Using "splash" Linux boot option causes IPMI console view to blank

[Paul Smith]

I'm using a set of blade servers with SuperMicro BIOS and IPMI console viewing capabilities. I use the Ubuntu netboot options with a PXE server to install.

I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 on these systems, and everything works great.

However, when I install Ubuntu 16.04 (and this is true both if I upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 with do-release-upgrade AND when I install a fresh copy directly via the Ubuntu 16.04 netboot image via PXE), then the install works but when I reboot the IPMI console is completely blank: no cursor, no text, no typing shows anything.

I can still SSH to the system (except of course the default netboot install doesn't include sshd for some bizarre reason so I had to play some tricks and rerun the install multiple times :-/).

After a lot of experimentation I discovered that if I edit the /etc/default/grub file and remove the "splash" setting from GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable and re-run update-grub, then things worked fine and I was able to boot properly without losing access to the IPMI console.

One more note: this is definitely a kernel issue because when I choose the older 14.04 kernel (3.13 or similar) from the boot menu on the system I upgraded from 14.04 to 16.04, with the "splash" setting still in the grub config and no other changes (so userspace is still all 16.04), I had no problems with the IPMI console viewer.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1593261

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Paul Smith (psmith-gnu)]

This is a blade server install and getting enough packages installed to run apport-collect is difficult. I've attached the results of running dmesg when I see the error (dmesg-bad.out) and when I don't see the error (dmesg-good.out).

While doing this I discovered the REAL cause of the problem, it's not the splash setting, at least not directly.

The real problem is the "vt.handoff=7" option which gets added to the kernel command line. This is only added if splash is part of the settings (at least insofar as my experiments go). When that value is present, then the IPMI console viewer breaks. If I leave splash in the command line but edit the grub.cfg file directly to remove the vt.handoff=7 setting then reboot, the IPMI console viewer works again.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.7-rc1 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.7-rc3-yakkety/

[Paul Smith (psmith-gnu)]

I've tested with 4.7-rc3. I first booted with this kernel without the "splash" to make sure it booted, then I added back the "splash" and re-ran update-grub, and booted that. That also worked. I verified by examining dmesg that the vt.handoff=7 WAS present on the kernel command line when it worked.

So it appears this issue is resolved in this newest kernel.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Can you also test the latest upstream 4.4 kernel? This will tell us if the fix in mainline was already sent to stable or not. The 4.4.15 kernel can be downloaded from:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.4.15

[Brian Brown (brianwbrown)]

This problem still exists in 16.10 server with the 4.8.0-39-generic x86_64 kernel.