gdm black on black

[Mike Wright]

Murray, WJ (Bill) wrote:
>   Hello all,
>          I was fiddling with the fglrx driver, trying to get 
> suspend to work, and I used the ati/amd installer instead of
> rpmfusion. Big mistake.
>    Since then my system has been broken. I have reverted to
> radeon, and fglrx from rpmfusion, but always the same symptoms:
> 
> boot starts OK, with the sun, on plymouth 
> until gdm should take over and offer log in possibilites.
> That step is black on black. I know it is working, because I
> can log in, but even after log in the display stays black-on-black.
> [I can check that I logged in via ssh] 
>   I have replaced gdm/xorg/compiz/other rpms but no change.
> 
> Can anyone suggest how to fix this please?
>  Sorry ....
>       Bill

Hmmm, whenever I get strange things such as toolbars showing up in the 
middle of the screen or wrong screen resolution, etc. I usually end up 
mucking around in the .gconf* trees.  I've actually made fixes there 
that stuck.    Trying to fix these with the GUI seems to fix some things 
temporarily but the evil returns on next login.

Since you can't see what you're doing in runlevel 5 try typing "ctrl alt 
f2" (actually, depending on version of fedora, f1 through f5).  This 
will give you a runlevel 3 (non-graphical) login prompt.

If you're feeling curious, brave, insane, etc. start digging through 
your home directory's .gconf* directories looking for things related to 
color,  *or* you could do what I've seen recommended on this list 
before, and delete the .gconf* directories, which should be rebuilt for 
you automatically on next login.  Your existing display management 
settings will be hosed but you probably won't be looking at black on black.

Hope that helps,
:m)