Boots only in Recovery Mode

[oshunluvr]

Ok, so before we roll up our digital shirt-sleeves and figure this out, I have questions;

1) There are no BIOS settings regarding "hybrid" or "discrete" mode for your video?
2) If you have a choice, do you prefer nVidia (speed, features) or Intel (battery life) video, or the ability to switch?

AFAIK, Bumblebee is mostly geared toward using both cards, which you may not need. The answer to #2 will depend on the way you intend to use this laptop.

Just for giggles, boot to the liveDVD and in a terminal type:

sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

and post the output.

[richb]

1. No BIOS switching of graphic cards.
2. Either one. I just would like to be able to run KDE with OpenGl.

Bumblebee was installed as an experiment. I see no advantage using it with the apps I use.

Apparently, somewhere along the line a regression happened with KDE and some Intel machines. On an older Optimus enabled laptop I was running OpenGl and it broke with a KDE upgrade. I do not recall which one. I saw a fix where environment variables were passed to Kwin to correct the problem, but I have had limited success doing that as the system runs with OpenGL but sluggishly, and with severe tearing.

The code was:

export KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1
 export KWIN_COMPOSE=O2

[richb]

Strange development, to me anyway, regarding the OpenGL issue. I removed the nomodeset grub parameter after some recent upgrades to try a normal boot. The result was as I had experienced, a completely black screen with no keyboard response. I then rebooted without changing anything, and for grins waited about two minutes and entered my user password. The desktop came up and I was able to change rendering to OpenGL 2.0!

It would seem the issue is being able to show the KDM screen rather than an endemic OpenGL issue as I had thought.

EDIT: Should be failure to show the Lightdm screen not kdm screen.

[SteveRiley]

It would seem the issue is being able to show the KDM screen rather than an endemic OpenGL issue as I had thought.

EDIT: Should be failure to show the Lightdm screen not kdm screen.

Interesting! Let's try disabling LightDM for the moment. Please run:

echo  "manual" | sudo tee /etc/init/lightdm.override

Now reboot. You will see a text-mode prompt to log in. Do so. Then run:

startx

What happens?

[richb]

Interesting! Let's try disabling LightDM for the moment. Please run:

echo  "manual" | sudo tee /etc/init/lightdm.override

Now reboot. You will see a text-mode prompt to log in. Do so. Then run:

startx

What happens?

Still a black screen and only difference is I need to supply username and password to get to the desktop, (blind of course). And not able to activate OpenGL. So I deleted that file that was created and back to the black screen but able to activate OpenGl after logging in form the "blind" lightdm screen.

EDIT: Correction, I cannot enable OpenGL even with that file deleted. How do I at least get back to where I was. It was a pleasure to be using desktop effects for that brief period even if I had to login blind.

[SteveRiley]

You sure have one goofy-ass computer.

If you feel so inclined, you might experiment further: replace LightDM with KDM:

sudo apt-get install kdm

During installation, debconf (the Debian-based process that asks questions during package installation) will present a menu, asking which display manager you wish to use. Select "KDM" and continue. Now reboot.

We know that your graphics setup confuses LightDM. But we don't know whether KDM could handle it. The above experiment will find out. If it's also blank, you can leave it that way, or you can return to LightDM:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

and answering debconf's question again. Alternately, you can simply remove KDM altogether:

sudo apt-get purge kdm

[richb]

I would rather not do a new install. Any way to enable kdm without a new install?

EDIT: Sorry I misread your post as a new install and not the install of KDM. I understand now and will try it.

Apparently it confuses kdm as well, same result. I returned to lightdm as the username is defaulted to and I only need to enter the password. My procedure now is to wait 45 seconds after startup while the system churns and then enter the password. Awkward, but at least I get a fully functional desktop.

I am not even going to attempt to debug why I cannot use OpenGL 3.1.