How to get your windows back when your Linux screen goes black

published Jan 02, 2009 07:33   by admin ( last modified Jan 02, 2009 07:33 )

Summary: Ctl-Alt-F1, followed by Ctl-Alt-F7 works for me

One of my Linux machines, a Toshiba L30 laptop running Ubuntu 8.04, has problems with the X window display system when running an external monitor. Sometimes the external monitor goes all black, and sometimes both the laptop screen and the external monitor go black. In the later case, I can see the cursor flitting around in a jerky way on the laptop screen when I move the mouse. Everything else is gone.

My guess is that there is something fishy in the dual monitor setup, and that possibly some memory positions are written to that should not be written to. It's been some years since I tried to tweak the X settings on a linux computer and I do not feel like trying again, because it is a job that is a real time sink.

A simple remedy I have found is to go into one of the command line consoles, by holding down Control, Alt and the F1 keys,  release them and then go back to X by holding Control, Alt and F7. I do not know why this works, but it does.

Another option is to hold down Ctl, Alt and backspace, but this reboots X, and you have to restart your applications. The method described above gets me everything back as it was.