Ctrl-Alt-F1 = Black,blank screen?
I was looking at another help topic and I saw that someone mentioned that pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 will bring up some kind of console window. I tried that out but I got a strange result.
Right when I press it the screen turns off for about a second, and then it comes back on, although it is just solid black. I cannot do anything in this state, theres no prompt or text or anything, just solid black. If I press Ctrl-Alt-F7 again it flashes off a second like before and brings me back to the desktop and everything is fine. (I'm running Mandrake 10.1, Kernel 2.6.14.2 with an ATI x800 graphics card) Any Ideas? I can supply any relevant console outputs or file contents if it will help, just let me know. |
You probably don't have a getty process running on tty1 (the first console). Check your /etc/inittab to see if getty is started on that console in runlevel 5.
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Ok Im not real familiar with getty, heres whats in my /etc/inittab
Code:
# |
One of my systems had issues with Ctrl-Alt-F1 terminal. F2-F6 worked just fine, now out of habit I use them only. It appeared to be some sort of system use thing. Sometimes it would display a boot log, sometimes not.
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F2-F6 also do nothing for me. They all just take me to a blank screen. F7 still brings me back to desktop though.
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having the same problem, any luck fixing it
Hi, i've got the same problem as you described and was wondering if you've had any success fixing it and if so, what you did.
thanks James |
From the /etc/inittab file posted, it looks like mingetty should be running on each terminal. Can you verify (using ps) that the mingetty processes are actually running?
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hi. i managed to fix the problem on my computer by updating xorg-x11 (i'm using fedora core 4 so i used yum to update it). hope that helps.
James |
The problem you are experiencing is most likely due to:
(1) the kernel framebuffer video driver. Do you have bootsplash, usplash, splashy, etc for a graphical boot process? If so, you may need to disable it. Look in /boot/grub/menu.lst (if using grub) and look for vga=XXX where XXX is a number, change it to vga=normal or delete vga altogether. If vga isn't listed, look for "silent" or "verbose" and delete that to avoid using graphics during boot up. (2) the video driver that xorg is using. In particular Nvidia drivers often cause that. The only way I have found to completely get rid of the blank screen problem is to not use the Nvidia drivers, but that means my TV-out functionality is gone :mad: I just load the nvidia driver when I want to watch a movie and use "nv" the rest of the time. |
Quote:
Code:
# defoptions=quiet splash Code:
# defoptions="" (N.B. simply '# defoptions=' didn't work, it was replaced by the old one.) Thank you, now it's working! |
@loxodonta - Thanks for that tip. I am using Ubuntu 6.1 in a Virtual PC and was having the same issues with blank terminals (ctrl + alt + Fn). I used your suggestion about editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and then changing "# defoptions=quiet splash" to "# defoptions=""" and it worked great for me!!
Since I'm new at linux, could you tell me what I actually did? |
Fixed!: Ctrl-Alt-F1 (or Ctrl Alt F2-F6) for 10.2 Ubuntu
As pointed out in a previous post, this can be as a result of 1)boot splash screen messing up the framebuffer OR 2) nvidia/ati driver issues.
Luckily in my case it turned out to be (1). However editing grub turned out to be more an ordeal than I imagined. Interestingly there are significant methodology changes in grub2 (which Ubuntu 9.04+ uses by default) vs grub. The easy way to figure out which grub version you have is to check for existence of the menu.lst file in /boot/grub No menu.lst implies grub2, which will then require more work (not too much though). If you have menu.lst you are using grub v1.x and you can easily remove the vga line or turn it to vga=normal For grub2 users, the following steps are required: 1. Edit the /etc/default/grub file and change the vga value to vga=normal 2. run sudo update-grub - this will generate/re-gen your grun.cfg file 3. Check the grub.cfg file (under /boot/grub) to ensure that the vga setting is set to nromal You may need to edit the grub.cfg again to the right value if it ends up appending noslpash to it. This means that you will need to edit it after every kernel launch. But that is okay, now you atleast know how to fix it. This link may help too http://norootsquash.wordpress.com/20...r-ubuntu-10-2/ |
Many thanks for posting this. I'm using Debian Sid and I've struggled with it on my Thinkad Z61M for ages. Working fine now
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Need help sap..
