Perhaps you could take down the X server using /etc/init.d/xdm stop (or gdm or kdm if you use those). That might give the monitor time to adjust itself, which restarting X wouldn't do.
If that gives you a shell, use dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 to sort out the config. If it doesn't, you could look at tools that reset the console (such as the command 'reset'), and possibly see whether the consoles actually work at all by typing things like 'eject' on them. Good luck. On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:26:27 -0700, Carl D. Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Wed, 2004-06-23 at 08:48, Carl D. Blake wrote: > > I've lost the ability to switch virtual consoles on my Woody system. > > One of the sysadmins logged in as the backup user through the kdm > > desktop and when he logged out the monitor went dark. Now we can't > > switch to a virtual console using Ctrl-Alt-Fn, nor can we switch to the > > kdm desktop with Ctrl-Alt-F7. I've seen something like this happen on > > other linux systems before and my only solution was to reboot. I hate > > to do that for something so stupid. Is there some way to restore this > > functionality with rebooting the system? > > > > > I've done some more investigation. It appears that something has > happened to the video system. I can press Ctrl-Alt-F1 and then type in > the username and password and when I check from an SSH connection I can > see that I have successfully logged in on tty1. But I can't see > anything on the console screen. I then pressed Ctrl-Alt-F7 and then > pressed Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart the X server. When I did that the > monitor's LED light went green for a moment as if it were about to > display some video, but then it went orange again indicating that there > was no video. Again I have seen this behavior before where the video > system is somehow munged. Does anyone know how to fix it without > rebooting? This is a server being used by other people and I really > hate to take it down. > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
