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Hi all,
About a week ago I noticed that I will sometimes be left with a black screen when I switch between virtual consoles using Ctrl+Alt+F8, etc. The system is still running, and can be communicated with over the network, but, short of rebooting via ssh or killing X, there seems to be nothing I can do to get the screen working again. It seems especially common when switching between F7 and F8 (both graphical) but sometimes occurs when switching from a graphical to a text based console (F1-F6).
I have downgraded from recent versions of xorg-server, xorg-server-common and the nvidia drivers to see if the problem would go away, but without success.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Last edited by conn-fused (2012-04-22 05:22:28)
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Might be related to this; https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=138548
Do you have 'vga=xxx' at the kernel line?
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Thanks swanson,
It looks like the consensus over there is that it is a proprietary nvidia driver issue, which is a shame because that means that - for a real fix - there's little option but to wait.
To answer your question though, yes, I do have a vga=xxx option, so - for a workaround - I'll start by removing that. Updates will show up in this thread.
Thanks again!
Last edited by conn-fused (2012-04-25 08:49:57)
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Removing the vga line didn't help. I was able to flip between F7 and F8 about five times before the problem showed itself.
I also tried (several times) the blind login to a text console that you mentioned in the other thread, but could not manage it. Logging in from the network does work though. Its as if whatever is disabling my screen is also disabling my local keyboard.
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Well, many 20-nvidia-conf files later, the problem persists.
Not only that, but the number of jumps between virtual consoles before failure seems to be perfectly consistent. I login as one user (a GUI session on tty7), then switch user to open a new GUI session on tty8. Now, (using Ctrl+Alt+F7 or F8, as appropriate), I switch back to the first user (enter a password because opening the new session locks the first one), switch back to the second user, back to the first, and then try switch back to the second ... and all is lost. The fifth switch fails: every ... single ... time.
I'd appreciate it if someone else using an Nvidia card and the proprietary drivers would try this procedure and see if they too face the black screen after the fifth switch. If you do, it's not something I've misconfigured on my own, but an issue with a package (probably nvidia's) that I suppose I'll just have to wait for a fix for.
Thanks!
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No change after the most recent nvidia and kernel updates. I'd really appreciate someone seeing if they can duplicate this behaviour. Thanks!
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It's highly likely a nvidia driver bug, affecting a particular family of graphic cards. There's plenty of mentions at the nvnews forums. No reaction from nvidia devs yet, console stuff is usually very low on their priority list.
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