My thanks to all the50 folks who took a look at my original question from 7 days ago. Since I didn't get any suggestions, I'm hoping that the forum moderators will approve my opening a fresh thread at the top of the list so others can see a photo and try to guess how to help me.

ScreenShot at Shutdown

The picture shows the screen after openSUSE 11.0 and KDE 4.0.4 have loaded, and after I pressed ++ to bail out. Before I pressed ++, the screen was entirely black except for the arrow icon showing the position of the cursor. In the photo, the four outlined rectangles are the ghosts of four open application windows. The black rectangle near the center is the "Goodbye" window which appears as I indicate the "signoff" choice. (I know just where the sweet spot in the rectangle is, so the computer powers down with Linux leaving in an orderly fashion.) The problem is that after the colorful and animated openSUSE splash screen disappears, I cannot see the desktop to do any work. I think that it's probably a scrambled settings file, but there is now no way for me to access those files nor see what's in them (I don't recall how to ask KDE4 to open a shell window, nor do I even know if the screen would undarken if I went out to a terminal.)

Do any of you have ideas about what went wrong and how to fix it? Thanks

It is highly recommended to upgrade to KDE 4.2, which will probably have this issue solved.
openSUSE provides the KDE:KDE4:Factory repository, in the openSUSE build service for this.

Thank you for your reply. I have read many of your responses to other forum members and I've learned a lot of important details from your other helpful posts.

As a matter of fact, I DID download the newest openSUSE ver 11.1 last night and it has KDE ver 4.2 coming with it. I burned the ISO DVD (it didn't quite fit on the CD space, although I think that it was supposed to) this morning and tried to just jump in with the live CD version. It didn't load and my old defective openSUSE 11.0 with KDE 4.0 came on instead. It will be another day or two before I can again do the liveCD download and burn the DVD again. One issue is that I don't want to lose the files which are already on the /etc and a few other subfolders of my current 11.0 installation.

At the following site on the openSUSE forum

http://forums.opensuse.org/install-boot-login
/401696-newbies-suse-11-1-pre-installation-please-read.html

I found a warning to backup certain subfolders before upgrading to the newer version. I can't even do that, since I cannot see the KDE desktop. As you can see from my photo, all that's visible is the shape outlines of some open applications. And I can't even see them until I hold down the ++ in order to quit. So it's a bit of a "Catch-22" for me.

Again, I thank you for your interest.

Previous to this issue occurring, did you have Desktop Effects enabled?

bcooksley wrote:Previous to this issue occurring, did you have Desktop Effects enabled?

Yes, I was trying all kinds of things to relieve my keyboard of a pernicious double print action which had developed out of nowhere. When I typed a letter "d", for example, it put a "dd" on the screen in whatever app I was keying in text. When I touched the key, it went back two spaces. It also developed a timing/hesitation problem -- and also without my having made any changes on my own. So I went to the"Keyboard and Mouse" settings section and also to the "Accomodations" (or whatever the actual name was -- it began with the letter "A"). I tried to adjust the delay, the repeat timing, and several other settings, but to no avail. I could not defeat the double key action error. Since I was looking everywhere for a solution to that first problem, I may have tripped another switch which caused my dark screen puzzle as well. But since I cannot now see the KDE GUI desktop, I'm at a loss as to how to proceed against either problem. I reaffirm that I did nothing sinister to bring on the double key phenomenon. It just descended upon me all by itself. My original download -- a couple of months ago -- of the liveCD copy of openSUSE/KDE4 was installed only after the appropriate checksum verification was confirmed, so this double key thing was really a bug out of nowhere.

Thank you again, bcooksley, for your interest.

To disable Desktop Effects, Switch to a virtual terminal and login. Open the file ~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc in a text editor ( vi for instance )

Find the section "[Compositing]" and then the value "Enabled" make sure it is set to "false"
You should then be able to login to KDE.

Thank you, bcooksley,

bcooksley wrote:To disable Desktop Effects, Switch to a virtual terminal and login.

That's where I was stuck. How could I get to a virtual terminal if I couldn't see the KDE Desktop at all? The answer came from a friend on the Liway.com forum [also a Linux-leaning place]. He suggested that I try the ++ combo to switch into the terminal and ++ to switch back to the [invisible!!] KDE Desktop. It worked! But then I was left to experiment with the vi editor, which is completely new to me. I made up a simple text file and tried to manipulate it to get accustomed to vi. I didn't seem to be in control (my ignorance, of course), but the .pdf manual on vi which I downloaded didn't correspond exactly to what was going on in the terminal. So I called it quits for the night, not wanting to totally destroy my kwinrc file by duffing around in the sand trap, so to speak. But with a wide-awake mind, (yours of course and now mine,too) I think that you've put me in sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll post back when I've got it licked.

Wow! Thank you all!

I have my standard view of the desktop back after successfully changing the kwinrc file as bcooksley suggested. I learned a lot about (1) the Linux FileSys, (2) the bash shell, (3) the vi editor, and (4) some badly needed keyboard shortcuts. I even was able to solve my "double key" phenomenon by myself.

I'm an old-timer with computers. Back in 1960 I did a bit of programing in the FLATRAN (that's right, folks. It wasn't FORTRAN!) language on an IBM 650 (with rotating drum storage!), learned how to program the card reader with wires to do complex sorts. I got my first home computer in 1980 - a Radio Shack TRS-80. I fearlessly did lots of "behind the scenes" changes in the operating system (which was called NewDOS+). Over the years I just got lazier and depended on Microsoft operating systems to carry me along without my having to mess around with it too much. I became exasperated by some of the Windows changes from one version to another, so decided to jump into the Linux world. It's complicated in a different sort of way, but with your help, I've gotten my feet wet. I got some confidence in dealing with Linux "behind the scenes."

So thank you all for your ideas and your encouragement.