You are not logged in.

#1 2010-07-05 18:05:22

mjohnson
Member
Registered: 2009-08-14
Posts: 22

[Solved] No video out after launching kdm (after system update)

I installed Arch (x86-64) on a new desktop last week, did a system update (pacman -Syu), installed a few more packages, etc.  Things worked fine.  However, after doing another system update a couple days ago, I'm left unable to launch kdm.  When I try (or rather, when it gets called in the boot sequence), my monitor turns off.  The system is still just fine; I can SSH into it without any trouble.  But there's no video out.

I'm wondering if it's due to replacing kernel26-firmware with linux-firmware; however, that's just a hunch, because I don't see anything else in the upgrade that relates to the video:

:: Starting full system upgrade...
:: Replace kernel26-firmware with core/linux-firmware? [Y/n] y
resolving dependencies...
looking for inter-conflicts...

Remove (1): kernel26-firmware-2.6.33.4-1

Total Removed Size:   2.43 MB

Targets (25): glibc-2.12-4  coreutils-8.5-2  curl-7.21.0-1  mpfr-3.0.0-1
              libmpc-0.8.2-2  gcc-4.5.0-6  gcc-libs-4.5.0-6  gimp-2.6.9-1
              libtool-2.2.10-1  imagemagick-6.6.2.0-22  udev-158-1
              initscripts-2010.06-2  linux-firmware-20100606-1
              mkinitcpio-0.6.6-1  kernel26-2.6.34-2  kernel26-headers-2.6.34-2
              libfetch-2.32-1  libid3tag-0.15.1b-5  m4-1.4.14-2
              man-pages-3.25-1  pacman-mirrorlist-20100621-1  pcmciautils-017-1
              recode-3.6-5  sane-1.0.21-3  sudo-1.7.2p7-2

Any ideas on how to get my monitor to work with KDE again? smile  (Also, on a complete tangent: why does the code tag leave so much empty space at the bottom of the block when it's rendered?  I don't have any empty lines inside the tag in my post...)

Edit: I forgot to mention my hardware.  I have an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO motherboard, which has onboard graphics (ATI Radeon HD 4200).

Last edited by mjohnson (2010-07-13 03:06:02)

Offline

#2 2010-07-05 19:46:18

ancient_archer
Member
From: Slovakia
Registered: 2010-03-13
Posts: 107

Re: [Solved] No video out after launching kdm (after system update)

I don't know whether this would help, but at least try this:

Edit menu.lst in the way that at the end of the line with kernel add radeon.modeset=0

I don't really believe that it helps, but at least try it and post whether it works.

Thanks.

Offline

#3 2010-07-11 04:08:20

mjohnson
Member
Registered: 2009-08-14
Posts: 22

Re: [Solved] No video out after launching kdm (after system update)

Whoops, sorry for not responding sooner!  I thought I had e-mail notifications turned on for this thread....

First, before trying your suggestion, I'm now using my motherboard's DVI output instead of the VGA output (going to an LCD display rather than a CRT), and instead of totally losing the screen when kdm tries to launch, it just gives me a (command line) login prompt.  Looking in /var/log/errors.log, I see the following two lines:

Jul 10 21:55:34 allanon kdm[2380]: X server died during startup
Jul 10 21:55:34 allanon kdm[2380]: X server for display :0 cannot be started, session disabled

I then added radeon.modeset=0 to menu.lst and now kdm will start, but the resolution isn't autodetected, it seems.  (The errors I quoted above don't show up again in errors.log either, which is good...)

Do these errors shed any further light on things?

Offline

#4 2010-07-11 14:45:31

ancient_archer
Member
From: Slovakia
Registered: 2010-03-13
Posts: 107

Re: [Solved] No video out after launching kdm (after system update)

Well I'm really a noob in Linux nor I am an IT expert so I cannot interpret details of the error you posted...

But what is important is that it works... Refresh rate setting of course doesn't work automatically because by adding radeon.modeset=0 KMS (Kernel mode setting) is switched off.

As for KDE the problem is quite difficult, since the new one never remembered my refresh rate settings, but resolution was ok. (But I'm using an old 17" CRT monitor) If this is your case, I would hard-wire the refresh rate in xorg.conf (somewhere in Monitor just substitute vertical refresh rate of let's say 50.0 - 80.0. to just 60.0) (Of course, I don't know which refresh rate is correct, but for LCD should be 60 Hz and even if not, it doesn't matter much since it's LCD)

And as for resolution, just try to set it in settings... Sorry to not to give any better advice, perhaps someone more advanced would help you more.

The whole problem is in the new kernel. I've got ATI and when the kernel changed, after the update my video settings were f*** up and I even couldn't load OS!

Perhaps another more elegant solution to your problems would be to install kernel26-lts and edit grub settings in order to load it...

Please post how it is going...

Offline

#5 2010-07-13 03:05:29

mjohnson
Member
Registered: 2009-08-14
Posts: 22

Re: [Solved] No video out after launching kdm (after system update)

I was looking at the instructions regarding KMS here when I noticed that for ATI cards, KMS requires xf86-video-ati.  So I installed it, removed the radeon.modeset line I'd added, rebooted, and it works now!  Thank you for your help!

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB