RESOLVED -- No virtual consoles

Fred Krogh · Last edited by Fred Krogh on Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

I don't often use virtual consoles, but when I want them I really want them! I have just booted kernel 2.6.17-r4 and noticed that nothing displayed until X started. Then tried r3 and text displayed on start up, but no virtual consoles. Then tried r2 which I had been using, and I could switch virtual consoles when booting, but not after getting into X. I'm on an opteron system, with xorg-x11-7.0-r1 and using nvidia-drivers-1.0.8762-r1 (instead of nvidia-kernel/nvidia-glx). I just started using nvidia-drivers after encountering the problem with kernel r4 so I don't think the problem is there. Suggestions on where to look would be most welcome. Thanks,
Fred

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:59 pm Post subject:

What does "grep -i console /usr/src/linux/.config" show?

Mine looks like this:

Fred Krogh · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:03 am Post subject:

I think mine look o.k. grep -i console /usr/src/linux/.config gives

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:17 am Post subject:

When you boot, try adding "vga=normal" to your kernel line in grub. Just edit the line when you boot, if it works, then you can change it in grub.conf later.
_________________

Fred Krogh · Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 12:29 am Post subject:

I had vga=795, changing that to vga=normal gave me a display when booting. Still no virtual consoles though. I should mentions that with a gnome terminal active, typing allt-cntl F1 to alt-cntl F12 gives

Fred Krogh · Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 1:23 am Post subject:

The unimportant part of my problem is resolved. The display now works when booting. I have had no end of problems as a result of making the kernel with "make oldconfig". I was warned against this once when it created problems and decided to keep using it and just be careful about it. I'll never use it again without doing a "diff" of the old and new configurations. I can't believe how many gratuitous and uncalled for changes it made. (To the point of killing my local network, killing the start up printing, and many other things.) This diatribe is just meant to warn others of the dangers in using "make oldconfig".
Still no virtual consoles although /dev has lots of tty?? entries.
Fred

adamacious · n00b Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 39 Location: Earth

I have the exact same problem. When I am in X, I can't switch to any ttys, when I am not (I disable X and reboot) i'm fine.

Fred Krogh · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject:

I'm pretty sure this problem is the same as that at https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-232011-highlight-vtswitch.html
Also google searches show up lots of problems with VT switch.
I've not found a fix that works for me. I'm guessing there is a bug in xorg. I'm running x11-base/xorg-server-1.0.2-r7, x11-base/xorg-x11-7.0-r1, and x11-misc/xorg-cf-files-1.0.2. I'll try the latest xorg when the nvidia drivers get updated to support it.
Fred

Fred Krogh · Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:48 pm Post subject:

This is just to note that this is still a problem with x11-base/xorg-server-1.1.1 and x11-base/xorg-x11-7.1. Does anyone that knows more about this than me think this is a bug in xorg someplace? Are there others using the nvidia drivers that don't have this problem? Thanks,
Fred

adamacious · n00b Joined: 15 May 2005 Posts: 39 Location: Earth

I actually have the problem with ATI, so it probobly has to be in x-org or xserver.

Fred Krogh · Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:27 pm Post subject:

I have just installed kernel 2.6.18 and the virtual consoles are back. It may have been something else, but I suspect the problem I had was lurking in the kernel someplace.
Fred