salome meca - meshing module

I installed CAELinux (08 presumably) an it functioned perfectly. I am quite impressed with the package. However, I ran the synaptic package manager and applied all available upgrades (from one source) and now I have at least one big problem. When I run salome meca and I go from the geometry module to the mesh module the screen goes black. I am unsure whether or not the system locks up. The first time this happened I attempted a few random key strokes and Vista booted. The second time (my attempt to confirm the issue) I was unable to do anything but power down the machine. The keyboard seemed to be unresponsive (caps lock and num lock did not illuminate their respective LEDs).

Thanks in advance for any advice,
- Matt Bondy

It seems an issue related to the graphic board drivers. When screen goes balck, try to press CRTL+ALT+backspace, it should bring you back to the login window.

If it is true, try to reinstall graphic board driver.

Regards.

Is there an easy way to roll back to the previous driver?

- Matt

Matthew Bondy wrote:

Is there an easy way to roll back to the previous driver?

I dont'know, go to see in the directory /etc/X11: the file the manages all the graphic system is the xorg.conf, maybe that the update procedure saved a backup copy of the old xorg,conf file, something as xorg.conf.old or xorg.conf.bkp or something similar. If yes, try to recover the backuo copy, but before make a backup of the current xorg.conf.
One more thing:
check if in the current xorg.conf file you have this setcion:

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

It enables the 3d acceleration for non-root users too.
If it appears like this:

#Section "DRI"
#Mode 0666
#EndSection

then it is not set active, you have to remove the # character and restart the Xserver.

Anyway you can download the driver matching your kernel and Xorg version from the site of the producer of the graphic chipset.

If you have a ATI or NIVIDA gpu, things are easy, just download the installer and run it.

Before of every operation, make a backup of the file:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
so, in case of troubles, you can recover the old one file.

Thanks for the help. I dont want to risk any problems at the moment so I dont think I will try anything for at least a few days but I will post my results.

The big PCLinux OS update that just came out fixed my problem.