Switching between X and ttys result in black screen (occasionally)

chochem · 2009-02-03 12:57:13

A fairly recent problem - say a week or two at most - has been cropping up every now and then. I update fairly regularly and has been running the 'new' Xorg version for almost a month without this problem. Using Ctrl+Alt+F[1-12] when in X will occasionally result in a black screen instead of taking me to the tty. In this state, the computer is till working - music is playing and the harddisk will make the ordinary noises - but no screen. Attempts to get back to X will be in vain - it seems stuck in this screenless state. The odds seem to be about fifty-fifty but once I've successfully managed to switch back and forth in a session it seems to work for the rest of the session.

My inittab spawns ttys on all the 1-12 screen except the one that X uses (2) and the one containing the startup messages (1). X is started by startx. My xorg.conf looks like this:

# File generated by xorgconfig.

#
# Copyright 2004 The X.Org Foundation
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
# 
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
# 
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
# The X.Org Foundation BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
# 
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of The X.Org Foundation shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from
# The X.Org Foundation.
#

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf(5) man page for details about the format of 
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this  section  is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

    Load        "dbe"      # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
    SubSection  "extmod"
      Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
    EndSubSection

# This loads the font modules
#    Load        "type1"
    Load        "freetype"
#    Load        "xtt"

# This loads the GLX module
#    Load       "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
#    Load       "dri"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section.  This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)
# 

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType/"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
#    FontPath   "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"


EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"

# Option "AllowEmptyInput" "False"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is 
# received.  This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

#    Option "NoTrapSignals"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Ctrl><Alt><Fn> VT switch sequence
# (where n is 1 through 12).  This allows clients to receive these key
# events.

#    Option "DontVTSwitch"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Ctrl><Alt><BS> server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.

#    Option "DontZap"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> mode switching
# sequences.  This allows clients to receive these key events.

#    Option "Dont Zoom"

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.

#    Option "DisableVidModeExtension"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client. 

#    Option "AllowNonLocalXvidtune"

# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device
# (mouse and keyboard) settings. 

#    Option "DisableModInDev"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to
# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).

#    Option "AllowNonLocalModInDev"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Input devices
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# Core keyboard's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard1"
    Driver      "keyboard"
        Option      "CoreKeyboard"
    Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option "XkbLayout" "dk"
EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Core Pointer's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

    Identifier    "Mouse1"
    Driver    "mouse"
    Option "Protocol"    "Auto"    # Auto detect
    Option "Device"      "/dev/input/mice"

# Mouse-speed setting for PS/2 mouse.

#    Option "Resolution"    "256"

# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some Logitech mice. In
# almost every case these lines should be omitted.

#    Option "BaudRate"    "9600"
#    Option "SampleRate"    "150"

# Mouse wheel mapping.  Default is to map vertical wheel to buttons 4 & 5,
# horizontal wheel to buttons 6 & 7.   Change if your mouse has more than
# 3 buttons and you need to map the wheel to different button ids to avoid
# conflicts.

#    Option "ZAxisMapping"   "4 5 6 7"

# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button mice
# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)

#    Option "Emulate3Buttons"
#    Option "Emulate3Timeout"    "50"

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice

#    Option "ChordMiddle"

EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "mymon"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

    HorizSync   31.5 - 79.0

#    HorizSync    30-64         # multisync
#    HorizSync    31.5, 35.2    # multiple fixed sync frequencies
#    HorizSync    15-25, 30-50  # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

    VertRefresh 40-150

EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

# Standard VGA Device:

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Standard VGA"
    VendorName    "Unknown"
    BoardName    "Unknown"

# The chipset line is optional in most cases.  It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

#    Chipset    "generic"

# The Driver line must be present.  When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module.  Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

    Driver     "vga"
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for.  When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device.  For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used.  This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.

#    BusID      "PCI:0:10:0"

#    VideoRam    256

#    Clocks    25.2 28.3

EndSection

# Device configured by xorgconfig:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "myradeon"
    Driver      "radeon"
    #VideoRam    120000
    Option    "DRI" "true"
    Option    "GARTSize" "64"
    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

# Composite shit.

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present.  Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen.  A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Screen 1"
    Device      "myradeon"
    Monitor     "mymon"
    DefaultDepth 24

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes       "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
    EndSubsection
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present.  Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised.  A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option.  In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
    Identifier  "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens.  The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen.  In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

    Screen "Screen 1"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used.  Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".

    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
    
    Option "BackingStore" "true"
    Option "RenderAccel" "True"


EndSection

Any help appeciated. I really like using ttys and the fear that switching will crash the session kinda ruins my linux enjoyment.

Last edited by chochem (2009-02-03 12:58:14)

onu2 · 2009-03-06 06:29:20

here is the same problem
i cant switch between vc7,8,9...only between 1 and 7.
when i switch to vc8 or 9 only comes nothing but a blank black screen.
there is no problem on vc1 to vc6, login screen works there.
gdmflexiserver command doesnt works, same blank black screen.
but when X is not in work all virtual consoles works without problem.
ive searched everywhere for this problem but nothing works.people have recommend same things; gdmflexiserver etc.
i think it is a problem with X server, maybe a bug of this version.Mine is xorg-server 1.5.3-4.
Any?

chochem · 2009-03-06 10:52:51

A few things:

a) My problem went away when I started using GDM instead of startx (that is: I hope it's gone away for good, and I think that's the connection)
b) I don't want to seem condescending... but are you sure that your inittab actually starts ttys on 8 and 9 on your 'X server' runelevel?
c) My problem was not with specific TTYs but with the the act of switching between X and not-X where it seemed to get stuck in the middle so to speak. It doesn't sound like the two are the same...

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-03 12:57:13

Switching between X and ttys result in black screen (occasionally)

#2 2009-03-06 06:29:20

Re: Switching between X and ttys result in black screen (occasionally)

#3 2009-03-06 10:52:51

Re: Switching between X and ttys result in black screen (occasionally)

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