[Gutsy] No loading text or usplash when loading

[Thomas Winwood]

When booting Ubuntu (64-bit) I expect to see either a bunch of diagnostic information telling me about the system loading or the Ubuntu splash screen. However, when I installed Gutsy on this system I get nothing on the screen from the bootloader to when X starts.

System specs:
Abit KN9-SLI motherboard
Athlon X2 6000+ processor (clock speed 3GHz)
4GB of RAM
GeForce 8800 GTX with two Samsung SyncMaster 206BW widescreen (1680x1050) monitors

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

(This sounds very similar to Bug #112975 )

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

(But Bug #116103 might "fit" better)

[Thomas Winwood (thomas-cleverpun)]

I've been told it could be SLI playing up, and have had it suggested that I remove the second graphics card. Sounds plausible, but I'm not using Ubuntu right now so I can't test it.

[Michael DePaulo (mikedep333)]

This is even worse for me. I have a Geforce 8800 GTS on a GA-965P-S3 motherboard with a Samsung SyncMaster 204B and no video output ever appears after grub unless I remove "quiet splash" from grub.

Also, X won't start with the "nvidia" driver, but I think that is unrelated.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Thomas, Michael:
If you boot with the additional
vga=795
grub parameter is there any change?

[Michael DePaulo (mikedep333)]

Sorry I haven't replied in so long. I now have plenty of time to help with this however.

Anyway, that does not help. I still get absolutely no video output whatsoever (with no sign of X starting up.) Hitting ctrl+alt+del twice does not help, even after hitting ctrl+alt+f1. Also, the hard disk stops being accessed after a while.

Attached is the dmesg log of my system suffering this problem.

[Michael DePaulo (mikedep333)]

Here is a log of it starting up normally.

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

I can confirm this as well. No usplash, but it still boots fine. No output at all between Grub and GDM login. LiveCD would only boot from safe graphics mode, but install was smooth. Video drivers were detected at first login.

Fully updated Gutsy RC i386-desktop
Dell Inspiron 1501
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50
2 Gig RAM
ATI Xpress 1150 256MB

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

Usplash seems to be incorrectly detecting my screen resolution:

/etc/usplash.conf

# Usplash configuration file
xres=1280
yres=1024

Manually editing to 1280X800 does not solve the issue though.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Michael:
Your issue sounds like Bug #86666 but you appear to be using an Intel based motherboard so I'm out of ideas on this one...

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

The most recent usplash update seems to have resolved this issue for me.

[jaycole (jasin-stny)]

what recent update?

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

Well, when I posted on 2007-10-16 it was recent.

I have not experienced this issue since this update to the Gutsy usplash package. I don't know if that was my solution or not, but IIRC there didn't seem to be any other packages updated at the same time which could have possibly effected this issue.

>
>Published in gutsy-release on 2007-10-15
>
>usplash (0.5.7) gutsy; urgency=low
>
> * usplash_svga.c, usplash_svga_text(): When running in 16bpp mode,
> calling gl_setpixel() (which takes a palette index) does not make sense,
> since we never set a palette (this happens only in 8bpp modes). Use
> gl_setpixelrgb() in 16bpp mode and look up the RGB values from
> vesa_palette, which is initialized from the theme.
>
> This repairs operation on i386 and amd4 where SGVA is used, so that text
> appears in the color set by the theme, instead of being fixed to dark blue.
> (LP: #64408)
>
> -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:22:21 +0200

[Alex Lee (aleehk82)]

workarounds linked:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usplash/+bug/156341/comments/5
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usplash/+bug/155711/comments/4

[Lunarbunny (smith-jacob)]

I can positively identify this as a problem with usplash and 8-series (at least 8800) nVidia cards.

My similar (somewhat more severe) problem began to occur when I upgraded my video card from a BFG 7800GTX to an EVGA 8800GTS 640MB. Unless I skipped usplash (nosplash or removed the splash parameter from the Ubuntu boot line in GRUB/grub.lst) then it would work a bit, then kernel panic (num + scroll lock lights would flash and it would go no further). I just today removed my 8800GTS to step-up to the new revision and am using the old 7800GTX; lo and behold, I look away and because I haven't updated grub.lst since the last kernel update, when I look back usplash is there looking just fine.

[Drascus (enchantedvisionsband)]

somone could try this method of resolving it. it worked in Bug 150930 which is similar to this problem.

1) Change the resolution in /etc/usplash.conf to 1024x768
2) Add vga=791 to the kernel line in /etc/boot/menu.lst
3) sudo update-initramfs -u -k `uname -r`

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Some of the comments are about bug 147623 and some are about bug 150930 which are both fixed in Hardy so I mark this bug as a duplicate of bug 147623. If you still have issues with latest Hardy release, feel free to report a new bug report. Thanks for your contribution.