Arch Linux

mgs

Member

Registered: 2014-10-13

Posts: 3

[Solved] Amilo XI 2550 - Black screen after fresh install

Dear archlinux users,

I have been reading the archlinux wiki and forums since I started using arch several years ago. It was always possible to solve the problems I ran into by consulting these webpages, therefore a big thanks to the community for the provided help.

Two weeks ago I installed arch on a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo XI 2550. The first problem I ran into was that booting the live-cd resulted in a black screen and I could not even start with installing arch. This problem was solved with the kernel parameter 'nomodeset'.
The first boot of the freshly installed arch also resulted in a black screen after the GRUB menu which was perfectly displayed. After some searching (here and here and ...) I plugged in an external monitor and it showed the login screen. I then installed KDE because I thaught the problem might not show up with X and KDE running. After the login to KDE I realized that the brightness of the laptop display is nearly black but not totally. It seems as if the brightness is at a very low level, but brightness cannot be controlled with the Fn+F8 or Fn+F9 commands. But I see a OSD that indicates that the controls are used but without effect. So at the moment it is only possible to work on the laptop with another display connected to it.

Maybe of use:

ls /sys/class/backlight/
acpi_video0
radeon_bl0

less /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/bl_power
0
less /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/actual_brightness 
7
less /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 
7
less /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness 
7
less /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/bl_power
0
less /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/actual_brightness 
255
less /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness 
255
less /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/max_brightness 
255

dmesg | grep drm
[    0.736559] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    0.743608] [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled.
[    0.743678] fb: switching to radeondrmfb from VESA VGA
[    0.744054] [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (RV630 0x1002:0x9583 0x1734:0x1107).
[    0.744065] [drm] register mmio base: 0xCFEF0000
[    0.744067] [drm] register mmio size: 65536
[    0.744172] [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=256M, BAR=256M
[    0.744174] [drm] RAM width 128bits DDR
[    0.744257] [drm] radeon: 256M of VRAM memory ready
[    0.744259] [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready.
[    0.744275] [drm] Loading RV630 Microcode
[    0.744345] [drm] Internal thermal controller without fan control
[    0.744386] [drm] radeon: power management initialized
[    0.744389] [drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072
[    0.762830] [drm] PCIE GART of 512M enabled (table at 0x0000000000040000).
[    0.762873] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[    0.762874] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[    0.762937] [drm] radeon: irq initialized.
[    0.794780] [drm] ring test on 0 succeeded in 1 usecs
[    0.795253] [drm] ib test on ring 0 succeeded in 0 usecs
[    0.795942] [drm] radeon atom DIG backlight initialized
[    0.795945] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
[    0.795947] [drm] Connector 0:
[    0.795948] [drm]   LVDS-1
[    0.795950] [drm]   DDC: 0xac0 0xac0 0xac4 0xac4 0xac8 0xac8 0xacc 0xacc
[    0.795951] [drm]   Encoders:
[    0.795952] [drm]     LCD1: INTERNAL_LVTM1
[    0.795953] [drm] Connector 1:
[    0.795954] [drm]   DIN-1
[    0.795955] [drm]   Encoders:
[    0.795956] [drm]     TV1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC2
[    0.795957] [drm] Connector 2:
[    0.795958] [drm]   HDMI-A-1
[    0.795960] [drm]   HPD1
[    0.795961] [drm]   DDC: 0x7e50 0x7e50 0x7e54 0x7e54 0x7e58 0x7e58 0x7e5c 0x7e5c
[    0.795963] [drm]   Encoders:
[    0.795964] [drm]     DFP1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_TMDS1
[    0.795965] [drm] Connector 3:
[    0.795966] [drm]   VGA-1
[    0.795968] [drm]   DDC: 0x7e40 0x7e40 0x7e44 0x7e44 0x7e48 0x7e48 0x7e4c 0x7e4c
[    0.795969] [drm]   Encoders:
[    0.795970] [drm]     CRT1: INTERNAL_KLDSCP_DAC1
[    1.278449] [drm] fb mappable at 0xD0141000
[    1.278451] [drm] vram apper at 0xD0000000
[    1.278453] [drm] size 9216000
[    1.278454] [drm] fb depth is 24
[    1.278455] [drm]    pitch is 7680
[    1.278527] fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[    1.726069] radeon 0000:01:00.0: fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device
[    1.770030] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.39.0 20080528 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

Until now and amongst others I tried the following things.

• Using kernel parameters

  video.use_native_backlight=1
  video.use_native_backlight=0
  acpi_osi=linux
  acpi_backlight=vendor

  and others I just cannot remember.

• Masking backlight

  systemctl mask systemd-backlight@backlight:acpi_video0.service
  systemctl mask systemd-backlight@backlight:radeon_bl0.service

• Setting bl_power

  echo 1 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/bl_power
  echo 1 > /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/bl_power

Nothing of the above was improving the situation.
Your help on the problem would be highly appreciated.

Best regards
mgs

Last edited by mgs (2014-10-27 10:15:11)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,456

Website

Re: [Solved] Amilo XI 2550 - Black screen after fresh install

If nomodeset worked with the installation medium, why haven't you tried that for the same problem on your installed system?

Could you also post information about your graphics card and what drivers you've installed.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

mgs

Member

Registered: 2014-10-13

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Amilo XI 2550 - Black screen after fresh install

Hello Trilby,

thanks for the reply.

If nomodeset worked with the installation medium, why haven't you tried that for the same problem on your installed system?

The kernel parameter 'nomodeset' results in a working display but without X support, due to the fact that with 'nomodeset' there is no KMS support and therefore no X. But nevertheless I tried it and as expected X did not start.

Could you also post information about your graphics card and what drivers you've installed.

The graphics card is a Radeon HD 2700 and according to the above dmesg log it is recognized as RV 630. The radeon module is loaded via /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and xf86-video-ati (1:7.5.0-1) is installed.

I hope the provided information is what you asked for, thanks for your help.
Best regards
mgs

mgs

Member

Registered: 2014-10-13

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Amilo XI 2550 - Black screen after fresh install

Dear archlinux users,

today I did a full system upgrade and following packages where upgraded:

 db (5.3.28-1 -> 5.3.28-2)
enca (1.15-1 -> 1.16-1)
firefox (33.0-2 -> 33.0.1-1)
iproute2 (3.15.0-1 -> 3.17.0-1)
iw (3.14-1 -> 3.17-1)
kauth (5.3.0-1 -> 5.3.0-2)
kconfig (5.3.0-1 -> 5.3.0-2)
kio (5.3.0-1 -> 5.3.0-2)
kxmlgui (5.3.0-1 -> 5.3.0-2)
mesa-dri (10.3.1-1 -> 10.3.2-1)
mesa (10.3.1-1 -> 10.3.2-1)
mesa-libgl (10.3.1-1 -> 10.3.2-1)
libva (1.4.0-1 -> 1.4.1-1)
libxml2 (2.9.1-5 -> 2.9.2-1)
linux-firmware (20140828.13eb208-1 -> 20141009.0e5f637-1)
linux (3.16.4-1 -> 3.17.1-1)
mesa-vdpau (10.3.1-1 -> 10.3.2-1)
tzdata (2014h-1 -> 2014i-1)
upower (0.99.0-3 -> 0.99.1-2)

Now the laptop display works as one would expect. Which of the above packages solved the issue I do not know.

Best regards
mgs