After login a white screen is displayed, no desktop comes up.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11

Gnome desktop is being used and at some point Desktop Effects were enabled.  After a reboot or logout/login a white screen is displayed rather than the desktop.

With Desktop Effects enabled the system will load compiz as the window manager when the desktop comes up just after login.  A white screen can be displayed when 3D Acceleration is not being provided by the graphics driver.  To manually turn off Desktop Effects (compiz) follow these steps:

Reboot the system and get to the login screen but don't attempt to login yet.  At the login screen press Ctrl-Alt-F1 to switch you to VT1 (or TTY1) which is a text based console.  Login as your normal user and run the following commands to disable the Desktop Effects (or compiz):

rm -f ~/.config/compiz/enable-compiz

touch ~/.config/compiz/disable-compiz

Type "logout" or "exit" to logout as your user.  Then press Ctrl-Alt-F7 to return to the graphic login screen.

Login as your normal user and see if the problem is corrected.

The next step would be to determine why 3D Acceleration is no longer being provided.  Once logged in and the desktop is working, open YaST and go into "Graphics Card and Monitor" under the Hardware group.

At the resulting Card and Monitor Properties configuration screen look for the check box at the bottom that says "Activate 3D Acceleration" and verify that it is checked.  If it was not checked and you can check it, OK the settings and enable Desktop Effects in the Control Center to test the fix.

If the check box is grayed out or cannot be checked for any reason, it means that the graphics driver that is running for this card does not support 3D acceleration.  Make sure you have the latest driver for your graphics card installed.  If an update is available, install it and test the Desktop Effects again.

If you are on a registered (or activated) system you can install nVidia and ATI drivers directly though the update service which provides repositories for these drivers in YaST.  Just go into YaST and select Software Management under the Software group.  In the Software Management screen enter "nvidia" in the search field to locate the nvidia drivers and for ATI enter "fglrx".  If the system recognizes the appropriate drivers for your installed graphics card they will be indicated by a special icon as seen in the following example:






Select and install both packages indicated.  Reboot the system after the installation is complete and then go back into the Control Center and enable Desktop Effects again to see if the new driver has solved the problem.