nomodeset is needed on server environments for ILO to be usable

Bug #1178115 reported by Robert Collins
20
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu Server papercuts
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

The high res text mode is incompatible with the 'textcons' ILO console, making remote debugging of systems quite tricky. While it can be worked around by configuring grub (or other bootloaders - e.g. in netbooting environments), it would be really good if Ubuntu Server just didn't do it at all, as there is no upside to it.

Revision history for this message
Robert Collins (lifeless) wrote :

(we found this booting cloud images on bare metal, and having a hard time troubleshooting until we figured out this was the cause) - bug 1178112

tags: added: cloud-images
Changed in ubuntu:
assignee: nobody → Ben Howard (utlemming)
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

I don't think this should be turned off in Ubuntu Server in general. It's really handy to have a bigger console so you can see more text on it at once.

IMO this is a kernel bug for failing to support the (virtual or otherwise) hardware correctly. Working around it in boot loader configuration or userspace is likely to be wrong.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in ubuntu:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Robert Collins (lifeless) wrote : Re: [Bug 1178115] Re: nomodeset is needed on server environments for ILO to be usable

Well, I'll let the Ubuntu server team debate the merits.. I will say
that while on a desktop having a high res text console is super cool,
I've not once needed - or desired - it on a server in a server room.

Revision history for this message
Chris Jones (cmsj) wrote :

fwiw this is not iLO specific, any hardware which is intercepting text mode consoles for out of band administration, will be affected.

my anecdotal experience suggests that server people care deeply about remote console access and end up working around this either by disabling KMS, or by configuring grub/linux/getty to talk to a serial port. If we can fix things so the experience out of the box is awesome, that would be fantastic.

Is it actually possible for the kernel to detect that there is a piece of hardware intercepting its text mode VGA calls?

Revision history for this message
Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1178115/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

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tags: added: bot-comment
Mathew Hodson (mhodson)
affects: ubuntu → server-papercuts
Changed in server-papercuts:
assignee: Ben Howard (utlemming) → nobody
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