Comment 123 for bug 129910

The original problem (black screen on tty[1-6]) is not related to nvidia or other hardware and is caused by a change in /scripts/init-top/framebuffer from Feisty to Gutsy:

--- initrd.feisty/scripts/init-top/framebuffer 2007-02-07 10:52:34.000000000 +0100
+++ initrd/scripts/init-top/framebuffer 2007-10-22 10:10:22.000000000 +0200
@@ -82,8 +82,8 @@
 esac

 if [ -n "${FB}" ]; then
- modprobe -q fbcon
- modprobe -q ${FB} ${OPTS}
+ modprobe -Qb fbcon
+ modprobe -Qb ${FB} ${OPTS}
 fi

 if [ -e /proc/fb ]; then

With this change modprobe ignores all modules listed in blacklist-framebuffer, including vesafb and fbcon, while in Feisty those modules were loaded if required by the user in grub/menu.lst, even if blacklisted.

The change from Feisty to Gutsy in my opinion is wrong because if the user requires a particular vesa mode the modules should be loaded even if they could potentially crash the kernel.

This problem can be solved in two ways: either the -b option is removed from the framebuffer script, like in Feisty, or the vesafb and fbcon modules are removed from the blacklist-framebuffer file. In my opinion the first option should be preferred because it would work with any graphics driver,

BTW since the black console is still functional if you log-in and load the modules manually it becomes fully functional again.