Can't get to console while X is running.

Sir_Stinksalot

I have a problem. I tried searching for it in the forums but didn't see anything. The problem I am having is that after I start X with nvidia drivers I can not get to a console. I press [ctrl-alt-f123456] and I get a blank screen. If I switch to the nv driver I can use my consoles. If I don't start X I can get consoles but with x running I am stuck in gui land. Any help would be appreciated.

vid card= geforce 4 4400 ti (leadtek)
mobo= 7vrxp gigabyte
monitor = a90 viewsonic
512 meg of ram

BonezTheGoon · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2003 7:05 pm Post subject:

This is covered in great detail in the forums. Long story short remove the nvidia specific framebuffer support in your kernel and replace it with VESA framebuffer support. You will be able to do everything you want to do then using the nvidia drivers for X.

If this does not apply to you then I don't know what to suggest next.

Regards,
BonezTheGoon

Sir_Stinksalot · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2003 7:46 pm Post subject:

I didn't see the thread you are referring to might you point to it or give me a key word? please?

BonezTheGoon · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2003 9:22 pm Post subject:

Well here is a thread that turned out to NOT be the issue but there are others mentioning the same phenomenon.

Here is another thread about the same general issue.

If you want to wade through some more topics try searching the forums with these keywords (nvidia blank console framebuffer).

Also check out this thread in the Documentation, Tips, & Tricks forum, Getting the framebuffer to work with nvidia graphics cards specifically the line here that says

Sir_Stinksalot · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2003 2:19 am Post subject:

thanks for the help I have been digging in some of these and am still sorting through it but now I am sure I can figure it out thanks dude.

bludger · Guru Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Posts: 389

I am having a similar problem. The framebuffer is visible during bootup, but after switching to X, I cannot switch to the console terminals. When I do a ps axf, I do not see the normal [login] and bash entries, although the agetty processes are running.

(Note. This was working until a few days ago and now is broken. I have upgraded a few things, including the kernel to gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r5. I also have an nvidia card, but that cannot be the problem as I see the console during bootup (I also do not have the rivafb module compiled). Looking in /dev, I see the /dev/ttyX and the /dev/vc/X entries are there.

Any clues?

LinuxDolt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 104

i am having these problems too, but i haven't really thought too much of it... but now that i know other's are having the same problem... i am really beginning to wonder

is it something in gentoo, or is nvidia crapping on us? or maybe the new kernel tried to fix something for someone else and ended up breaking us... it has done it to us before regarding framebuffer consoles... this framebuffer stuff is very experimental yet... but quite fun

bludger · Guru Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Posts: 389

Ok, I checked booting without framebuffer and everything was ok.

I then found that my previous statement about there being no login process was false in that this process is only started when you log on. I went to one of the blank console screens and typed in my username and password and then could see from an xterm that I had logged in successfully. So the problem is really with the display.

I then found that I was running nvclock in /etc/conf.d/local.start to slow the nvidia clock down a bit. I commented this out and it now works. I guess that it caused problems if run before X has started, as I can run nvclock after X has started with no problems. I guess I will leave it out for now unless I have stability problems (I have been changing too many things at once to know what my stability problems were caused by, but they seem to be fixed now) and if I need to, I will test adding it to the X startup scripts instead of local.start.