Blank screen on terminals f1 to f6 on bootup

[Lukas Sabota]

When booting the system and usplash fails, terminals f1 through f6 are completely blank, and it is confusing for a user to know what is going on. Wouldn't it help to print a message "System is booting, press CTRL+F8 to see boot process" or something similar to hint the user that the system is not hanging?

PS: I'm not sure what package to file this under, is there an unknown package in launchpad?

[Ignacio Lago Fontán (nacho-exr)]

I don't know if this is the bug I found, but I hope that I can explain more details about:

Version: Dapper Flight 5 (up-to-date)
Installation: Server
Problem: Framebuffer doesn't show. Blank screen with vga=XXX parameter.

The resolution in the installation was: 1024 x 768 32bpp

When I boot-up the system I see the grub "wait" message and the initial kernel load. But when the framebuffer is suposed to show the messages there is all-in-black. Nothing on the screen.

The system is booting-up in the "background", because I can do a login. I test this after login doing "echo 'blank screen sux' > test.txt".

All this with the blank screen.

If I change the boot options in grub and remove the vga=XXX parameter Ubuntu boots well. Without any problem.

I tested vga=0x332 0x532 791 792 ... nothing works. Tested too with kernel linux-386 and linux-686 (both in the CD version and up-to-date)

In Ubuntu Warty/Hoary/Breezy framebuffer works perfect. Tested with all this parameters.

Please consider this a big problem because the console without framebuffer is far from being usable at normal work.

My hardware:
Laptop: Compaq Evo N600c
Graphic card: 0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY

Thanks.

[x (xk2c-deactivatedaccount)]

can confirm same problem here

But here uspalsh didn´t fail at boot, i disabled it (removed splash from kernel options).

This shows the same behavior.
I use vga=0x317 as framebuffer resolution. That always worked well for me.

[x (xk2c-deactivatedaccount)]

I wanted to add:
When you remove splash from kernel options and use vga=0x317 all the consoles have blurry colors after X is started.

[kko (kko)]

There are numerous reports on seemingly identical issues, all related to the framebuffer VTs / consoles not working when X is run. This occurs with varying hardware (and varying kernel versions), so the issue may be wider than previously suspected, and possibly related to something that these occurrences have in common.

However, even as these reports have much in common, I am hesitant to mark any as duplicates, since the hardware varies (e.g. four different graphics cards), and because the cause may or may not be the same.

As I summarised these reports, I find it beneficial to attach the summary to each report. Apologies to recipients of Ubuntu Bugs & Ubuntu X SWAT for having to receive multiple copies of the same.

A brief summary follows:

Four reports, with the common behaviour that the framebuffer consoles stop working _as soon as X starts_:
- Bug 21416 - reported by felix.rommel. Acer Aspire 1350 with a Via KN400 Unichrome graphics card.
- Bug 29407 - unsure if original report is related or caused by a different issue, but all comments are related. Comments by Ignacio Lago Fontán, Compaq Evo N600c, ATI Radeon Mobility M6 LY; also by Thilo Six.
- Bug 40297 - reported by kko. Matrox G450 graphics card.
- Bug 42974 - reported by Richard Laager. HP dv800 with a GeForce Go 7400 graphics card.

A fifth report, with identical behaviour (fb stops working with X running), but only after hibernate + resume):
- Bug 36904 - reported by kamome with "dapper flight5 on a via mII12000".

A further report that may or may not be related, but lacks details (i.e. does the fb not work at all, or only stop working after X has been started? what equipment?):
- Bug 42168 - reported by vertiger.

[Lukas Sabota (punkrockguy318)]

i'd also like to add:
when usplash does not fail, there is still a period of time when f1-6 terminals are blank. Reproducing:
Boot up machine.
Wait until GDM is loaded.
Quickly switch to f1 terminal.

For me, when I switch to this terminal, it is blank until the rest of the background bootup process is complete.

PS: What is the right name for terminals f1-6?

[kko (kko)]

Lukas: Thank you for the clarification. This bug _seems_ to be different from the others - in the others, the terminals become blank only after X has started.

Now that I read Ignacio Lago Fontán's comment again, I am also starting to think that the bug he has faced is also not related to the others - for him, it seems that the framebuffer isn't working at all, even _before_ X has been started.

However, Thilo Six's comments seem to relate to the issue that appears in the other reports I summarised.

PS. Commonly used names for the terminals: "Virtual Terminal" ("VT") and "Virtual console" are used. Also used is "ttyN" (where N commonly represents a number between 1 and 6). You can see this form (tty1-tty6) in a process listing with "ps -ef". If you want to read more, try "man 4 console".

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Lukas Sabota : Thanks for your bug report. Can you confirm if this issue can still be reproduced on latest Gutsy / Hardy release?

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Because this bug did not have any activity during a long period, I set the status to invalid but if you can still reproduce this issue with latest Hardy release and that you can provide needed informations, please set back the status of the bug report to "new" and/or comment about it here. Thanks for your bug report!