Alt+F7 fails to switch to graphical console (X server) from a text console under some conditions
I have been having trouble lately with losing access to my graphical console.
The basic symptom is that I am in the graphical console, I switch to a text
console via Ctrl+Alt+F1, do some stuff in the text console, then when I
attempt to switch back to the graphical console again with Alt+F7, I get
a black screen. I can then switch back to console number 1 simply by
using Alt+F1. I don't need to include the Ctrl key. This would normally
indicate to me that the X server died somehow, except that "ps aux"
still shows processes associated with the X server, such as gdm, active.
I am running the GNOME desktop on a Debian "testing" system. All packages
are from testing, none are from unstable. I can't swear to this, but
I think my troubles began with kernel 2.6.32. One scenario that often
causes this failure is when the little "sun" icon appears in the upper
right corner, indicating that there are updates available. I switch
to text console number 1 via Ctrl+Alt+F1, login as root, run "dselect
update", "aptitude -R full-upgrade", and "aptitude clean". I then attempt
to switch back to the graphical desktop with Alt+F7 to cleanly shut
things down in preparation for a reboot. But I can't get there.
Has anybody else seen or heard of this problem? I did some internet
searches, but didn't turn up anything that looked promising.
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