Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

urza9814 · 2011-08-03 18:33:57

Hey, I'm trying to help install Arch on my friend's new HP Pavilion G6 laptop, with integrated Intel graphics. I've never had any problems installing Arch before, but I can't figure this one out. Basically, when the computer boots Arch (from the installer CD or from Arch on the hard drive) it starts up UDev, and then the screen goes black. After some googling, we managed to fix that by adding 'nomodeset vga=771' to the end of the grub kernel line before booting. So I installed X, installed the intel video drivers (xf86-video-intel), and tried to startx...got several errors, the first two complaining about not having vesa or fbdev, so I installed those video drivers as well, but it's still giving an error about 'no kernel modesetting driver detected'...which makes sense, since I'm using that nomodeset option....but if I don't use that option, I get no video at all, if I do I can't run X. Anyone know how to fix this?

karol · 2011-08-03 19:42:27

Please post your grub and the logs.

urza9814 · 2011-08-09 00:29:00

Been away at a conference the last few days. I've uploaded the Grub config, errors.log and everything.log here:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/bsf5033/arch/

karol · 2011-08-09 13:38:01

Have you tried booting w/o nomodeset and w/o vga= on the kernel boot line after you installed intel drivers?
You can e.g. boot the fallback image:

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

urza9814 · 2011-08-09 15:49:38

Yea; if I try to boot with just the vga= I still get the black screen, if I do just nomodeset, I get the same error message from X. Here's the exact error it's giving me if that helps at all:

(EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory
(EE) intel(0): No kernel modesetting driver detected
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration

karol · 2011-08-09 16:09:41

Boot w/o vga and w/o nomodeset, just

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro

Are you using any X configuration, like xorg.conf?

Not sure if it's the same notebook, but you can ask e.g. 3Dman how did he set up his.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=122904

Last edited by karol (2011-08-09 16:12:16)

ViruSzZ · 2011-08-09 18:45:32

I have been having similar issue on my HP Pavilion G62 lappy since I bought it. Basically, the same issue is still happening to me where the backlight is getting off on the system startup when the Udev is bringing up . A workaround was (and still is) to execute 'echo 1 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness' on my system's start up.

I was on vacation for 10 days and yesterday I upgraded to kernel 3 and got a non-bootable system (made a mistake by overwriting the menu.lst). Then, I needed to download an arch live cd and the same thing happened when I booted it up. A blank screen and I was not able to fix my system. I also found the topic @karol provided but haven't tried it yet.

I was able to get the backlight using the live cd by booting it with the following parameters but that doesn't fix my issue with the backlight nor with the changing of the light.

acpi_osi=Linux
acpi_backlight=vendor

offtopic: @urza9814 are the Fn keys working on the G6 lappy?

karol · 2011-08-09 18:51:15

@ViruSzZ
Have you checked the thread I linked to? http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=47458 supposedly solves the problems with Fn keys.

ViruSzZ · 2011-08-09 19:56:50

karol wrote:

@ViruSzZ
Have you checked the thread I linked to? http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=47458 supposedly solves the problems with Fn keys.

Yeah, I found that thread yesterday but didn't try the patched kernel as I was tired. I'm at work now and can't try that out but will certainly try once I got home.

Anyhow, your effort @karol is very much appreciated and you're very helpful. Just keep up that way

I was just curios if the same issue with the Fn keys is with that model of HP.

Get my respect,

Out

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-03 18:33:57

Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#2 2011-08-03 19:42:27

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#3 2011-08-09 00:29:00

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#4 2011-08-09 13:38:01

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#5 2011-08-09 15:49:38

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#6 2011-08-09 16:09:41

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#7 2011-08-09 18:45:32

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#8 2011-08-09 18:51:15

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

#9 2011-08-09 19:56:50

Re: Pavilion G6 -- Blank screen without nomodeset; no X with it

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