Upgrade to 2.6.24-tuxonice-r3: fbcondecor Stops Working

Kenji Miyamoto

I've just recently upgraded my laptop to the 2.6.24-tuxonice-r3 kernel, and fbcondecor doesn't work anymore. This is using the same initrd file from back when I used fbsplash as shown on the wiki. What's strange is that when I force it into silent mode on bootup (passing the boot parameter), it says something about no images defined for silent 8bpb. Here's some information:

jfp · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:27 pm Post subject:

I also had problems fbcondecor when I went from 2.6.22 to 2.6.24. Same problem with either gentoo-sources or tuxonice, so I think it really has more to do with 2.6.24. From the kernels you list it seems that you have upgraded from 2.6.22-suspend2-r2 to 2.6.24-tuxonice-r3.

Sadly, I had this issue long enough ago that I can't remember exactly what fixed it, but I am pretty sure it was with the kernel command line in grub.conf.
(BTW - I am using the exact same initrd that I have been using ever since I first got splash/fbcondecor working)
This is what mine looks like. You may want to experiment with what I am using (and which works just fine with 2.6.24-tuxonice-r3)

Kenji Miyamoto · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:46 pm Post subject:

I tried rearranging some things in the boot parameters, but to no avail:

jfp · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:16 pm Post subject:

I am now upgrading a desktop system from gentoo-sources 2.6.20 to 2.6.24-r3. As expected fbcondecor did not work... At least we can't blame tuxonice.
I know that getting fbcondecor working is definitely doable. It works perfectly on my laptop with tuxonice 2.6.24-r3.

I don't know how to address the seg fault. I assume it is not good thing.
I tried /sbin/fbcondecor_ctl.static with this result

ceric35 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 27 Aug 2006 Posts: 115

jfp · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:10 pm Post subject:

Yes - the fbcondecor USE flag is set.

It's strange - fbcondecor is "almost" working...
What I expect at boot time is to see a very brief flash of messages, and then have the console go into "silent" mode with my Emergence theme.
What I am getting though, is almost the entire boot sequence in text, followed towards the end of the boot process with the Emergence screen.
BTW at shutdown time, fbcondecor works perfectly except I don't see the "Press F2" message athough pressing F2 does take me to verbose mode.
I am using:

jfp · Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:25 pm Post subject:

From http://fbsplash.berlios.de/wiki/doku.php?id=docs:distros:gentoo

Kenji Miyamoto · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:16 am Post subject:

In my case, I never get a splash screen at any point. However, I do see a blue flash at the very beginning of startup (my splash screen is blue). Any ideas?
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jfp · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

Well, I got it working. It's funny - I work with complex server-based software for a living and over the years, I have always found that the bigger the problem, generally the simpler the cause. Gross failures are almost always due to some simple configuration problem, or just forgetting to do something. Usually it turns out that minor issues are the ones that can be hard to figure out. Basically, I believe that software (at least at the GA level) basically just works. A gross failure as we (I) have been seeing with fbcondecor can't be a problem with the software (or the kernel), therefore it must be some problem with configuration or something else fairly simple.

Such is the case with the current problem. In this case I simply ignored my experience as related above, and did at least a zillion things, all of which had no effect (well I did configure the kernel into an "Ooops" at one point).

[*] I did regenerate the initrd as I said I would - No effect
[*] I did unmask and emerge linux-header-2.6.24 && buld kernel && emerge -emptytree system - this had no effect
[*] I did *many* kernel rebuilds (on the plus side I did clean out a ton of stuff from the kernel) - however, this had no effect on the fbcondecor issue.
[*] "rc-update add fbcondecor default" - this did have an effect - at least the splash screen did display, but only after many lines of boot messages. I did an "rc-update delete fbcondecor", as this was not solving my problem

I was just about to post to this thread that I was giving up....

Then I actually searched the forums and found this thread https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-675425-highlight-fbcondecor+splash.html.

jfp · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject:

Here is my .config. There are differences with Kenji's .config, although I don't know if they are significant.