How to Fix Screen Blank when Installing openSuSE 10.3 on Eee Box

openSuSE installed from the DVD successfully, but the screen would go blank and enter standby mode after booting. A DVI-VGA adapter was used to connect a VGA LCD screen.

The problem lies in the Xorg configuration. Apparently the default Intel driver does not work. The driver needs to be changed to VESA.

To fix the screen and get Xorg to work correctly:

1.      Turn on the computer. It will display the boot progress, but then the screen will go blank. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to change to command line mode.

2.      Login as root.

3.      To edit the configuration file, you will require a text editor. By default, only vi is installed. These instructions use pico. To install pico, place the openSuSE Install DVD in the drive, and type “yast2 –i pico” on the command line.

4.      Open the configuration file: pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf

5.      Scroll down using the arrow keys to find the line which says:
Section “Device”

A few lines futher down, replace this line:

Driver    “intel”

With this line:

Driver    “vesa”

6.      Press Ctrl+O and then Enter to save the file. Press Ctrl+X to exit.

7.      Type “reboot” to restart the computer. This time you should be able to login to the desktop environment as normal.

Full contents of working xorg.conf file (with modified line highlighted):

# /.../

# SaX generated X11 config file

# Created on: 2009-09-09T11:23:59+1000.

#

# Version: 8.1

# Contact: Marcus Schaefer , 2005

# Contact: SaX-User list

#

# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)

# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

#

Section "Files"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/local"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/URW"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/CID"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"

  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/xtest"

  FontPath     "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"

  InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"

  InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"

EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"

  Option       "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"

EndSection

Section "Module"

  Load         "dbe"

  Load         "type1"

  Load         "freetype"

  Load         "extmod"

  Load         "glx"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  Driver       "kbd"

  Identifier   "Keyboard[0]"

  Option       "Protocol" "Standard"

  Option       "XkbLayout" "us"

  Option       "XkbModel" "microsoftpro"

  Option       "XkbRules" "xfree86"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  Driver       "mouse"

  Identifier   "Mouse[1]"

  Option       "Buttons" "5"

  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

  Option       "Name" "KYE Optical Mouse"

  Option       "Protocol" "explorerps/2"

  Option       "Vendor" "Sysp"

  Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

  DisplaySize  306 230

  HorizSync    30-70

  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"

  ModelName    "107S (107S1)"

  Option       "DPMS"

  VendorName   "PHILIPS"

  VertRefresh  50-160

  UseModes     "Modes[0]"

EndSection

Section "Modes"

  Identifier   "Modes[0]"

  Modeline      "1280x1024" 119.40 1280 1368 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1063

  Modeline      "1024x768" 95.50 1024 1088 1200 1376 768 769 772 807

  Modeline      "1024x768" 85.45 1024 1088 1200 1376 768 769 772 803

  Modeline      "1024x768" 74.62 1024 1080 1192 1360 768 769 772 799

  Modeline      "800x600" 60.07 800 840 928 1056 600 601 604 632

  Modeline      "800x600" 53.14 800 840 928 1056 600 601 604 629

  Modeline      "800x600" 45.50 800 840 920 1040 600 601 604 625

  Modeline      "800x600" 38.22 800 832 912 1024 600 601 604 622

EndSection

Section "Screen"

  DefaultDepth 24

  SubSection "Display"

    Depth      15

    Modes      "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"

  EndSubSection

  SubSection "Display"

    Depth      16

    Modes      "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"

  EndSubSection

  SubSection "Display"

    Depth      24

    Modes      "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"

  EndSubSection

  SubSection "Display"

    Depth      8

    Modes      "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"

  EndSubSection

  Device       "Device[0]"

  Identifier   "Screen[0]"

  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"

EndSection

Section "Device"

  BoardName    "945 GME"

  BusID        "0:2:0"

  Driver       "vesa"

  Identifier   "Device[0]"

  Option       "monitor-VGA" "Monitor[0]"

  VendorName   "Intel"

EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"

  Identifier   "Layout[all]"

  InputDevice  "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"

  InputDevice  "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"

  Option       "Clone" "off"

  Option       "Xinerama" "off"

  Screen       "Screen[0]"

EndSection

Section "DRI"

    Group      "video"

    Mode       0660

EndSection

Section "Extensions"

EndSection

More Information: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=39698