[SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

naequs · 2010-11-30 20:33:13

hi everyone,

i own a 15" packard bell easy note tj75 with a mobility radeon HD 5470 graphics card running arch 64.

after the last update of the ati driver i"m not able to go back to the terminal by killing X or opening another terminal.
however, everything is fine upon boot (i boot to console and startx manually).
i had this problem under both 32 and 64 bit and havent found a solution using google but since arch 64 is my main OS now, this really bugs me.

TIA

/EDIT: The suggestion from post #6 fixed it for me !

Last edited by naequs (2010-12-11 12:20:17)

naequs · 2010-12-02 20:04:39

bumping threads may not be considered good mannered but, seriously, i need help on this :z

.:B:. · 2010-12-02 20:35:56

You can bump your own thread without a problem 24h after the last post, so don't worry .

I think your best bet is to SSH into your box and check the logs remotely. Only that way you might find a clue about what's going wrong.

naequs · 2010-12-02 22:45:17

never used ssh before... linux user for like 5 month, still learning.
wiki tomorrow, good night for now.

ps: am i the only one to experience this ? its the second or third time a xf86-video-ati update causes that same problem, but usually the next update fixed it again

mhertz · 2010-12-03 08:19:04

Yes, there's some small issues with the ati foss driver for various evergreen models(5xxx), and has been reported here by me and 2-3 others.

I can though change to VTs if having KMS enabled(default; overridden with nomodeset kernel boot parameter).

To workaround the not being able to quit Xorg(neither quit, reboot, shutdown or ctr-alt-backspace from X in my case), then I go to VT1 and press ctrl+c(allthough if you cannot change VTs even with KMS enabled, then that won't work...)

A fellow forum member with the same issue posted a way to overcome this by installing latest dev. ati foss driver and mesa:

stefano.facchini wrote:

No it's not unrelated! After reading your post I just tried to reboot from X, and had the same problem! If you are interested this issue disappeared as I installed xf86-video-ati 6.13.99 and the last version of Mesa from Xorg site (see http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonBuildHowTo). Now I can shutdown and quit X without problems.
After the upgrade I can also suspend my laptop (formerly I got a strange ATOMBIOS error).
Bye!

Source: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=108303

Last edited by mhertz (2010-12-03 08:23:38)

milomouse · 2010-12-11 00:08:00

I had recently purchased a new laptop with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 and had the same screen blanking problem. I could view and switch consoles before starting X and while X was started, but as soon as I exited X the screen would blank and I couldn't view or do anything. It was not nice. This was all while using "xf86-video-ati" from the Extra repo (with regular libdrm, glproto, ati-dri, mesa, etc).

I was able to fix my problem by installing "xf86-video-ati-git" from the AUR (also with it's dependencies [e.g. ati-dri-git, dri2proto-git, glproto-git libdrm-git, mesa-git]). I can now startx (without an xorg.conf) and exit X without the screen blanking afterwards. Maybe this will help you as well. You can install these from the AUR (usually with an AUR Helper) Hope this helps.

naequs · 2010-12-11 12:21:02

thanks milo, that did the trick!
but to be honest; i havent tried any of the other suggestions.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-11-30 20:33:13

[SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

#2 2010-12-02 20:04:39

Re: [SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

#3 2010-12-02 20:35:56

Re: [SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

#4 2010-12-02 22:45:17

Re: [SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

#5 2010-12-03 08:19:04

Re: [SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

#6 2010-12-11 00:08:00

Re: [SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

#7 2010-12-11 12:21:02

Re: [SOLVED] xf86-video-ati update; black screen when RETURNING to prompt

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