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Hello,
I am having a problem with a what I'll call a "delayed" black screen on a bare arch install. Briefly, my machine is a sony VPCCW17FX, with an nvidia 210m graphics card.
The problem is this: I start the machine, select the arch option from GRUB, boot, and it loads fine. I'm brought to a login tty, where I login either with a user account I created with a chroot on my base system (ubuntu), or login as root. Regardless of whether I login however, about 5-10 seconds later (or sometimes more), the screen goes black/blank.
I am still able to run commands though (if I'm logged in of course). I know that I can at least: (1) logout, if I'm logged in as a regular user, (2) login as root/user, (3) shutdown the machine with "shutdown -h now". (all of course with a black/blank screen).
First let me preface that I have had issues with this graphics card on other linux installations, but only when attempting to install the nvidia proprietary drivers. This is/was a known problem for quite some time. An believe an example of this is here, if you are curious: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/archive … 2-p-4.html
What is peculiar in this case is that the arch install (of which there are two, but more about that in a second) is completely basic, with only emacs installed and possibly some other additional command line only utilities/programs (via chroot) --- X is not installed, so I'm not sure why it would be the above nvidia card problem, since that only seemed to occur when nvidia's own drivers were installed.
As I mentioned, there are two different arch installs. One is on the main hard drive, in /newarch/ and another is on a partition of a second hard drive currently occupying the physical space where my dvd player used to be ;)
Both of them boot, login fine, and run commands normally (in the short 10 second or so space), and then promptly hit a black screen.
I am unsure how to proceed any further, and thus any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Lastly, while I consider myself somewhat proficient at linux and CLIs, I'm more or less self-taught, and so deficient in some areas. Thus, if you require any log files or anything of that kind for troubleshooting, I would appreciate the command that would generate the desired log/piece of information (or where to find it).
Thanks,
~msb
Last edited by msb (2011-08-31 04:57:20)
msb :: [ ~ ]
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How did you install with a blank screen? Does the same thing happen if you boot from the install iso?
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Using the information from this guide, I was able to setup the two systems. As I mentioned, I am able to chroot into the system and manipulate it safely from there: use pacman to download emacs, etc., setup a user account, etc.
But when I actually boot into the system from a machine reboot, and then select from GRUB, I get the delayed blank screen. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "booting from the install iso". I assume you mean booting from a dvd/cd with an archlinux disc instead of booting from the regular hard drive.
Actually, that is a pretty good idea for an independent test, and never occurred to me. As I mentioned I ripped out my dvd player on this machine and put in a hard drive in its place. Let me track down an external dvd and I'll report back to you.
Thanks for the tip,
~msb
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[Update] I took apart the laptop, cleaned off the fan, etc., and the arch systems seem to be booting and running fine (no more delayed black screens), which looks like the culprit was indeed an overheating machine. Hopefully it stays that way. Although it is odd that a basic arch install (CLI only) would run hotter than ubuntu...
So I booted from an external dvd, using the iso image for x86_64 machines, and here were the results:
Choosing the first option to boot/install archlinux black screens after a few seconds, depending on how long I waited at the menu
Sitting at the menu, from anywhere from 5-20 seconds will eventually end in a black screen
I am still able to reboot the machine, with a black screen, from the menu
In one case, when holding my laptop up to an AC unit, a black screen did not occur while on the menu (I waited perhaps a minute or so); however, when I chose the first option again, it promptly black screened after 2-3 seconds
It is possible that my laptop is overheating, and this is causing the black screen for some inexplicable reason, but I was not able to reproduce the last case again, using the AC unit as a secondary cooler. Moreover, I'm not sure why archlinux would cause the system to run hot on the other installed systems and the iso, given that they are CLI only, whereas ubuntu is running fine.
I'm not sure about the inner details, but is it possible the base archlinux system is running the 210m graphics card with a nouveau driver (which I know from the past generates a lot of heat)? I would think not, but again, I'm not sure. Perhaps there is a boot option that limits CPU activity, or a "low-power, low-performance" boot mode so as to prevent the CPU/motherboard heating up? Just thinking out loud though...
I am considering taking apart my machine and cleaning the fan, but again, I suspect this is not the problem --- nevertheless, it would be good to eliminate that possibility in any event. However, I'll probably hold off on that option for a bit, since I need to backup files, etc., and I'll also be offline for a while as a result.
So, I'm still stumped.
Last edited by msb (2011-08-31 04:56:56)
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