How to recover from a display driver problem

[Karl Auer]

On Sun, 2016-04-10 at 09:53 +1000, Karl Auer wrote:
> If you can get out of your broken X to a text console (Alt-Ctl-F1),
> do so.

I forgot to mention: If that works, you should immediately shut down X:

   sudo stop lightdm

... or whatever you need to do on your system.

This is because X is designed to control your video hardware. The same
video hardware that is displaying your text consoles. If X has lost its
mind sufficiently, it may screw with the text consoles as well. So
clobber it firmly before it gets the chance.

If you went in via single-user mode (recovery mode) this will not be a
problem because X does not get started at all.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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