Arch Linux

lucasjung

Member

Registered: 2011-08-23

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] Screen goes blank during boot

I'm building an HTPC using Arch Linux as the OS, with XMBC on top.  I've been using various flavors of Linux since the late '90s, but this is my first time using Arch Linux, and my first time using a computer connected to a TV via HDMI.  I assembled the computer over the weekend and installed Arch from a CD last night.  After completing the installation process I got the wifi working (no ethernet in the livingroom).  During this whole process I was using my TV as a monitor, connected by HDMI, and experienced no problems.  After I got wifi working I ran a full system update and then installed a bunch of packages (Xorg, xfce, intel video drivers, alsa, wicd; I'll post a full list of packages below).  The download/installation process took quite a while, and by the time it was done I was tired and decided to go to bed.  I didn't do any configuration work on any of the new packages, didn't set up X to launch on boot, nothing, just shut it down and went to bed.  This evening I fired up the computer to pick up where I left off, but towards the end of the boot process something happens to the HDMI signal and my TV goes blank.  I tried a couple of different HDMI cables and the same thing always happens.  The TV acts like it's getting an input signal, it just shows a blank screen.  During the entire install and setup process this never happened, so I'm guessing that something broke when I installed all of those packages.  I know the computer is working other than HDMI video out, because I can log in blind and issue shutdown commands successfully.  The last line I can see before the screen goes blank is:

Waiting for UDev uevents to be processed

I might not have copied that down exactly right because it's only visible for about half a second before the screen goes black.

Any ideas on what the cause might be, and how I can fix it?

I have another monitor, but I only have a VGA cable for it and the new HTPC doesn't have VGA out.  The monitor takes DVI input, but I don't have a DVI cable.  I ordered one from Amazon and it should be here in a couple of days, so until then I won't be able to edit any config files or add/remove any packages.

Hardware:
Motherboard: Intel DH67GD
CPU: Intel Core i3-2100T
I'm using the on-chip video with the motherboard's integrated HDMI out.

Complete list of packages I installed before the computer stopped working right (a bunch of dependencies got pulled along with these, but I didn't make note of them):
System update ("pacman -Syu")
xorg-server
xorg-init
xorg-twm
xorg-xclock
xterm
xorg-utils
xorg-server-utils
xf86-video-intel
xfce4
xfce4-goodies
gstreamer0.10-plugins
dbus
gamin
wicd
xfce4-notifyd
alsa-utils
alsa-oss
alsa-plugins
keepassx

On a completely unrelated note, the security question for these forums is probably filtering out a whole lot of real people.  I was only able to execute the hash because my laptop is also running Linux.  If I were a complete noob with no other Linux box in the house, I never would have been able to answer the security question.

Last edited by lucasjung (2011-08-26 04:01:46)

lucasjung

Member

Registered: 2011-08-23

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes blank during boot

The DVI cable still hasn't arrived from Amazon, so this evening I ran an experiment to try to figure out better where the problem is occurring.

I re-installed from scratch.  Then I rebooted a few times to make sure there were no problems.  Then I ran pacman -Syu, then rebooted.  The problem occurred again, so I now know that something breaks when I update the packages.

Also, I noticed that right about the same time that the screen goes blank, the indicator lights on the keyboard I'm using (a basic 101-key USB keyboard) turn off and on.  Also, I think that it's happening just as the next line of boot scroll appears: Load Modules.  That also makes sense when you consider the keyboard behavior.

So, I now know that something breaks when I update the whole system, and I'm pretty confident that the problem happens while the kernel is loading modules.  Any ideas on how I can fix it?

doorknob60

Member

Registered: 2008-09-29

Posts: 404

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes blank during boot

From https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … Setting.29

Blank screen during boot, when "Loading modules"

If you're using "late start" kms and the screen goes blank when "Loading modules", it may help to add i915 and intel_agp to the initramfs. See KMS above.

Alternatively, appending the following to the kernel command line seems to work as well:

video=SVIDEO-1:d

Certainly worth a shot

Also, maybe disabling KMS will allow you to boot all the way and still see what's happening, but that's only a temporary solution until you fix it since you need KMS enabled to run X.

Last edited by doorknob60 (2011-08-25 18:55:39)

lucasjung

Member

Registered: 2011-08-23

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes blank during boot

Thank you very much for the link!

I first tried just editing menu.lst to disable S-video, but that didn't work.  Then I tried explicitly enabling HDMI out by adding video=HDMI-1:D to the kernel line, but that didn't work, either.

The DVI cable showed up today, so I tried the other monitor, but that didn't work, even when I tried adding video=DVI-1:D to the kernel line in menu.lst.

Next I tried enabling early KMS per the instructions on that same wiki page.  All that did was make the screen go blank even earlier during the boot process!

Finally, I found this line at the end of the KMS section, just above ""See also:"

[b]Note:[/b] Downgrade to kernel 2.6.31.6-1 or disable modesetting with kernel boot parameter if you get a blank screen during boot process with Intel GMA 950

So, I added i915.modeset=0 to the kernel line of my menu.lst and now I can boot without losing video!  Unfortunately, as you pointed out, I'm now going to have issues running X.  At least I know what the problem is: when I ran the system update, it upgraded the kernel and the new kernel broke my video output.  If I can't find a work-around that lets me run X, I suppose I'll have to downgrade the kernel until they come out with a new version that fixes this problem.  At least it appears to be a known bug, since that line is there in the wiki.

OrangeMediumGreen

Member

Registered: 2008-11-17

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes blank during boot

I have a similar problem with my Latitude D420 (Intel GMA 950).
My solution: After boot (hdd not busy anymore) I just log in (without seeing anything) and run startx.
Somehow the xserver fixes the issue and everything runs fine.

I take it for a security feature now...

OrangeMediumGreen

Member

Registered: 2008-11-17

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes blank during boot

I have a similar problem with my Latitude D420 (Intel GMA 950).
My solution: After boot (hdd not busy anymore) I just log in (without seeing anything) and run startx.
Somehow the xserver fixes the issue and everything runs fine.

I take it for a security feature now...

I finally solved the problem. It was a classic example of "RTFM". After a short study of https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … Setting.29 I just did
>> To proceed, add the i915 module to the MODULES line in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:
>> MODULES="i915"
and the following steps et voila, it works.