starting an application makes the screen go blank

Could you run an exe from the terminal and attach the output here please.
See http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#get_log if you need help.

Did it not do this in a previous version of wine or in a previous version of Ubuntu?
Thanks

I tried running Chip's Challenege (download here: http://www.freewebs.com/chipshome/chips.html), there was no output to the console but the screen did go blank. This did not happen before upgrading to wine-1.1.42, I have wine-1.2 on my desktop running Gentoo and this problem does not occur.

Could you try enabling the -proposed repository in Lucid or adding https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-wine/+archive/ppa then upgrading to wine1.2 proper. It works for me with 1.3.5
If that's still a problem it's likely a video driver; which do you use?

I add that repo and it upgraded to wine-1.2, the issue still occurs. The computer is using the nouveau driver.

[Expired for wine1.2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Likely this bug is something in the linux kernel's nouveau drm driver. If that's true, then booting a newer version of the kernel might resolve it. Has anyone tested if this issue still exists with Lucid 10.04.4?

As we're on the cusp of the next LTS release, it would be worth testing if this issue exists in the 12.04 beta. This can be checked using a USB live image. You can get it at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily/current/, and use USB Disk Creator to make a boot drive. Please update this bug report once you've tested. (If you've already tested any version of ubuntu newer than Lucid and already know it works, that's sufficient testing, just mention that here.)

We're closing this bug since there has not been a response from the original reporter. However, the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. If you're not the original reporter, we'd prefer you file a new bug report.

Some tips:

  * Report X.org bugs via the command: `ubuntu-bug xorg`

  * Test against the latest development Ubuntu. http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/
    Bugs marked as affecting the development version tend to get priority attention.

  * The `xdiagnose` utility has functionality for enabling debugging and
    analyzing a few common X problems.

  * Tag your bugs with the Ubuntu versions you have reproduced the issue in.

  * See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting for tips on writing good bug reports.