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Black screen - wassup?

Hi,

Ok, those that know, know that I got F12 running. There is a snag. It runs on a Compaq P50, but not on an HP75. What I get is the boot splash (animated), a cursor left-top and the screen being turned off (light blinks) when the X is supposed to come on. I tried to login (blind) and that seems to work.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Thor

Quote:

Well, no.

So, what is the QUESTION, details: desktop manager and some useful information to help us help you?

Hi,

Thanks for a reply. The snag is that my system (HP/Compaq) DOES show X on a P50 but not on an HP75 (D8900)

The specs of the card:

Quote:

/sbin/lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

The xorg.conf I used

Quote:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d"
FontPath "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dri"
Load "dri2"
Load "glx"
Load "extmod"
Load "record"
Load "dbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "HP"
ModelName "D8900"
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 50-160
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>]
#Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>]
#Option "ColorKey" # <i>
#Option "CacheLines" # <i>
#Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>]
#Option "DRI" # [<bool>]
#Option "NoDDC" # [<bool>]
#Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>]
#Option "XvMCSurfaces" # <i>
#Option "PageFlip" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "82865G Integrated Graphics Controller"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection

and the log didn't seem to give any errors...see the attachment if you need to...

When I use the system on the HP75, I get the boot splash, then a black screen, though the system seems to be up and running (HD is active), but the light blinks, as if it did a power-save on the monitor...

Any in-sight would help, really

Thanks

Thor

We need the specs for the two boxes. The video chipsets may be different. I had a similar experience with my Debian box when the video card died. It defaulted back to the onboard video and would not run X system. I could just get cli prompts.

Not sure what is going on here.
No errors in your X.log, but a couple of warnings.

Quote:

The xorg.conf I used:

You should not need to use an xorg.conf Modern Xorg versions configure everything pretty much automatically and you may find you do not even have an xorg.conf in a perfectly working system.

Is this the xorg.conf your F12 installation gave you, or did you make it yourself?

Ehrm...it is one box, the one box works with a Compaq P50 monitor, but not on an HP75 monitor...

Right now, it works bare-bones (no xorg.conf) on the P50 (15" - the size of a stamp, basically), I tried to get it to work on the HP75 (17" - bit bigger stamp) but both with and without xorg.conf failed on that one...

Thor

Hi,

Well, as I noticed that the system did not work with the 17", I made one using the info on this page

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO.../x-config.html

And, yes, it didn't have an xorg.conf as it came "out of the box", as you pointed out. I was under the very same impression that X nowadays didn't even need one. So I hoped to give the system a (very gentle) nudge with an xorg.conf...

Thor

And...Lumberjack76, it's one box, does work on a Compaq P50 (15", basically a stamp) but not on the 17" (bit bigger stamp)...

Messy, and spooky... :D but, tnx 4 the input...

Thor

Hi,

Me again...I regenerated a new xorg.conf (since having no xiorg.conf does'nt work anyway) and tested it with

X -config xorg.conf.new

I got a black screen, but at least, the monitor kept being lit...

As I dropped back to the prompt (ctrl-alt-backspace) it complained that fbcon could'not be found, it is there, but not in the path...µ

newbie question: where do I set/append the path (script) for runlevel 5?

I thing I have to append the path with the path to this fbcon...

Tnx

Thor

Quote:

I thing I have to append the path with the path to this fbcon...

Code:

PATH=$PATH:/path/to/add

export PATH

But fbcon is a module, not an executable the $PATH is meaningless in this context.

If you need fbcon, insert it (you need to be root) like this:

Code:

modprobe fbcon

Does the monitor work on another PC? Maybe one running a different OS?

Hi,

Yes, the monitor works, it is my main monitor. I still have F10, I installed F12 on another PC with another screen (the P50) in the hope to have it fully tweaked and installed before putting it in service - on the main (HP75) monitor...

Luckily I'm still up-and-running on the F10!

So, modprobe. Ok, I'll have to "freeze" that in a start up script, because using it in a console means that it will "disappear at reboot

Let me try it in a console...

I'll be back with an answer.

Thor

and...it says

FATAL module not found

I did an updatedb and then a locate, what I founs was a wakeup for the monitor, perhaps, because fbcon cannot be found, the monitor does not "wake up"...

So, looking for that module...

Thor
(they said Linux is an adventure, well, they were right :D )
Oh and, yes, I tried a yum install fbcon, but that came up empty...

Code:

locate fbcon

Returns ?

/sys/class/graphics/fbcon
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/cursor_blink
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/power
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/rotate
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/rotate_all
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/subsystem
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/uevent
/sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fbcon/power/wakeup

Hmm...

I tried something, using this for an xorg.conf:

Quote:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

I do get X to run, of course, it's only vesa...

Thor

OK, your problem is that the Intel driver (from Intel, released to open-source) does not properly read the ECID information for 22" screens in HP systems. (For what it's worth, my HP system dual-boots Vista/Fedora, and both systems come up "black-screen" if the newer Intel drivers are used. The out-of-the-box Intel driver worked with Vista, so I disabled the MS automatic driver update.) The problem is compounded by the Fedora decision to install the video driver during the initial RAM disk process. (You can disable that by running mkinitrd with only the standard options.) But, until you do that, you'll see no output before the X-server processes xorg.conf. (The Fedora default uses the X-server default, which uses the improperly parsed ECID information.)

