Arch Linux

thaldyron

Member

Registered: 2009-10-16

Posts: 9

[Solved] blank screen on HP 8440p

I've tried to install archlinux on my HP elitebook 8440p.
When I use the cdrom as the package source, installation goes smoothly (apart from a bug in dhcpcd that forces me to bring up eth0 manually.)
Since I needed to make some adjustments to the partition table later on, I reinstalled arch, this time using the online package source. On the next bootup, the screen suddenly stops working when it reaches "starting udev...": I essentially get a blank screen, but I can still restart the machine via ctrl+alt+del. So now I've reinstalled it again, using the cd as source. I'm somewhat reluctant to upgrade by doing "pacman -Syu", as there seems to be some issue in either the new kernel or a new version of udev.

Any hints what I could try nail down the problem (preferable without having to reinstall again)?

Edit: Well, I've finally discovered a specific kernel option for grub that lets it boot without problems...

Last edited by thaldyron (2010-11-17 18:05:00)

thaldyron

Member

Registered: 2009-10-16

Posts: 9

Re: [Solved] blank screen on HP 8440p

This time I've upgraded just the kernel package from 2.6.33 to the current one (2.6.35) and I get the same problem - flashing screen on startup.

After chrooting into the system, I've installed the 2.6.36 kernel from [testing], but no luck, screen starts flashing when udev starts.

PS: the graphic card is an NVIDIA NVS 3100M (512MB).

Last edited by thaldyron (2010-11-13 18:32:59)

Sigi

Member

From: Thurgau, Switzerland

Registered: 2005-09-22

Posts: 1,131

Re: [Solved] blank screen on HP 8440p

Edit: Well, I've finally discovered a specific kernel option for grub that lets it boot without problems...

Just got a HP EB 8440p myself yesterday and I'm having the same issue when using my old arch live usb stick (which I intended to use to install Arch). Could you please tell me which kernel parameter you're using to avoid the black screen?

Best regards
Chris

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Haven't been here in a while. Still rocking Arch.