HOw too recover from a botched video driver(SOLVED)

[cudayne]

I am using mint 12 kde an i do like it. There is one question an i see i am not the only one having this kind of problem.

If i try too use the restricted driver it fails too install then on reboot there is a black screen where the mint log in screen should be.
It was said in another post that this is easy too fix but no one said how.

So before i play around trying too get my nvidia video card working an botch yet another install how do i recover if the nvidia driver does screw up again?

[disciple1964]

Here is the answer to that problem!

Black splash screens
In Linux Mint 12 the boot splash screen is completely black. It doesn't show a logo with green dots as it used to. This is by design. Once the system is installed the boot sequence is relatively fast. The black loading sequence doesn't look out of place and it looks consistent across all computers, whatever driver you're using.

[Roken]

If your computer is completing boot, and remains a black screen:

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sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak

This will disable the restricted drivers and should get you back to a desktop.

[cudayne]

thanks a lot now time too play around with this.

[Napi2003]

Good evening, everybody!

This fix absolutely BEGS for the obvious question: How in the first place can you type a terminal command, if all you have is a BLANK screen? (remember that the whole "botched driver" thing is that you start with a non-working screen in the first place.)

What worked for me after the fglrx ATI driver messed my screen into a blank void:

1. When GRUB boots, select Linux Mint - recovery mode.
2. Select the option that "remounts" the filesystem.
3. Wait a couple of minutes for all the services to load (that "mountall: Plymouth" thing takes ages)
4. Log in with your username / password when asked.
5. Ramp-up into ROOT superuser mode by typing in the "$" prompt: "sudo su -". If asked, type your password again.
6. The prompt will change from $ to # (ROOT mode).
7. Type the following and don't mind the commands that bite back:

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# apt-get remove --purge fglrx
# apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
# apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-dri
# apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core
# dpkg --reconfigure xserver-xorg
# rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# reboot now

The PC will reboot. Under GRUB select the normal Linux Mint boot mode. And voilà!
You have your lovely Mint 12 as before the ATI drivers messed up your Linux experience.

Please add corrections and improvements to this. I'm still new at Linux.