New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

whatshisname · 2012-06-17 19:58:45

Dell Latitude D620. Just did a reinstall using the net boot disk after hosing my newly installed system when laptop battery died during pacman -Syu.

When I rebooted after the new install, the console is black.

I eventually discovered that I could blindly login as root, type my root password, issue "shutdown -r now" and the system would reboot. So I know I have a console but the color evidently must be black on black.

I've tried blindling logging in as root and resetting the prompt to red by blindly typing:

export PS1="\e[0;31m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m "

But nothing changes.

This laptop uses the Intel 945gm embedded video card.

In my previous install, I would sometimes boot up to a blank screen like this but then I would do a Ctrl-Alt-Delete and the next time I could see the prompt. Not happening this time.

Any ideas on how to get out of this mess?

Last edited by whatshisname (2012-06-17 23:00:39)

Trilby · 2012-06-17 20:28:05

Very odd. My first step would be to verify that it is just a color issue. If so, the PS1 could be reset somehow (prompt command, etc). To test, I'd try (blinding) entering something like

echo -e "\033[31mHello"

If you see the "hello" in red, then it is just a color issue. If you don't, you should look elsewhere.

whatshisname · 2012-06-17 20:57:46

Trilby wrote:

Very odd. My first step would be to verify that it is just a color issue. If so, the PS1 could be reset somehow (prompt command, etc). To test, I'd try (blinding) entering something like
echo -e "\033[31mHello"
If you see the "hello" in red, then it is just a color issue. If you don't, you should look elsewhere.

Thanks for the suggestion but nothing changed.

I booted from a rescue cd, mounted /, checked /var/log/kernel.log.

Noticed this related to video:

[Firmware Bug]: Duplicate ACPI video bus devices for the same VGA controller, please try module parameter "video.allow_duplicates=1" if the current driver doesn't work.

So I did a reboot, edited the boot command in the grub menu and added "video.allow_duplicates=1" to the end of the boot parameters but alas no joy.

Trilby · 2012-06-17 22:04:05

By nothing changed you mean you didn't see the "hello"? Then I'd suggest the problem has nothing to do with the color (black on black), and more to do with ... well something else - console font perhaps. Can you post your rc.conf?

whatshisname · 2012-06-17 23:00:10

Thanks for all the prodding, Trilby.

So I figured something had to be off with my video drivers. (Note. I haven't even gotten to the point where I could install X. So there was no xorg.conf to even think about mucking with.)

Booting off the rescue CD and running lsmod, I found that the rescue cd was using the i915 video driver.

So I mounted the root partition from the rescue CD. Edited rc.conf and added "i915" to MODULES, rebooted and I can see the prompt.

Marking this as SOLVED.

whatshisname · 2012-06-19 22:12:21

Though I marked this solved, I have a followup.

Once I got past the persistent black on black issue with the console, I went ahead and finished my Arch install, installing X, etc.

Now I've discovered that it's now back to what it was doing before the crash which was a black on black console with every *other* boot. Can't figure out why.

But I remembered the error message referenced above so I added "video.allow_duplicates=1" to my boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst and after 3 successive boots, I am seeing the console everytime.

Just putting this out there in case there is someone else who finds themselves in the same boat.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-17 19:58:45

New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

#2 2012-06-17 20:28:05

Re: New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

#3 2012-06-17 20:57:46

Re: New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

#4 2012-06-17 22:04:05

Re: New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

#5 2012-06-17 23:00:10

Re: New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

#6 2012-06-19 22:12:21

Re: New install: console is black on black [SOLVED]

Board footer