Arch Linux

falstaff_ch

Member

Registered: 2013-06-09

Posts: 28

[Solved] Missing virtual terminal on Lenovo T440s

Hi,

On my new Lenovo T440s I miss the virtual terminals after installation. I created the configuration files mentioned in the Wiki, however, when I change to TTY2 (Ctrl+Alt+F2) I only see a blinking cursor. This Laptop has Intel graphics hardware, so I use the i915 driver. I also tried adding this module to mkinitcpio.conf (MODULES="i915"). However, no success so far.

The framebuffer device is available (/dev/fb0), also I see boot messages from the kernel and from systemd as usual. As far as I'm concerned, I did not change a relevant systemd configuration regarding tty spawning, e.g.

$ sudo systemctl status getty@tty5
getty@tty5.service - Getty on tty5
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service; enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:agetty(8)
           man:systemd-getty-generator(8)
           http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/serial-console.html

This looks generally good, but when chaning to TTY5 this reports still the same state. I also tried to enable TTY2/TTY3 by default using

systemctl enable getty@tty3.service

No success... I'm not sure what exactly the problem is, I think its more a Kernel/VT related issue rather than a systemd issue..

--
Stefan

Last edited by falstaff_ch (2014-01-10 21:51:26)

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] Missing virtual terminal on Lenovo T440s

Soooo, is something running on VT1?  Do you have getty@tty1 running, or maybe jut something graphical that is occupying that space? 

If you have X running on VT1, then can you temporarily try booting to the multi-user.target and see if it works there?  Anything relevant in the journal or dmesg?

falstaff_ch

Member

Registered: 2013-06-09

Posts: 28

Re: [Solved] Missing virtual terminal on Lenovo T440s

I looked into journal and dmesg, but I didn't found something which I would consider relevant.

Yes, I do have gdm on TTY1 by default (graphical target).

I just started in mulit-user.target, I get TTY1 through TTY7... So it must be a problem in combination with X then. Any idea?

falstaff_ch

Member

Registered: 2013-06-09

Posts: 28

Re: [Solved] Missing virtual terminal on Lenovo T440s

I could solve this issue: In the end I remember my tests with plymouth. After removing plymouth I had my virtual terminals back :-)p

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [Solved] Missing virtual terminal on Lenovo T440s

Nice.  I have to say that I have played with plymouth a little bit and have found that it is totally not worth the trouble.  With systemd the boot process is so fast that it is not as though a pretty splash screen is even around to enjoy.  So I decided to just make the boot process as quiet as possible.  Now I just see a flash of black screen and then my desktop shows up.