Hello All,
I have seen the issue you guys were discussing below. I just bought dell Inspiron laptop i3 processor, 500GB hard drive and 4 GB ram. I have installed vmware on my lappy and then Linux RHEL6. with ctrl+alt+F1, my computer hangs and do weiered things. As per your discussion in below frum, I checked the file: /etc/grub.conf/menu.list and I cant see any entry with vga or silent or verbose. However I can see one entry which is splash image=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz Do I need to change here? If yes what do I need enter here? I cant see my new lappy getting hung because of this . Please help asap.. |
Ctrl-Alt-F1 gives black screen on Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot with grub2
I used the advice of pr0to0s above to solve my problem, but it was a bit more involved
so I wanted to add to the pool of good advice on this relatively common problem. There is general agreement on the net that 1) The problem may be that mingetty or getty are not configured properly in inittab. 2) The problem is most likely a video problem that can often be solved by changing the grub configuration. 3) Nvidia drivers are implicated. I have a shiny new system with a hot nvidia card and I did not want to go disable the drivers (solution 3). My experience is it was not necessary ... and I would say in general that it should not be necessary. Fundamentally, grub is trying to use video modes that don't work. The solution is not to fix the video modes, but rather to make grub behave in a more basic fashion (it's a ruddy boot loader ... let's not go overboard with the graphics!). OK here's what worked and did not work for me. 1) I first discovered that Ubuntu does not use /etc/inittab ... so workaround suggesting modifications thereof are unhelpful. 2) (1) is not a problem if it turns out that getty is running. I did a top and saw that getty was running. 3) To be really sure getty was running, I typed ctrl-alt-f1 and assumed that I was at a login screen even though screen was blank. I logged in as root (on Ubuntu I always enable root) and typed reboot. It worked. That meant that I did have a functioning terminal, I just could not see it! 4) I tried to modify /etc/default/grub looking to delete "quiet splash" as has been suggested several places. There is nothing like that in the file. There was nothing to change. I made no changes. 5) I modified /boot/grub/grub.cfg as follows: Code:
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-15-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { I only made the change to one of my boot entries, on the theory that if I messed up I could boot with some other entry. I got the nomodeset idea by looking at some of my recovery entries. I figured that the recovery stuff would be the most stripped down. It seemed to have worked. I know have Oneiric Ocelot running with standard nvidia graphics and Ctrl-Alt-F1 -- Ctrl-Alt-F6 all open terminals as they should. AFTERNOTE: As noted by impert below, changes to grub.cfg are volatile and will be wiped next time update-grub is run (as happens when you upgrade your kernel). I could not figure out how to modify /etc/default/grub to accomplish this task, but using imperts advice I figured it out and note it two posts further on. |
Quote:
For it to work permanently, you should modify /etc/default/grub. You can edit the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" , deleting the words quiet splash. Also change or insert the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX . . . to read GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=nomodeset or whatever option(s) you want Then run update-grub. This will give an aesthetically pleasing scroll of boot processes. At least that's the way it used to be. I gave up on Grub2 and use "legacy" Grub, which is much simpler and more convenient, in my opinion. |
More permanent solution to the Ctrl-Alt-F1 to Ctrl-Alt-F6 blank screen problem
I tested impert's suggestions in detail and arrived at the following fix.
In interest of readability I repeat myself. My five points are as follows: 1) I first discovered that Ubuntu does not use /etc/inittab ... so workaround suggesting modifications thereof are unhelpful. 2) Lack of inittab is not a problem if it turns out that getty is running. Do a top and check that getty or mingetty is running. 3) To be really sure getty is running, do ctrl-alt-f1 and assume you are at a login screen even though screen appears blank. Log in as root (on Ubuntu I always enable root) and type reboot. For me it worked. That confirmed that I did have a functioning terminal -- but it was invisible. 4) Modify /etc/default/grub looking to delete "quiet splash" as has been suggested several places and make the following specific changes: Code:
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" <-- Commented this line out It is entirely possible that even more minor changes to /etc/default/grub will work ... but I only tested this far. |
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