Screen goes black during boot

LiranV · 2012-02-27 00:37:55

Hi guys,
I've just finished installing Arch for the first time after using Ubuntu until now.
My problem is the when grub starts the boot process the screen goes blank and I can do nothing but restart.
The only way the system boot up is when I add "nomodeset" in the kernel line of grub's entery.
But as the wiki says, while using nomodeset gnome shell only works in fallback mode.
I've got a ATI X800 (R430) which doesn't suporrted by catalyst.
Just for the record, while i was running Ubuntu everything (including full gnome shell) worked as it should with the open source drivers (I've installed xf86-video-ati).

Any suggestions on what can I do to solve this?

Arch is really amazingly fast and I don't want to have to go back to ubuntu. pls help.

Earnestly · 2012-02-27 00:59:04

A few questions and suggests:

When you say you can't do anything, does that include switching to different TTYs?
How are you starting Gnome (Xinit/StartX/GDM/LightDM)?
Is it possible to use a LiveCD (or USB) and alter your daemons or /etc/inittab to boot to console instead of a display manager?

Last edited by Earnestly (2012-02-27 01:00:51)

LiranV · 2012-02-27 01:04:29

I"m using gdm and starting it with /etc/inittab
Even before I've installed any GUI I had this problem. only when using "nomodeset" the system will boot to any kind of interface.

vwyodajl · 2012-02-27 03:06:10

Are you sure you set up your ATI card properly? I have nvidia but generally when I have to use nomodeset is because it is trying to boot into a incorrect video driver. Also it happens for me on new installs untill I get the card properly setup.
HTH

Last edited by vwyodajl (2012-02-27 03:22:33)

Jigoku · 2012-02-27 03:20:48

Try adding this to your kernel line in your grub config:

vga=773

If you still don't see anything after booting you could try:

vga=ask

...and find a resolution/mode that becomes visible.

I may be wrong, but i have had a similar problem in the past on some distro's using the nvidia driver where i would get an "input signal out of range" from my monitor, and it seems to fix it for me by adjusting the vga setting (opensuse comes to mind). Could be a different issue with ATI however it's always worth trying.

LiranV · 2012-02-27 09:16:11

vwyodajl wrote:

Are you sure you set up your ATI card properly? I have nvidia but generally when I have to use nomodeset is because it is trying to boot into a incorrect video driver. Also it happens for me on new installs untill I get the card properly setup.
HTH

Is there a guide in the wiki for doing this? I've looke at the "ATI" part of the wiki and nothing there seems to help nor show how to config the card.

Jigoku:
I've tried vga=773 even before using nomodeset and it didn't work.
To be more accurate it work for like 3 seconds until the boot process loads somthig like that starts with udev (I don't remember the full name).
But this is not different then when I try to load without "nomodeset".
To sum it all up, I get blank screen (no video signal) always unless I use nomodeset.

Gusar · 2012-02-27 09:33:53

It's not clear from your posts, does X work? As in, does gdm start and you can go into gnome and such, it's only the console that's black? Or does the machine lock up? If X works, post the output of dmesg.

LiranV · 2012-02-27 09:36:21

Gusar wrote:

It's not clear from your posts, does X work? As in, does gdm start and you can go into gnome and such, it's only the console that's black? Or does the machine lock up? If X works, post the output of dmesg.

GDM start ONLY when I use nomodeset option.
Without it nothing will start (During boot the screen will go blank).
I'm currently writing from my installation but because I'm using nomodeset - gnome shell only works in fallback mode.

Gusar · 2012-02-27 11:19:40

So that means KMS doesn't work at all, isn't not just the console. But it would be nice to know if the machine is locked up, or everything but graphics still works. Do you start sshd during boot? With that, you could get dmesg output by connecting from another machine.

I find the Gnome thing weird though. Gnome shouldn't care what modesetting is used, it should only care that 3d is working. After booting with nomodeset and getting into Gnome, post /var/log/Xorg.0.log

LiranV · 2012-02-27 11:30:46

This is the xrog log:
http://pastebin.com/9bLxMjVT

vwyodajl · 2012-02-27 11:30:53

Did you perhaps install the proprietary blob and did not blacklist or uninstall the open source one?

LiranV · 2012-02-27 11:32:20

vwyodajl wrote:

Did you perhaps install the proprietary blob and did not blacklist or uninstall the open source one?

I only installed xf86-video-ati drivers.

vwyodajl · 2012-02-27 11:37:15

acpi is failing to start do you have it in rc.conf?
if not and its installed add

DAEMONS=(acpid)

also this will get rid of some other errors

Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"

hope that is of some help

Last edited by vwyodajl (2012-02-27 11:38:51)

LiranV · 2012-02-27 11:40:29

vwyodajl wrote:

acpi is failing to start do you have it in rc.conf?
if not and its installed add
DAEMONS=(acpid)
also this will get rid of some other errors
Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
hope that is of some help

This is my current line from rc.conf:
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng dbus network crond alsa)

Just add acpi?
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng dbus network crond alsa acpid)

Or should I add it somewhere else?

