Have tried relentlessly to try to get 2.6.9's framebuffer support to work from 2.6.8-8

Upon upgrading (custom kernel) from 2.6.8-7 to 2.6.8-8 everything works well.

Upon upgrading to 2.6.9-1 (debian), choosing anything other than "vga=normal" in /etc/lilo.conf renders the screen blank!

Upon upgrading to 2.6.9-2 (debian), the screen draws a blank regardless of vga="whatever"

I have heard of problems while googling around of screwy support in 2.6.9, but can anyone point me in the right direction...I have used pretty much the [B]same kernel configuration for my production OS RAVEN since 2.6.2.[B] The others are for kernel development and trying new features. Oh yes, 2.6.9 framebuffer support fails there also.

Also forgot, i do use the debianlogo patch.

I may try to install the straight kernel-image for i386 and see what happens if it exists.

Will I be stuck in 2.6.8 forever?!
What should I do?

Thanks in advance!

Graphics section kernel stuff:

# Graphics support
#
CONFIG_FB=y
# CONFIG_FB_CIRRUS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_PM2 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_CYBER2000 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ASILIANT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_IMSTT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_FB_HGA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RIVA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_I810 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON_OLD is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY128 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY is not set
# CONFIG_FB_SIS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_NEOMAGIC is not set
# CONFIG_FB_KYRO is not set
# CONFIG_FB_3DFX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_TRIDENT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set

# Console display driver support
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE is not set
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_FONTS is not set
CONFIG_FONT_8x8=y
CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y

# Logo configuration
#
CONFIG_LOGO=y
# CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_MONO is not set
# CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_VGA16 is not set
# CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224 is not set
CONFIG_LOGO_LINUX_DEBIAN=y

Inspiron 8200 w/M50 A12 BIOS, SXGA+ LCD: 1400X1050

1) apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.9-1-686 Works! (No Bootlogo Which Screws with My BootIcons)
able to chose video modes including 791 & 794

2) insmod returns these modules that "I believe" are relevant to framebuffer device:
fbcon 40416 71
font 8128 1 fbcon
vesafb 6656 1
cfbcopyarea 3936 1 vesafb
cfbimgblt 2880 1 vesafb
cfbfillrect 3584 1 vesafb

3) dmesg returns these results, again, I believe" are relevant to framebuffer:
Freeing unused kernel memory: 152k freed
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe0000000, mapped to 0xd8880000, size 3072k
vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=1
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:f120
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48

OK, Here Goes!

4) apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.9 (2.6.9-2), ...
5) make menuconfig
6) loaded /boot/config-2.6.9-1-686
7) saved .config
8) make-kpkg kernel-image --initrd
9) dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.9_10.00.Custom_i386.deb
10) reboot
11) chose the new kernel (2.6.9) during grub w/791 & 794, also 0X317 (equivalent to 791)
12) Boom! Blank Screen
13) I reboot, choosing vga=normal. Voila.
14) dmesg reports nothing I can see that relates to a framebuffer device
15) I then reboot, choosing vga=791 in new kernel
16) login to blank screen as root and created this text file of dmesg's output: <Note: I manage my own devices, no hotplug...>

