Black blank screen at bootup

Corrado · 09-24-2020, 06:51 PM

When I boot my redhat 7 server, it ends with a terminal that is black with only a flashing cursor in the upper left corner.

I am only able to get a login prompt by switching to any of the tty[1-6] terminals using keys ctrl + F[1-6].

The server is set to multi-user.target so I am not expecting the X server to start on bootup.

What should I be looking at to figure out how I can get the default terminal to always have a login prompt after booting up?

Thanks!

sgosnell · 09-24-2020, 07:17 PM

It would seem that it is trying to load an X server desktop and failing.

Corrado · 09-24-2020, 07:54 PM

With the target set to runlevel3 (multi-user.target) I would not expect the any X server to start.

sgosnell · 09-24-2020, 09:41 PM

Whether or not you expect it, that is the usual symptom of a failed attempt to load a desktop environment. I don't know of any other causes of it, although I admit there is much that I don't know.

Corrado · 09-26-2020, 02:01 AM

From tty2 am able to login and start the x server with startx.

In the message log I see that the tty1.service is being started on bootup. But there are no errors so it isn't explaining the blank screen.

business_kid · 09-26-2020, 01:37 PM

Have you checked /etc/innitab?

michaelk · 09-26-2020, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Have you checked /etc/innitab?

inittab is no longer used.

Have you made any changes to the system lately? Updates? Changed any configuration files? Installed any programs etc?

Have you looked at output of dmesg and well as the boot.log.

Have you tried just pressing the enter key or ctrl-c?

Corrado · 09-26-2020, 05:26 PM

I am able to recover from the blank screen by toggling to tty2 and then toggling back to tty1, using Ctrl + Alt + Fkey The login prompt now appears as it should be. I don't have any insight into the scripts and various packages that were used for the install. Haven't made any changes to the system as this problem happens right afer install and I can't change the install process.

business_kid · 09-27-2020, 08:18 AM

If you're getting to tty1 by using Ctrl_Alt_FX, you're actually in an X session, so your X video drivers are suspect.

OTOH, if you're getting from terminal to terminal with Alt_FX, you're getting around in runlevel 3 ttys.

Have a look in Xorg.0.log - I don't know where systemd hides it, because I still use sysvinit. So everything stays where it should be

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