Arch Linux

jgmdev

Member

Registered: 2014-04-07

Posts: 9

[SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

Hi everyone,

After running a pacman -Suy today and rebooting to start using the new 3.14 kernel my monitor stayed black after grub loads the kernel. The system boot normally since I could press ctrl + alt + f2 and ctrl + alt + del to reboot, but the screen was all black, I couldn't see what was going on even after pressing ctrl + alt + f2.

My video card is a Radeon HD 6670 so it may be something related to the new changes on the kernel for this video cards. Also I noticed I get black screen when virtual console is being setup and the resolution reset.

For anyone else having the same problem I was able to boot normally by removing the grub boot option "set gfxpayload=keep". If it works for you it can be permanently fixed by modifying /etc/default/grub and setting GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX from keep to text:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

then regenerate your /boot/grub/grub.cfg with:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Last edited by jgmdev (2014-04-13 02:58:13)

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

Isn't gfxpayload used to set the screen resolution for the console? KMS should already give you native resolution with the radeon driver. Is there something different that you're after?

jgmdev

Member

Registered: 2014-04-07

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

My /etc/default/grub is pretty much vanilla so nothing special on that. As you say gfxpayload is a flag to tell the kernel which video mode to use and "keep" should use the same resolution detected as optimal by grub, but for some reason isn't working with new 3.14 kernel, everything worked as expected with 3.13.

Reading the grub manual page for gfxpayload https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manua … yload.html you will see an interesting note:

note that using this option may cause GNU/Linux to suffer from various display problems, particularly during the early part of the boot sequence. If you have problems, set this variable to ‘text’ and GRUB will tell Linux to boot in normal text mode.

I'm lacking in kernel parameters and bootloaders inner workings so I guess some one with the right knowledge could explain why this could be happening with the 3.14 kernel.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

Sorry for the noise. I've been using syslinux for so long, that I'm totally disconnected with grub. So the answer to my first question was yes, but it's part of grub and not an external option (which I was hoping for).

yjcong

Member

Registered: 2009-07-06

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

hi,

mine is Mobile Intel (R) 915GM/GMS. x86. After pacman -Syu with new linux-3.14-4, I find the same black case.

But, I tried to remove "set gfxpayload=keep" just before the system started to load, and it is still black

Then I tried (as root)

echo "GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text" >> /etc/default/grub

and restarted, the screen  is black.

Could someone tell me what I should do?

Thanks a lot.

Last edited by yjcong (2014-04-11 06:02:10)

jgmdev

Member

Registered: 2014-04-07

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

Then I tried (as root)

echo "GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text" >> /etc/default/grub

and restarted, the screen  is black.

If you removed the gfxpayload line from the grub entry editor and pressed F10 to boot and still black then it seems that this option will not fix your issue. In any case, when you modify /etc/default/grub you have to regenerate /boot/grub/grub.cfg with:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg which I forgot to mention.

I would recommend you to vote and comment on this bug report https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39795 which was reported for a neomagic gpu but it seems that the same issue is happening to people with different gpus like radeon and intel, so theres something definitely wrong with this new kernel.

Last edited by jgmdev (2014-04-11 13:02:30)

yjcong

Member

Registered: 2009-07-06

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

Then I tried (as root)

echo "GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text" >> /etc/default/grub

and restarted, the screen  is black.

If you removed the gfxpayload line from the grub entry editor and pressed F10 to boot and still black then it seems that this option will not fix your issue. In any case, when you modify /etc/default/grub you have to regenerate /boot/grub/grub.cfg with:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg which I forgot to mention.

I would recommend you to vote and comment on this bug report https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39795 which was reported for a neomagic gpu but it seems that the same issue is happening to people with different gpus like radeon and intel, so theres something definitely wrong with this new kernel.

I find the solution for my problem.

I dont know why, but before login(I use startx)I just pressed Fn+F9, which means "making the screen bighter",then the backlight of screen came back.

after startx, the screen was black again(backlight is turned off).  By pressing  Fn+F9 again,  the screen was normal as before.

I am not sure this will work for others, but it is worth to try first.

chickenPie4tea

Member

Registered: 2012-08-21

Posts: 309

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

I had the same black screen problem but didnt want to mess with grub as it usually screws up and I have to edit it manually so I just rolled back to an earlier kernel for now.

---

You can like linux without becoming a fanatic!

jgmdev

Member

Registered: 2014-04-07

Posts: 9

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

I find the solution for my problem.

I dont know why, but before login(I use startx)I just pressed Fn+F9, which means "making the screen bighter",then the backlight of screen came back.

after startx, the screen was black again(backlight is turned off).  By pressing  Fn+F9 again,  the screen was normal as before.

I am not sure this will work for others, but it is worth to try first.

In my case I'm running a desktop. Maybe you should report your discovery here: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39795

yjcong

Member

Registered: 2009-07-06

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED] Radeon HD no graphics on boot after upgrade to kernel 3.14

I find the solution for my problem.

I dont know why, but before login(I use startx)I just pressed Fn+F9, which means "making the screen bighter",then the backlight of screen came back.

after startx, the screen was black again(backlight is turned off).  By pressing  Fn+F9 again,  the screen was normal as before.

I am not sure this will work for others, but it is worth to try first.

In my case I'm running a desktop. Maybe you should report your discovery here: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39795

done