and choose 'recover system'

2) Login as 'root'

3) Figure out which partitions your linux installation is on (I only had one which was hda6) My configuration is as follows on my laptop hda1=winxp, hda2=extended, hda5=fat32, hda6=/. Note that I only have 1 linux partition.

4) Since by default you cannot create new directories within the recover environment you are going to mount you linux installation to /mnt. Then we will need to bind some critical system directories before we chroot.

5) Commands are as follows....
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
chroot /mnt
sax2 -r -m 0=vesa.
save the configuration and reboot

After the install completed, I added the nvidia community repository, and ran sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia

Thanks a lot for all your answers. It worked out and Suse is running.

One more thing: could it be that the 3D is not supported yet even with the newest nvidia driver that apparentely support the FX 570m graphic card?

Thanks again, MCheiron

Hello all,

FX 570M is supported by the latest Nvidia driver. It works flawlessly in my T61p. I used the drivers form the repository added in "Community Repositories" in YaST. This way I don't have to go to the console nor have to update it after every kernel update.

/ric

Just pulled my T61p out of the box yesterday. And after ripping off Vi$ta Home basic (Hey, that's an interesting story for another thread!) using my openSuSE 10.3 install, I came up with the exact same problem with the "blank screen". This morning I changed my "google" search and found this thread with the answer. I'm now running the laptop using vesa.

Just have one question: After adding the nvidia repo I see several kernel module pac's....which one should I use? These are the pac's I see:

nvidia-gfxG01-kmp*
nvidia-gfx-kmp*
nouveau-kmp*

Plus, has anyone used these:

x11-video-nvidia or
x11-video-nvidiaG01

and if so, are they a "must" for the 3D desktop?

For the T61P with the 570M install nvidia-gfxG01-kmp* and x11-video-nvidiaG01.