OpenSUSE Install :: Switched Off Sound & Video

This is just a data point because these observations are semi-irreproducible results:

* sound. Sometimes the sound cuts out and no sound producing applications are able to use sound. I do not see any evidence for what happened in /var/log/messages. If there is something else I should look at, it would be nice to know. Nothing in the alsa stuff jumps out as a way to trace the activity, so I don't know how to provide any diagnostic info. After several reboots, it eventually restores itself and works correctly.

* video. Sometimes when I boot up, the secondary monitor has residual trash on the boot up/login screen. Other times, it is switched off entirely and I only get one monitor functioning when the desk top is finally up. Rebooting a few times clears this up, too.

The clear-up reboot requires a full shut down, not just a KDE restart. That is always ineffective when these problems present themselves, so these are likely driver level issues. I do not know where developers get their suggestions, but here's one: for each subsystem, have some well-named "I need diagnostics for this" thing available under the yast administrator stuff. That would turn on diagnostics for the subsystem. Then, I could turn it on for X and get something a bit better than the .xsession-errors (which showed nothing obvious for this problem) and for sound (aka "alsa" for those in the know).