http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15881
--- Comment #13 from Jörg Höhle hoehle@users.sourceforge.net 2009-05-19 06:13:37 --- I found a work-around: Press F6 when the screen is black. This works with both Pharaoh and Cleopatra in 1.1.21.
F6 is not documented in Pharaoh's manual, but it corresponds to the in-game menu -> options -> graphics -> "Fenster-Modus" (in German) / window mode. F7: 640x480 F8: 800x600 F9: 1024x768 F10: undocumented, causes a mini-icon to appear in the top left corner in desktop mode and the game pauses. Is this iconification?
Pressing F6 during game play produces a notice that switching to "Fenster-Modus" failed. The visual effect looks like F6 restores a sane screen after some failure to switch to another mode, that's why this trick works.
The F6 trick cures black screens in both full-screen and desktop mode in Kubuntu and Ubuntu Hardy for Pharaoh and Cleopatra. I wrote in comment #10 that Hardy worked fine for me, but todays testing with 1.1.21 showed some black screens when trying and switching among the 3 resolutions. The main difference was that Pharaoh typically starts with a correct screen, while Cleopatra typically starts black.
Black screens show up in both winecfg's full screen and desktop window mode.