Terminals (1-9) gone

Revelation60 · 2010-04-07 13:31:54

Somehow all my terminals (CTRL-ALT-1 etc) contain nothing but a text line on the bottom stating that I am running arch. This happens after I've entered graphics mode. Somehow I suspect this has something to do with grub2, but I am not sure. This problem is very annoying, since I can't do anything when xorg dies.

TaylanUB · 2010-04-07 16:31:15

If someone happens to have had the exact same issue as you, they might help. But if you want more help, you should look around a bit more yourself; there's so many possible reasons for your issue...

What programs do you use with xorg; login managers and such?
Did you mess with /etc/inittab?
GRUB 2 sounds irrelevant since it's just the bootloader, but i'm quite clueless on that one.

ArchLinux gives control to the user; it's really awesome for someone who knows his way around. For newcomers, this means it won't hold your hand; it can be really frustrating, but it will force you to adapt if you insist! I also started using it as a _total_ noob. (Still not claiming to know a lot.)
In any case, you'll need to get used to exploring your OS more, and figure out where issues might be.

karol · 2010-04-07 16:59:16

Did you update your graphic card drivers, xorg & Co?

Revelation60 · 2010-04-07 17:30:00

I am not really a newcomer. I posted it here, because I hoped the solution might be trivial. Anyhow, I haven't experienced this problem up until recently. I was thinking of grub2, because grub now uses it's own framebuffer code, and that may be bugged. The latest nvidia drivers may also be the problem.

When I switch to a terminal, my monitor loses its signal and when that is restored, the screen is blank, minus the arch message on the end. I noticed that it happens most of the time, but not always. Maybe a bug?

alexandrite · 2010-04-07 19:58:45

I think I reproduced this by commenting out the "agettty" lines in /etc/inittab.
So, are those lines still there? If so, maybe try reinstalling util-linux-ng, which contains the agettty.

pseudonomous · 2010-04-07 22:29:41

You might also want to look into your xf86 driver related situation; I think some of the kms drivers don't by default provide a framebuffer ... also if you are using a Display manager this might have something to do with it, too.

Edit: This is from memory and might be inaccurate, but I'm pretty sure I've seen some comment somewhere in one of my config files that has something to do with "put this here or you won't get ttys".

Last edited by pseudonomous (2010-04-07 22:32:07)

Revelation60 · 2010-04-08 07:21:08

The agetty lines are uncommented in /etc/inittab. I find it strange that this happens seemingly at random.

v3s · 2010-04-08 19:02:21

I'm having these issues too.. For me it started when I upgrade to grub2...

pseudonomous · 2010-04-08 21:07:14

If it's not too painful to do, try uninstalling your nvidia xf86 drivers and using vesa instead, see if the problem persists, if it does, I'll bet it's related to the Nvidia drivers (I've seen some old forum posts on referring to problems like this), if not, then the probably may be grub2 related. How hard would it be for you to re-install legacy-grub and see if the problem goes away?

Revelation60 · 2010-04-08 21:45:28

I have reinstalled grub legacy and the problem disappeared. So it is highly likely that grub2 is the culprit. This adds to my list of grub2 problems, the other alarming problem is that it doesn't show my windows entry, even though it is correctly entered in grub2.cfg (using 40_custom).

It is rather strange that no-one reported this terminal problem before...

Last edited by Revelation60 (2010-04-08 21:45:55)

mizogs · 2010-04-12 17:49:39

I had this problem. Various kernel parementers of VGA=793 loaded into grub2 at boot would reveal a login when Ctrl+Alt+F1....F6 were pressed but the display was hard to read and went off the visible sceen. I removed kdm from rc.conf - no effect. Changed to init level 3 in inittab and comented out kdm's respawn line and this worked. Installed slim as a login manager and changed inittab back to run level 5 and uncomented slim's respawn line and everything is working as it should be. I don't understand why but this may help someone with a simlar problem.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-07 13:31:54

Terminals (1-9) gone

#2 2010-04-07 16:31:15

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#3 2010-04-07 16:59:16

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#4 2010-04-07 17:30:00

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#5 2010-04-07 19:58:45

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#6 2010-04-07 22:29:41

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#7 2010-04-08 07:21:08

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#8 2010-04-08 19:02:21

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#9 2010-04-08 21:07:14

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#10 2010-04-08 21:45:28

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

#11 2010-04-12 17:49:39

Re: Terminals (1-9) gone

Board footer