screen stays black after startup / grub2 hangs trying to change graphics mode

[PeterPall]

Binary package hint: grub2

On my Aspire one AOA 110L if the line

#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

in /etc/default/grub is commented (which is the default) in about 60% of the times th screen stays black after booting.
The background light of the screen still goes on and off at every video mode change. And I am able to open a terminal whenever I want, to reboot the computer and even to play a ogg/vorbis file - so the computer basically works. But the screen stays black and blank.

In another 30% of the times grub-pc hangs completely without even loading the kernel or displaying the boot menu if I press the Shift key during boot. Sometimes in this case the display fades in the way that indicates that the light is on - but it is no more accessed by the graphics card.

If I uncomment the

GRUB_TERMINAL=console

and do a

sudo update-grub

afterwards the computer is up in 12 seconds and runs fine.

This problem is relatively new (about 2-3 weeks) and reproducible both with plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo and plymouth-theme-ubuntu-text. Uninstalling plymouth at all seems no longer to be supported on natty.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: grub-pc 1.99~20101126-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.37-7.19-generic 2.6.37-rc3
Uname: Linux 2.6.37-7-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Dec 4 04:18:24 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub2

[PeterPall (peterpall)]

Seems like apport didn't upload this piece of information automatically:

My graphics card identifies itselves as follows:
        *-display:0
             description: VGA compatible controller
             product: Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
             configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
             resources: irq:16 memory:78480000-784fffff ioport:60c0(size=8) memory:60000000-6fffffff memory:78500000-7853ffff
        *-display:1 UNCLAIMED
             description: Display controller
             product: Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 2.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: latency=0
             resources: memory:78400000-7847ffff

[Daniel Kessel (dkessel)]

Peter: Thanks for reporting this bug. This might be a duplicate of #683775 and thus a kernel bug. Could you try installing the debug kernel package attached to that bug testing it? If it works solves the problem, this bug might be a duplicate.

[PeterPall (peterpall)]

Will do that in three hour's time. Thanks,

   Gunter.

[PeterPall (peterpall)]

Did install the test kernel and rebooted the system 10 times. Except for the one time it did a routine check of all file systems it was up in 12 seconds every time => Will mark this bug as a duplicate of #683775

Then tried to boot 10 times whilst pressing the shift key. Nine times I got prompted which kernel I wanted to boot and one time the system hang up like I described above. Don't know if it is worth reporting this as a separate bug since it - at least on my system - occours very rarely and natty including its grub2 version is in a stage that is early enough that this kind of thing is to be accepted.

Loads of thanks,

 Gunter.

[PeterPall (peterpall)]

Did try another 10 reboots. One of these times grub2 got stuck again.