Anyhow, if you don't need to see the start-up messages, you can get the X-server to display properly with a modified xorg.conf file. The modification I use is this one (where the changes I needed to make are in red):

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"

        Identifier    "Default Layout"

        Screen      0  "LCD" 0 0

        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection



Section "Files"



EndSection



Section "ServerFlags"

        Option            "AIGLX" "on"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"



# keyboard added by rhpxl

        Identifier  "Keyboard0"

        Driver      "kbd"

        Option            "XkbModel" "pc105+inet"

        Option            "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

        Identifier  "Sceptre"

        VendorName  "Plug 'n' Play"

        ModelName    "Plug 'n' Play"

        Gamma        0.65

        ModeLine    "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -hsync -vsync

        ModeLine    "640x480@72" 31.5 640 664 704 832 480 489 491 520 -hsync -vsync

        ModeLine    "640x480@75" 31.5 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -hsync -vsync

        ModeLine    "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "800x600@72" 50.0 800 856 976 1040 600 637 643 666 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "800x600@75" 49.5 800 816 896 1056 600 601 604 625 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "832x624@75" 57.3 832 864 928 1152 624 625 628 667 -hsync -vsync

        ModeLine    "1024x768@75" 78.8 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1024x768@70" 75.0 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync

        ModeLine    "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync

        ModeLine    "1152x864@75" 108.0 1152 1216 1344 1600 864 865 868 900 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1280x1024@75" 135.0 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1280x960@75" 129.9 1280 1368 1504 1728 960 961 964 1002 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1400x1050@60" 122.6 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1400x1050@75" 155.8 1400 1496 1648 1896 1050 1051 1054 1096 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1600x1200@65" 175.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1600x1200@60" 162.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1600x1200@75" 202.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1600x1200@70" 189.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1680x1050@60" 146.2 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1792x1344@60" 204.8 1792 1920 2120 2448 1344 1345 1348 1394 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1856x1392@60" 218.3 1856 1952 2176 2528 1392 1393 1396 1439 -hsync +vsync

        ModeLine    "1920x1440@60" 234.0 1920 2048 2256 2600 1440 1441 1444 1500 -hsync +vsync

EndSection



Section "Device"

        Identifier  "945G"

        Driver      "intel"

        BoardName  "intel"

        BusID      "PCI:0:2:0"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

        Identifier "LCD"

        Device    "945G"

        Monitor    "Sceptre"

        DefaultDepth    24

        SubSection "Display"

                Virtual  1920 1440

                Depth    24

                Modes    "1680x1050@60" "1280x1024@60" "1600x1200@60" "1600x1200@75" "1600x1200@65" "1600x1200@70" "1400x1050@75" "1792x1344@60" "1400x1050@60" "1856x1392@60" "1280x960@75" "1920x1440@60" "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@60" "1280x1024@75" "1152x864@75" "1024x768@60" "1024x768@70" "1024x768@75" "832x624@75" "800x600@60" "800x600@75" "800x600@72" "800x600@56" "640x480@75" "640x480@72" "640x480@60"

        EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Extensions"

        Option            "Composite" "Enable"

EndSection

I used the command Xorg -configure (in my home directory, while running in vesa mode) to get the modeline settings.

Code:

tred@pc:~$ locate fbcon

/lib/modules/2.6.24-16-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-18-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-21-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-22-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-23-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-24-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-25-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.24-26-generic/kernel/drivers/video/console/fbcon.ko

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon.c

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon.h

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon_ccw.c

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon_cw.c

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon_rotate.c

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon_rotate.h

/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.24/linux-source-2.6.24/drivers/video/console/fbcon_ud.c

tred@pc:~$

So your FC12 kernel seems to have been compiled without this module.

You could re-enable this module in your kernel config, and recompile the kernel. But I think there is there is something wrong with your choice of distro's installation process.

Quote:

OK, your problem is that the Intel driver (from Intel, released to open-source) does not properly read the ECID information for 22" screens in HP systems.

He has a 17" monitor.

Do you mean "EDID" information" ?

It seems to be read correctly ( from the OP's post of the log at post #3 )

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar (Post 3826667)

He has a 17" monitor.

OK, my wife's is a 22" one, but, hey, if it fails one one HP system, maybe it's the HP BIOS, not the monitor.

Quote:

Do you mean "EDID" information" ?

I suppose so. I have a slight dyslexia problem. Sorry. :redface:

Quote:

It seems to be read correctly ( from the OP's post of the log at post #3 )

Not from what I saw. My wife's system required the Modline specifications before it would work.

Ok,

So I tried (desperate as I am) to do a re-install, thin time with the FINAL monitor - the anaconda didn't even go graphical, just...a black screen.

I am somehow running out of inspiration, here.

Let me have a look at your suggestions and see if there's an answer.

Thanks for not letting a newbie alone in the dark...

Thor

Hi,

I've solved it !!! Using a kernel-recompile...

- picked up a new kernel source
- unzipped it in a folder
- did "make menuconfig"
- saved the config
- did "make"
- did "make_modules"
- did "make install_modules" (after login as root & navigating to the folder)
- did "make install"
- checked the grub and removed the "hidemenu", also gave it 5 seconds timeout
- booted the system & removed the xorg.conf
- did a startx

The system is up and running, it boots a weeeee bit slower and completely silent (black screen @ boot) - I may have to get used to that :-) - the splash is animated, the login works. Now to set the thing in init 5 - in the inittab..but this I know.

Thanks for the pointers! Everything pointed to "the spot marked with X" - forgive the pun...but I am exhalted...

Thanks!

Thor

sources (in case someone else runs into that one...)
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubunt...out-on-ubuntu/
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/compil...kernel-26.html