RAVEN:~# cat k.txt
Linux version 2.6.9 (root@RAVEN) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-2)) #1 Sat Nov 20 22:06:40 UTC 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 0000000017fe2800 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 0000000017fe2800 - 0000000018000000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000feda0000 - 00000000fee00000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
383MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 98274
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 94178 pages, LIFO batch:16
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 DELL ) @ 0x000fde50
ACPI: RSDT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d30510 ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x000fde64
ACPI: FADT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d30510 ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x000fde90
ACPI: DSDT (v001 INT430 SYSFexxx 0x00001001 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x808
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda5 ro vga=791
No local APIC present or hardware disabled
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 11, 32768 bytes)
Detected 1694.761 MHz processor.
Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Memory: 381600k/393096k available (1654k kernel code, 10840k reserved, 723k data, 152kinit, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay loop... 3350.52 BogoMIPS (lpj=1675264)
Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux: Disabled at boot.
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 3febf9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 3febf9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: After all inits, caps: 3febf9ff 00000000 00000000 00000080
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU0: Intel P4/Xeon Extended MCE MSRs (12) available
CPU0: Thermal monitoring enabled
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Mobile CPU 1.70GHz stepping 04
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
ACPI: IRQ9 SCI: Edge set to Level Trigger.
checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (ungzip failed); looks like an initrd
Freeing initrd memory: 4568k freed
NET: Registered protocol family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfbfee, last bus=3
PCI: Using configuration type 1
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040816
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.1
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 9 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 5 7) *11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 9 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 5 7 9 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGP_._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCIE._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCIE.MPCI._PRT]
ACPI: Power Resource [PADA] (on)
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
PnPBIOS: Scanning system for PnP BIOS support...
PnPBIOS: Found PnP BIOS installation structure at 0xc00fe2d0
PnPBIOS: PnP BIOS version 1.0, entry 0xf0000:0xe2f4, dseg 0x40
PnPBIOS: 15 nodes reported by PnP BIOS; 15 recorded by driver
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 7
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.6[B] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:01.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:01.1[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:01.2[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:03:05.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:03:07.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:03:08.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x800-0x85f could not be reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x860-0x87f has been reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x880-0x8bf has been reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x8c0-0x8ff has been reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x3f0-0x3f1 has been reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x900-0x90f has been reserved
pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x910-0x91f has been reserved
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x0
Initializing Cryptographic API
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 48 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS3 at I/O 0x2e8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.6[B] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 8192K size 1024 blocksize
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
NET: Registered protocol family 8
NET: Registered protocol family 20
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S4bios S5)
ACPI wakeup devices:
LID PBTN PCI0 UAR1 USB0 USB1 USB2 MODM PCIE MPCI
RAMDISK: cramfs filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 4568KiB [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (cramfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 152k freed
NET: Registered protocol family 1
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ICH3M: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ICH3M: chipset revision 2
ICH3M: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xbfa0-0xbfa7, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xbfa8-0xbfaf, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: HITACHI_DK23EB-40, ATA DISK drive
hdb: MATSHITADVD-RAM UJ-811, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Using anticipatory io scheduler
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 78140160 sectors (40007 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
hda: cache flushes supported
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 < p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 >
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: HITACHI_DK23EA-30, ATA DISK drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hdc: max request size: 128KiB
hdc: 58605120 sectors (30005 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=58140/16/63, UDMA(100)
hdc: cache flushes supported
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target0/lun0: p1 p2
CMD646: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:03:05.0
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:03:05.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
CMD646: chipset revision 7
CMD646: chipset revision 0x07, UltraDMA Capable
CMD646: 100% native mode on irq 11
ide2: BM-DMA at 0xfcc0-0xfcc7, BIOS settings: hdeio, hdfio
ide3: BM-DMA at 0xfcc8-0xfccf, BIOS settings: hdgio, hdhio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
ide3: Wait for ready failed before probe !
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
ide3: Wait for ready failed before probe !
Probing IDE interface ide4...
ide4: Wait for ready failed before probe !
Probing IDE interface ide5...
ide5: Wait for ready failed before probe !
ReiserFS: hda5: warning: sh-2021: reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on hda5
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Adding 393552k swap on /dev/hda9. Priority:-1 extents:1
EXT3 FS on hda5, internal journal
device-mapper: 4.1.0-ioctl (2003-12-10) initialised: dm@uk.sistina.com
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (3071 buckets, 24568 max) - 332 bytes per conntrack
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <tigran@veritas.com>
microcode: CPU0 updated from revision 0x9 to 0x20, date = 06052003
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver v1.14 unregistered
ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery absent)
ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT1] (battery present)
ACPI: AC Adapter [AC] (on-line)
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports C1 C2, 8 throttling states)
ACPI: Lid Switch [LID]
ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PBTN]
ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SBTN]
ACPI: Thermal Zone [THM] (60 C)
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49489 usecs
intel8x0: clocking to 48000
parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7, dma 1 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,COMPAT,ECP,DMA]
parport0: irq 7 in use, resorting to polled operation
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
SCSI subsystem initialized
Linux Kernel Card Services
options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:01.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:01.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:02:01.0 [1028:00d5]
Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:02:01.0, mfunc 0x05033002, devctl 0x64
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0438, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000006
PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:01.1 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:01.1[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:02:01.1 [1028:00d5]
Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:02:01.1, mfunc 0x05033002, devctl 0x64
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0438, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000010
cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x300-0x307 0x3c0-0x3df 0x4d0-0x4d7
cs: IO port probe 0x0800-0x08ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0c00-0x0cff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
cs: memory probe 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff: clean.
Probing IDE interface ide4...
hdi: TOSHIBA THNCF128MBA, CFA DISK drive
ide4 at 0x100-0x107,0x10e on irq 3
hdi: max request size: 128KiB
hdi: 250368 sectors (128 MB) w/2KiB Cache, CHS=978/8/32
hdi: cache flushes not supported
/dev/ide/host4/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
ide-cs: hdi: Vcc = 3.3, Vpp = 0.0
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
apm: overridden by ACPI.

<Other errors or messages are because of custom kernel config that clashes with my setup [like static instead of modules] and many that I don't need like apm>: no problem on these issues


If I download the 2.6.9-2 (only variable is that it is 2nd iteration of kernel unlike image which is in its first iteration), then why with exact same config (see above) am I getting a blank screen?

Please, Please Help!
At this point I am drawing a blank. I will try in a moment or two a pristine kernel source without patches (my acpi/initrd, debian logo, or keyboard patch "to get multimedia keys working whose functionality disappeared with 2.6). Oh yes, I DID NOT patch any of the above!

Please, Please Help! So many viewers, but no responses! Does this constitute a bug report?

Additionally, my kernel config, I believe, has been ruled out as the cause of fault--its been great from 2.6.2, .3, .4, .6, .7, & .8 with a hiccup here or there.


Thanx in advance. Bug report?

Just to make sure that there was not a kernel upgrade for 2.6.9, updated and upgraded but i was up to date with SID.

However, Success ! w/ Pristine Kernel (2.6.9) from kernel.org including patches for acpi/initrd (thanks gaugusch.at author and Eric Piel), debian logo, and atkb.c (keyboard patch from a gentooer, forgot name, sry).

I believe that 2.6.9-2 needs further work.

Incidentally, does the release candidates for the next stable kernel release from kernel.org influence in any way the versioned releases of the unstable source tree of debian?

Will keep updating, upgrading, & compiling to see if the framebuffer support is fixed or acknowledged with each release.

Thanx. Please respond.

Think I just graduated from to (amateur).

Checked Bug Reports and found nearly identical situation.

Hope it gets fixed, here it is if wanted to be viewed:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=279648

Again Pristine Kernel-source-2.6.9 from kernel.org with my few patches worked.

However, after an update and upgrade, compile ... same ole, same ole...blank screen.

Would try to compile vesa support as a module and use --initrd switch when using make-kpkg kernel-image ....

Think that would work as the vesa support bug lists the problem as something to do with the linking the module ....

still totally screwy however monolithic ... but oh well, will keep posted ... hope 2.6.9.X doesn't make it into stable without that fixed!!!!