Arch Linux

Neuneck

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2009-05-01

Posts: 21

Black screen after boot.

Hi everyone,

I hope this is in the proper section, even though I don't know weather this is related to the -Syu update I did yesterday or not.

The issue is that after a regular boot sequence instead of displaying my slim login interface the screen is just plain black. tty1-6 are plain black, too. Since I cannot log in (typing in the Password into the void didn't work either), I also have trouble to pinpoint the source of the issue.

The only point at which I can interfere is in grub. I don't know what to edit in order to restore proper functionality or to boot into a lower runlevel.

I hope the issue can be solved.

Thanks for your concern.

Neuneck

laurentis

Member

Registered: 2009-06-17

Posts: 17

Re: Black screen after boot.

I'd start the system in single user mode (option single in kernel command line) to avoid starting X.

Last edited by laurentis (2010-04-10 18:20:28)

Drewler

Member

From: Spain

Registered: 2010-04-10

Posts: 4

Re: Black screen after boot.

I have the same issue (upgraded yesterday, turned on today and no X)

From GRUB, I disabled KMS with nomodeset (Caused flickering) and set the runlevel to 3.

This way, I can access the system but still have not found a way to put Xorg to work... (tried to upgrade, resinstalled packages...)

I have an ATI card with the free drivers... everything was going fine until yesterday's upgrade.

Last edited by Drewler (2010-04-10 20:38:35)

jwhendy

Member

Registered: 2010-04-01

Posts: 621

Re: Black screen after boot.

I believe I have/had the same issue. I issued 'pacman -Syu' last night, rebooted and got a black screen. Usually, I get some large text up to udev, then my screen flashes and the resolution readjusts, and things continue from there. This time, screen flash as usual, but only black. I restarted several times, booted into my Arch CD, mounted and chrooted into my hard drive and issued pacman -Syu again just to be sure.

No dice.

Where I'm at:
- I realized I could change the laptop backlight
- On a whim, I typed my username and password, then 'startx'
- X starts!
- If I log out, I can see the text that I would be used to seeing normally

Perhaps do as suggested by booting into something like runlevel 3 or even lower to prevent X or any login managers from interfering. Then try typing:
- username
- enter
- password
- enter
- startx

and see if you get where I did? I still am puzzled but at least I'm not thinking I have to reinstall anymore! I tried disabling hotplugging in xorg.conf as well, but that didn't change anything.

John

Drewler

Member

From: Spain

Registered: 2010-04-10

Posts: 4

Re: Black screen after boot.

Well, you are lucky. At least you can run X with positive results.

If I run startx all I get is the same black screen

Laserpithium

Member

Registered: 2010-03-28

Posts: 37

Re: Black screen after boot.

Hello all,

Same issue here, using ati open source driver (radeon), with HD4650 Mobility.
After the update, I had blankscreen. KMS or UMS as well.

To make everything work again, I did the following things:
- Install from AUR openssl-compatibility (only needed if you run KDE as far as I know)
- Downgrade libgl to v 7.7.1 and ati-dri to 7.7.1 instead of 7.7.1-1 (version from the 1st of April)
- Look on the internet for missing firmwares (in my case, R700-rcl.bin, and two RV730). See your kernel log for this.

Now, I have still everything fine inUMS mode (even 3D acceleration), but still blankscreen when trying KMS.

sundown

Member

Registered: 2009-09-13

Posts: 14

Re: Black screen after boot.

I have a similar problem with KMS. Laptop + external monitor, everything boots fine within the laptop screen but the external one, doesn't want to kick in. It only shimmers as you can barely see the distorted letters on it for a second or two. It appears as it tries to set a proper resolution and refresh mode on it but it then decides it cannot and it shuts off.  UMS is fine, though.

Drewler

Member

From: Spain

Registered: 2010-04-10

Posts: 4

Re: Black screen after boot.

It worked Laserpithium! Thanks!

rozoweskarpetki

Member

Registered: 2008-05-12

Posts: 8

Re: Black screen after boot.

