Comment # 18 on bug 964429 from Egbert Eich

(In reply to Ulrich Windl from comment #17)
> (In reply to Egbert Eich from comment #16)
> > Please define: 'a complete failure to star the X server'.
> 
> As I wrote: There was no graphical login, but some message saying that the X
> server wouldn't start. I had to switch to another (text) console to log in.
> 
Ok, now I understand. I seem to be missing a log file for this. The log file
from comment #3 shows the Xserver starting and terminating normally. it didn't
live ver long (all in all ~6 sec) which indicates that your DM (which one are
you using?) terminated it.
This might indicated that the DM had issues loading the required libs. Without
knowledge of your DM we cannot find out where it logs to, though.

> > (In reply to Ulrich Windl from comment #11)
> > > Created attachment 664018 [details]
> > > Previous Xorg.0.log.old that did not send a valid video signal to the
> > > monitor.
> > 
> > Looking at this file, the time stamps reveal that the Xserver had been
> > active for 1.5 hours. I don't think there were any issues with the video
> > signal.
> 
> I deduced from the fact that the monitor went into power save mode that
> there was no valid video signal. I wouldn't deduce that there was a valid
> video signal (on the correct output) from the fact that the server process
> was running for a while.

The screen usually goes into power save mode when it's idle for so long.
Moreover, this log file is for the fbdev driver which is unlikely to show a
black screen if your console was working at all. Also it is even more unlikely
that the screen is loosing the video signal when using this driver.

> > Ulrich, the information you've supplied is still to piecemeal to get NVIDIA
> > involved: It is not clear at all if the log file you supplied in comment #3
> > is for the G03 or the G04 driver.
> 
> OK: Suggest instructions on how to get the NVIDIA driver working. And if it
> doesn't, suggest what log files you really need.

This is not the prime purpose if this bugzilla. We are trying to determine if
there is a bug in the software or the installation procedure. Once these things
are fixed it should start working for you again if it hasn't before by the
things we asked you to try.

Currently, I see two issues:
1. the G03 driver you've used reads a defective EDID extension block which is
supplied by your monitor. So either the read procedure is wrong or the block
sent by the monitor - in which case the NVIDIA driver should simply ignore it.
This is something for NVIDIA to fix.
2. when you deinstall the G03 driver you will get the G04 driver (according to
your comment #2). Not sure why this happened. This is something for us to
determine. If the G04 packages support your hardware (PCI ID: 10de:0640) as
well, it should have worked. 
Have you rebooted in between?

This ticket has seen attempts with too many drivers: NVIDIA G03, G04, fbdev and
nouveau.
All this is confusing and obfuscating the goal.
Please 
1. disable the NVIDIA repo, 
2. deinstall whatever NVIDIA driver you've installed, 
3. update the system to the current maintenance level doing 'zypper dup',
4. re-enable the NVIDIA repo and run 'zypper inr; zypper dup'
This should give you the NVIDIA driver back - please let us know which ones...
If it works now, 1. is fixed for this driver.

BTW: The surest thing to determine if X is basically working and lighting up
your screen, is by logging in to the text console as root and do:
'/usr/bin/Xorg -retro & sleep 3; xterm -display :0'. You should get an X screen
with the old fashioned root weave and an xterm. To determine if there are
issues with the openGL libraries (ie you have installed unsuitable ones) you do
'gxlinfo' in this xterm and observe the output and any messages.