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After the recent nvidia driver upgrade, when I try to switch to any of my VTs my computer just beeps and I get a blank screen. I can switch back to X by pressing Alt+F7. When I quit X, I still just get a beep and a blank screen. I can get back into X by running startx, though I can't see anything.
Also, this only happens once X has been started. When my computer boots up, it goes to the first VT with no problem, but after I start X I can't access the VTs until I reboot.
Downgrading to 190.53 fixes the issue. Any ideas?
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Using 195.36 and I can access my virtual terminals just fine.
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I have another Arch system, a laptop also with nvidia 195.36, and I can access the VTs on that one. I only have the problem on my desktop. The two systems are virtually identical, so I don't at all know what's going on.
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I do have a very similar problem with my laptop. This happens once X is started and I switch to a virtual console. I can only see the 'top line' of the virtual console at the bottom of the screen. I can login and type command 'blindly' so the tty does work. It just looks like the terminal screen has been shifted 'down' out of view.
Note: I'm using the most recent nvidia binary driver (195.36.15) and my video card is a GeForce 8400M GS.
Last edited by laurentis (2010-04-04 16:20:42)
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That does sound similar, though I don't even see the bottom line like you do. Have you had any luck fixing it?
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Not yet. I have a Debian installation on the same laptop with the same kernel configuration and the problem does not happen. I think it could be an issue with the nvidia driver and it does seem related to the framebuffer. When I disable the framebuffer I get my virtual consoles back, so at least I have a workaround.
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Oh ok. I currently have vga=891 in my kernel line; I'll try removing it. Have you tried uvesafb?
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No, I was not using uvesafb. I'll try this when I have the time.
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Yea same here.
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FYI, I'm now using uvesafb and the problem is no longer present.
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good! I'll give it a try as soon as I get a chance.
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uvesafb does not solve the problem for me. Are there any other possible fixes?
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Can you give a little more details ? What do you use on the kernel command line ? Can you confirm the uvesafb module is being used ? ( dmesg | grep uvesafb )
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Alternatively you might try to add this line in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf :
options nvidia NVreg_UseVBios=0
This fixed the issue for some people when it appeared in older versions of the driver.
Go on the nvidia forums, you'll find more information there:
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The only extra thing I have on my kernel line is "vga=891." (I removed this when I tried uvesafb.) uvesafb is definitely loaded.
Thanks for the modprobe tip, I'll give that a shot tonight.
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I tried adding that line to modprobe.conf, but unfortunately there was no change. I tried it with and without uvesafb. Also note that I upgraded my kernel today, which also didn't change anything.
Any other ideas?
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I tried adding that line to modprobe.conf, but unfortunately there was no change. I tried it with and without uvesafb. Also note that I upgraded my kernel today, which also didn't change anything.
Any other ideas?
Not really. Just double-check about uvesafb though.
The reason I say this is that I also upgraded my kernel today (I have the -ARCH and a custom kernel) and I noticed that when using Arch's kernel the virtual console had reverted to its previous behavior. I found this in dmesg (uvesafb module was listed as loaded)
uvesafb: cannot reserve video memory at 0xcd000000
uvesafb: probe of uvesafb.0 failed with error -5I suspect that the system falls back to vesafb when a problem occurs in uvesafb. vesafb definitively has issues with the latest nvidia driver.
When I use my custom kernel (mostly stripped down of device drivers I don't need) I have this:
uvesafb: framebuffer at 0xcd000000, mapped to 0xffffc90000a00000, using 8000k, total 14336kAnd everything works properly. But I still have no idea about why uvesafb doesn't load correctly in the -ARCH kernel.
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None of those messages shows up for me, with or without uvesafb loaded. In fact I can't really find any errors anywhere. I suppose I could try compiling my own kernel, but that seems like a lot of effort for something that might not even work. Should I file a bug report somewhere?
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Hey,
got the same problem with the new nvidia driver (195.36)... Can't switch back to terminals once X server is running.
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I still have not found a solution. I'm trying to figure out if this is an Arch bug or if I should file it upstream.
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