I've got the same issue as Neuneck describes, only at the moment I don't even have X installed :]
After the update, this happened and as I had generally made a mess of things (had some sort of errors with lxml2) and I couldn't even diagnose the problem with the blank screen and all, I figured I'd just try reinstalling. So I downloaded the latest usb image and I started installing and I still have a black screen, only now I have it on a completely clean system with no X!
I don't even understand Laserpithium's answer (what is KMS and UMS? and does it relate to me when I'm on a plain Intel card?) or how I can make any use of it when I can't run anything on the command line :-/ (as Neuneck says all the tty's are blank)

Neuneck

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2009-05-01

Posts: 21

Re: Black screen after boot.

I can boot into a system without X by simply adding
i915.modeset=0 (to Disable KMS)
and
3 (in oder to boot w/o starting X)
to the grub boot entry.

However, even when I use startx manually, I get some flickering and the error: "X ist respawning too fast". The flickering stops as soon as I re-enter runlevel 3.
I started to downgrade packages as mentioned above, however for me (using an Intel 915 GM graphics card) it didn't work (of course I downgraded intel-dri...).

Before I start a downgrading landslide, I decided to wait until the issue is fixed, or, if that should take longer than a few days reinstall the system.

-----------------------------------------

Strange development: I rechecked all the logs and found out that X didn't find a properly configurable screen. So I removed any reference to my Tablet Device, and now everything works again. This deems strange to me, since none of the other error messages had any reference to wacom drivers or similar. Also my stylus and tablet didn't cause any problems so far.

Thanks everyone for your concern. I don't know weather I shuold mark the issue as solved, since other people still are experiencing problems.

Last edited by Neuneck (2010-04-12 13:18:18)

Drewler

Member

From: Spain

Registered: 2010-04-10

Posts: 4

Re: Black screen after boot.

rozoweskarpetki, KMS stands for Kernel Mode Setting ( you can learn about its uses here http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ATI … _.28KMS.29 ). The last kernel update enabled it by default, and it is causing some problems (just to ATI users I think).

Following Laserpithium steps, you should:

1.- At GRUB. Edit the option used to boot Arch. Then edit the "kernel" line. Append "nomodeset" (to disable KMS) and number 3 (to set runlevel to 3) to this line.
2.- Wait until system boots. You will get to the text login. Now you got a promt... (Laserpithium steps)
3.- Install from AUR openssl-compatibility
4.- Downgrade libgl to v 7.7.1 and ati-dri to 7.7.1 instead of 7.7.1-1 (these can be found in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ and installed with pacman -U)

If you need to (temporary) remove some packages in order to be downgraded, use pacman -Rd

I hope it helps!

Laserpithium

Member

Registered: 2010-03-28

Posts: 37

Re: Black screen after boot.

And in case you don't have libgl and ati-dri 7.7.1 in your cache (if you cleaned the cache no some long time ago for instance), you can find them here:
http://arm.kh.nu/

For those who don't know, this site makes a copy of all archlinux repository every day.
You choose your arch, the repo you are looking at and the date you want, and you download the related package.

If you take the version of these library from the 1st of April, you will get the 7.7.1 version which is working.
(For instance, for a x64 system: http://arm.kh.nu/2010/04/01/extra/os/x86_64/).

EDIT: my method works only with ATI cards, using open source driver. If you have an Intel card, well, it won't help...

Last edited by Laserpithium (2010-04-13 01:09:35)

rozoweskarpetki

Member

Registered: 2008-05-12

Posts: 8

Re: Black screen after boot.

Thanks for all the explanations They helped me get started and I've solved my issue - I'm somehow running gnome normally (gdm login, no flickering etc.) and I've got all the tty's working as well. I'm using KMS with all the new packages, no downgrading necessary.
I *think* the key in my case was to follow this:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Int … Setting.29
I didn't have those modules listed.
Also, at the moment I'm running without an xorg.conf, which might be relevant as well.
I'm on the Intel driver myself, so I've no idea if any of this is helpful for those on the ATI driver.

Last edited by rozoweskarpetki (2010-04-18 22:28:46)