Arch Linux

dan.boff

Member

Registered: 2009-04-07

Posts: 42

Switching to tty not working

I just noticed that switching to tty's via ctrl+alt+f1 doesn't work anymore. my inittab is alright tough. also agetty is started:

ps aux | grep tty
root      2299  0.0  0.0   3820   608 tty1     Ss+  17:26   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty1 linux
root      2300  0.0  0.0   3820   612 tty2     Ss+  17:26   0:00 /sbin/agetty -8 38400 tty2 linux
root      2311 18.3  4.5 607616 418824 tty7    Ss+  17:26   5:11 /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp :0 vt7 -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-9MoBCT

do you have any idea?

samsom

Member

Registered: 2009-07-17

Posts: 88

Re: Switching to tty not working

I have got the same problem as well. Ctrl +ALt+F1-6 just displays a blank screen and F7 gets me back to KDE.

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Samsom

grey

Member

From: Europe

Registered: 2007-08-23

Posts: 679

Re: Switching to tty not working

What happens if you kill X? Is it still a blank screen, or do you then get to tty1?

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Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance.

samsom

Member

Registered: 2009-07-17

Posts: 88

Re: Switching to tty not working

Kill X? How do I do that?

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Samsom

Profjim

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 658

Re: Switching to tty not working

Well, if you have a /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the lines:

Section "ServerFlags"
...
Option "DontZap" "false"
...
EndSection

or you specify the same option somewhere in a /etc/hal/fdi/policy/*.fdi file, then you can hit Control-Alt-Backspace to do this. (I think those are the keys, I remapped them on my machine.)

But I'm guessing from your question that you haven't done any of that. So then what you need to do is open a terminal and say

killall X

at which point X and all the terminals and programs you opened inside X should disappear.

kulpae

Member

From: Bremen

Registered: 2010-02-06

Posts: 34

Re: Switching to tty not working

I've got a similar problem, but when I switch to tty1-6 the screen is not completly black, you can see the terminal hardly, but it's there (about 5% opacity).
I can imagine, that on several monitors it appears to be completely blank...

This behavior appeared first, when I first ran X.
I'm using x86-video-ati with ATI Radeon Mobility X1400. (Maybe it's some video issue, dunno)
And I'm booting with vga=773 (grub).

cheers, kulpae

Last edited by kulpae (2010-02-06 23:50:29)

kulpae

Member

From: Bremen

Registered: 2010-02-06

Posts: 34

Re: Switching to tty not working

It works without vga=773 on the grub's menu entry...
But then the terminals are ugly

Profjim

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 658

Re: Switching to tty not working

@kulpae: try

sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness < /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness

when this happens. (Easiest if you make it a script.) If you don't have those paths in your sys hierarchy, maybe there's a brightness and max_brightness somewhere else underneath /sys?

Last edited by Profjim (2010-02-06 23:58:56)

kulpae

Member

From: Bremen

Registered: 2010-02-06

Posts: 34

Re: Switching to tty not working

thank you Profjim,
but I solved it by providing vga=838 to grub (as my native screen resolution is 1400x1050@32).

I've tried it though, but it doesn't change a thing...

cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

returns 0, but 

cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness

returns 7

when performing your script, both values are 7 then, but the terminal stays dark...

When I boot with vga=838 (1400x1050@32) the problem is solved on my box, though...
cheers, kulpae

Last edited by kulpae (2010-02-07 00:37:14)

Profjim

Member

From: NYC

Registered: 2008-03-24

Posts: 658

Re: Switching to tty not working

OK, but it sounds like in kernel 2.6.33 KMS will be on for Radeon, so you probably shouldn't then---perhaps won't be able to?---use the vga=... kernel line switch anymore. Hopefully by the time that kernel is out your problem will be fixed.