Last edited by LiranV (2012-02-27 11:41:01)

LiranV · 2012-02-27 11:45:54

Ok, I've just tried adding acpid to rc.conf and it didn't work, still the same problem

vwyodajl · 2012-02-27 11:46:15

on mine its

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng acpid theRestOfMine)

It is installed though right?

pacman -S acpi acpid

both should be installed add to rc.conf
run

mkinitcpio -p YOURKERNELNAME
reboot

Might want to look through the wiki on it as well if you have not gone through that part yet, and I am not positive that will solve everything. That is just what I caught in that log.

Last edited by vwyodajl (2012-02-27 11:48:54)

LiranV · 2012-02-27 11:58:54

vwyodajl, I've installed acpi and acpid but still no luck
Guess I'll have to stick with Ubuntu.

vwyodajl · 2012-02-27 12:03:21

Did you move acpid to where I showed, refresh with mkinitcpio? Placement matters for some things in DAEMONS from my understanding.

You give up quick and easy, like I said it may not fix everything

Last edited by vwyodajl (2012-02-27 12:05:47)

LiranV · 2012-02-27 12:18:32

vwyodajl wrote:

Did you move acpid to where I showed, refresh with mkinitcpio? Placement matters for some things in DAEMONS from my understanding.
You give up quick and easy, like I said it may not fix everything

I don't want to give up quickly but I need a working PC.
I did everything you said.
Installed acpid & acpi
Added acpid to rc.conf
run: mkinitcpio -p linux

Didn't seems to work.

vwyodajl · 2012-02-27 12:27:40

Well let more people wake up , verify things you have done to make sure you have not accidentally caused something else, possibly re-go through the wiki's you followed. And doesn't your machine technically work with nomodeset, as a temporary solution until you can sort out the cause.

I do not own any ati products so I do not know the quirks. I am sure Gusar or some other person will have better ideas. Sorry those did not fix the issue, but you should have 3 less errors in your Xorg file

Gusar · 2012-02-27 12:30:27

There's the problem:

[    27.608] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
...
[    27.876] (EE) AIGLX error: Calling driver entry point failed
[    27.901] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
[    28.119] (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
[    28.119] (II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0

I don't know if DRI2 requires KMS, it's possible that it does. KMS *should* work on this thing, so the solution is to get that going.

You can try this xorg.conf:

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option  "AIGLX"  "off"
EndSection

But I doubt that will work, because the alternative to AIGLX is redirected direct rendering which requires DRI2. So you need to figure out why KMS isn't working. Which means getting dmesg output when not using nomodeset.

LiranV · 2012-02-27 12:46:30

Gusar wrote:

Which means getting dmesg output when not using nomodeset.

How can I do that if I can't see a thing?

Gusar · 2012-02-27 13:44:27

LiranV wrote:

How can I do that if I can't see a thing?

sshd, as I already mentioned. Or just type blindly. You only have to log in and type "dmesg > blah.txt". Then reboot with nomodeset, and voila, you have blah.txt there.

Dustbin · 2012-02-27 16:45:59

Is your screen really off or is the brightness just too low to see anything properly?

I had a similar problem (brightness went down to zero at boot) and I solved it by adding

echo x > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

as the last line to rc.local, where x is the maximum value for my video card (as found in /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/max_brightness).

In your case there may be another folder in /sys/class/backlight/ as you use a different video card, but the actions should be the same...

Maybe this helps?

LiranV · 2012-02-28 12:12:32

10x a lot for all the help guys but in the meantime I (sadly) got back to Ubuntu.
Currently I have no time to spend on solving this because I'm learning for an important exam (that's why I need a working PC).
I will return to Arch in a month or two and continue this post.

Again I want to thank you all for trying to help me so far.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-27 00:37:55

Screen goes black during boot

#2 2012-02-27 00:59:04

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#3 2012-02-27 01:04:29

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#4 2012-02-27 03:06:10

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#5 2012-02-27 03:20:48

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#6 2012-02-27 09:16:11

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#7 2012-02-27 09:33:53

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#8 2012-02-27 09:36:21

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#9 2012-02-27 11:19:40

Re: Screen goes black during boot

#10 2012-02-27 11:30:46

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#11 2012-02-27 11:30:53

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#12 2012-02-27 11:32:20

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#13 2012-02-27 11:37:15

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#14 2012-02-27 11:40:29

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#15 2012-02-27 11:45:54

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#16 2012-02-27 11:46:15

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#17 2012-02-27 11:58:54

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#18 2012-02-27 12:03:21

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#19 2012-02-27 12:18:32

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#20 2012-02-27 12:27:40

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#21 2012-02-27 12:30:27

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#22 2012-02-27 12:46:30

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#23 2012-02-27 13:44:27

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#24 2012-02-27 16:45:59

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#25 2012-02-28 12:12:32

Re: Screen goes black during boot

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