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AlikElzin-kilaka
Asked: 2011-05-18 11:17:03 +0800 CST

Black screen except for mouse cursor on Thinkpad Edge 15

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After not using the computer for a few hours, I return and see a black/blank screen. I see the mouse cursor. It responds to movements and it changes state as if the windows are there (changing to text or 'link thumb').

But all I see is a black screen. Anyone knows anything about this?

11.04

6 Answers

  1. I occasionally have the same issue.

    Try hitting Alt+F2 and then typing unity --replace.

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  2. Have you tried restarting your window manager?

    sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

    If that is the case, as you suggested in the comments it may be a memory leak or something with Compiz?

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  3. I had to disable the screensaver on my Thinkpad Edge 13 to solve a similar (same?) problem.

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  4. I think we nailed this one. You need to go to a tty shell (with no ui) by using, for example, ctrl+alt+F2. In the tty shell, you need to login and find any compiz process, using the command

    ps -ef | grep compix

    Then, kill all the compiz processes:

    kill -9 <processes ids separated using space>

    Then run unity to initialize the UI:

    unity&

    Give it a moment to load and go back to the 'UI shell', using ctrl+alt+F8, to see the UI being initialized.

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  5. Best Answer

    Another option (Can help a freeze - not just a black screen):

    Go to a tty shell (with no ui) by using, for example, ctrl+alt+F2.

    Just kill the compiz process (not compiz-decorator) - The UI will restart itself.

    Identifying process id:

    ps -ef | grep compix

    Killing the process:

    kill -9 <processes id>

    Go back to the 'UI shell' (ctrl+alt+F7) - the UI will restart.

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  6. On Ubuntu 13.04, the following may help when you have a black screen and a mouse pointer or some other indication/knowledge that you are running the lightdm desktop manager that ships with Unity.

    Open up TTY1 by typing Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2 for TTY2, etc).

    Log in, then enter:

    sudo restart lightdm
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