X11, TTYs and nVidia

yochaigal · 2011-06-06 06:50:23

Hey there Arch userland,

Running Arch i386.
I use an nvidia GT218 PCI graphics card on my custom hdpc.
It works well with the proprietary driver (minecraft, vdpau, compiz).
I have an interesting issue however, and hours of searching and testing have netted no results.

What happens is:
X works just fine (runnig slim & xfce) however if I try and switch to a console (TTY1-6) the screen briefly goes black/blank, then my TV says No Input. I can switch back to TTY7/X however.

I've tried adding various VGA options to my menu.lst, and I've played with the nvidia xorg.conf... anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks!

ChoK · 2011-06-06 11:52:23

Try uvesafb

Griemak · 2011-06-06 13:27:51

yochaigal wrote:

then my TV says No Input. I can switch back to TTY7/X however.

Every TV in my house, my friend's homes, family, huge complaint on Comcat forums, etc. does this; for example when I switch from Fox or ABC to NBC or CBS. It also does this when I switch from an HD channel to an SD channel, say the Weather Channel which I switch back to SD to watch "Local on the 8's" since it isn't available on the HD channel in my area yet. Why does it do that? Resolution changes. ABC/FOX = 720p; NBC/CBS = 1080i; Weather Channel SD = 480p.

When you switch from X to TTY, are you changing resolutions? Are you changing aspect ratio?

yochaigal · 2011-06-06 16:18:32

Do I need to load that uvesafb module somehow?
Also, I don't think its my TV -- I had an ATI 5770 a few months ago (before I replaced it with my current nVidia GPU) and I never had this issue. Also my TV doesn't let me change resolutions.

ChoK · 2011-06-08 12:58:46

You will need the v86d package and also the v86d hook in your mkinitcpio.conf. See there https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Uvesafb

yochaigal · 2011-06-09 02:43:59

I installed the package, added the hook, recompiled the initramfs, rebooted -- Problem persists.

yochaigal · 2011-06-09 02:50:45

Something I failed to mention:
Specifically with this add-on card my machine does one additional thing:
After pressing Power the machine goes through post -- but NOTHING comes on the screen until literally X has started. I dismissed this issue originally since the problem occured before GRUB even; thus I assume that it would persist if i were to disconnect my HD and boot no OS. But perhaps there is some BIOS setting interfering with framebuffer or something? Curious.

ChoK · 2011-06-09 09:29:58

Can you try booting with a livecd of another linux distro, can you swicht to console with it ?

swanson · 2011-06-09 09:35:19

Hey, be cool, I think it's easier to try just wihtout adding vga= to the kernel line. It worked for me with Nvidia gt220. Of course you'll have to live with the default resolution, but at least you have tty's.

yochaigal · 2011-06-09 16:41:20

I can't boot my machine off a live distro 'cause my BIOS/POST screen doesn't appear at all when this card is installed; I suppose I could take the card out, change th BIOS screen to automatically boot from cd/usb -- though I suspect the points at which I would have to choose a loader would not be shown (a la GRUB in my current install). Hmmm.

My kernel line has no vga= option, and never has. I tried adding the appropriate resolution entry but it made no difference.

ChoK · 2011-06-10 08:45:35

It may be because before X is started, the card doesn't detect correctly the primary display. (For example using DisplayPort or DVI instead of HDMI)

Rasi · 2011-06-10 09:18:14

yochaigal wrote:

I can't boot my machine off a live distro 'cause my BIOS/POST screen doesn't appear at all when this card is installed

This sounds like crappy monitor with broken VBE/VESA support

yochaigal · 2011-06-10 15:54:52

Well, my previous ATI card had no issues with this monitor (which isn't that crappy). I bet it's more of a card/motherboard issue; I don't know if it's related to the tty problem though.

Griemak · 2011-06-10 16:35:08

Is it a monitor or TV? How is it connected? DVI/HDMI, DP, VGA? Do you have different "ports" on the card, have you tried the others?

I have a few Nvidia cards from EVGA and BFG that state in the manual that connections to any port other than "#1" will "not display a POST screen until Windows loads".

yochaigal · 2011-06-10 16:41:26

It is a philips tv. It is connected with hdmi. It only has hdmi input, although the card has dvi and vga & HDMI output.
From what you're saying it sounds like the TTY issue probably isn't related to the TV/BIOS problem.

Last edited by yochaigal (2011-06-10 16:41:54)

Griemak · 2011-06-10 17:08:44

I think it is directly related!

Out of the 3 TV's I have hooked up in the past year, only the one in the conference room at work (Sharp Aquos) displayed Post and TTY over HDMI. All Nvidia cards. I had a hell of a time with the one, forcing EDID file and "TV" in the 20-nvidia.conf trying to get X to display (POST and TTY were fine); that was a HDMI-DVI-VGA connection.

It's an older issue, ATI seems exempt.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=912499

Have you tried Uvesafb to force the TTY's into a resolution the TV can handle over HDMI? https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Uvesafb
Many TV's refuse to handle 480i input over HDMI and most will not accept non standard resolutions (480i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p input only).

yochaigal · 2011-06-10 18:38:46

Ah I see your point.

I did use uvesafb (see previous posts) though I'm not 100% I used it correctly -- after loading the hook into initramfs, do I need to set a vga resolution settings somewhere?

Anyways thanks for all your help guys.

ChoK · 2011-06-13 13:31:31

It's in the wiki
/etc/modprobe.d/uvesafb.conf

# This file sets the parameters for uvesafb module.
# The following format should be used:
# options uvesafb mode=<xres>x<yres>[-<bpp>][@<refresh>] scroll=<ywrap|ypan|redraw> ...
#
# For more details see:
# http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=blob;f=Documentation/fb/uvesafb.txt
#
options uvesafb mode=1280x800-32 scroll=ywrap

yochaigal · 2011-06-13 16:56:11

Right I left it at defaults... and nothing changed. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do here. If I change it to a different resolution, it has no affect.

Griemak · 2011-06-13 20:19:32

I suspect that the Nvidia card can only output on one port until the driver is running. This requires "X". Many Nvidia cards do this... only one port "outputs" a signal and the driver is able to "clone", redirect, and span to others. The AVSForum link I provided above and other places I've read offer no solution.

The uvesafb package should have resolved any "non compatible output resolution" issues.

To knock this out as a "potential reason", switch the ports (spare monitor or VGA cable laying around?) and see if output appears.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-06-06 06:50:23

X11, TTYs and nVidia

#2 2011-06-06 11:52:23

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#3 2011-06-06 13:27:51

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#4 2011-06-06 16:18:32

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#5 2011-06-08 12:58:46

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#6 2011-06-09 02:43:59

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#7 2011-06-09 02:50:45

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#8 2011-06-09 09:29:58

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#9 2011-06-09 09:35:19

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#10 2011-06-09 16:41:20

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#11 2011-06-10 08:45:35

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#12 2011-06-10 09:18:14

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#13 2011-06-10 15:54:52

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#14 2011-06-10 16:35:08

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#15 2011-06-10 16:41:26

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#16 2011-06-10 17:08:44

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#17 2011-06-10 18:38:46

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#18 2011-06-13 13:31:31

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#19 2011-06-13 16:56:11

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

#20 2011-06-13 20:19:32

Re: X11, TTYs and nVidia

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