Screen goes blank with ubuntu and geforce 8800 GTS.
I have system I just put together with a PCI-Express Geforce 8800 GTS running ubuntu 7.04. During installation of Ubuntu everything showed up fine on screen. After installation, I ran into the problem that right after grub starts loading linux, the screen goes blank (monitor light turns from green to amber) and stays that way right up until X loads, at which point I get video. This hasn't been a problem so far, but I just installed some updates and it seems like now X isn't loading or I'm getting some sort of message before X loads, because it turns on and just stays blank the whole time. It seems like it would be easy if I just put a different video card into the system, but I don't even have another PCI express video card. I also don't have any PCI video cards anymore. All I have are AGP cards and the system doesn't have an AGP slot. So, it looks like taking the hard drive out and moving it to another system is the only option. Any thoughts on why the screen is doing that would be appreciated. The monitor doesn't seem to be getting no signal, because normally it brings up a message saying no signal rather than just blanking. It seems more like it's gone into a power saving mode. I've tried it with other monitors and had the same results. -- Kieran O'Callaghan
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Kieran O'Callaghan wrote:
I have system I just put together with a PCI-Express Geforce 8800 GTS running ubuntu 7.04. During installation of Ubuntu everything showed up fine on screen. After installation, I ran into the problem that right after grub starts loading linux, the screen goes blank (monitor light turns from green to amber) and stays that way right up until X loads, at which point I get video. This hasn't been a problem so far, but I just installed some updates and it seems like now X isn't loading or I'm getting some sort of message before X loads, because it turns on and just stays blank the whole time. It seems like it would be easy if I just put a different video card into the system, but I don't even have another PCI express video card. I also don't have any PCI video cards anymore. All I have are AGP cards and the system doesn't have an AGP slot. So, it looks like taking the hard drive out and moving it to another system is the only option. Any thoughts on why the screen is doing that would be appreciated. The monitor doesn't seem to be getting no signal, because normally it brings up a message saying no signal rather than just blanking. It seems more like it's gone into a power saving mode. I've tried it with other monitors and had the same results.
Have you tried booting a Knoppix CD/DVD to see if the result is the same? If your video is OK when booted with Knoppix, you could mount your hard drive and fix it that way. I'd look at /boot/grub/menu.lst and comment out any gfxmenu commands for starters, since you mentioned that it goes out to lunch around that time. Later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org) Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393) Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGcx+dHl0iXDssISsRAiU7AJ47ZSW0RShrwCtbHarcUAHBJRsxegCfWk0A 65V8qnR5ltqtls/FIoeBdfE= =1DR7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hi, It sounds like something funny is going on with the boot splash program. If this was happening to me I would turn it of and do some debugging. You can do this right from grub. When the menu appears hit 'e' (less the quotes of course) to edit. Then move the cursor down once to the kernel line. Hit 'e' again and remove the words 'splash' and 'quiet' from the line. Then hit <enter>, and lastly 'b' to boot. This is a one time change for this boot. You can make these changes permanent by editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst. Read the directions inside the comments and modify it appropriately. Do not edit the lines directly. If you do they will get overwritten by an update. Once you have edited the file appropriately run the 'update-grub' command and reboot. There is a possibility that you are out of range too. I believe that there is a configuration file in /etc/usplash. You should be able to change the splash screens resolution there. The last bit of advice I can give is to make sure your Nvidia drivers are up to date (the stock Ubuntu one's "should" work... I haven't had to download from NVidia in a while). And then you can reconfigure your xserver by running 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg'. Make sure you select 'nvidia' and the appropriate screen resolutions. Sometimes I find that NOT specifying the sync ranges of the monitor helps (especially in laptops). Hopefully you can get some logs using the advice above. The output from dmesg and /var/log/Xorg.0.log would also be helpful. Cheers, Mike <quote who="Kieran O'Callaghan">
I have system I just put together with a PCI-Express Geforce 8800 GTS running ubuntu 7.04. During installation of Ubuntu everything showed up fine on screen. After installation, I ran into the problem that right after grub starts loading linux, the screen goes blank (monitor light turns from green to amber) and stays that way right up until X loads, at which point I get video. This hasn't been a problem so far, but I just installed some updates and it seems like now X isn't loading or I'm getting some sort of message before X loads, because it turns on and just stays blank the whole time. It seems like it would be easy if I just put a different video card into the system, but I don't even have another PCI express video card. I also don't have any PCI video cards anymore. All I have are AGP cards and the system doesn't have an AGP slot. So, it looks like taking the hard drive out and moving it to another system is the only option. Any thoughts on why the screen is doing that would be appreciated. The monitor doesn't seem to be getting no signal, because normally it brings up a message saying no signal rather than just blanking. It seems more like it's gone into a power saving mode. I've tried it with other monitors and had the same results.
-- Kieran O'Callaghan _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security --Ben Franklin
Also, never underestimate the power of telnetting into the box that's messing up and solving the problem from that console :) On 6/16/07, Mike <mwp@sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
Hi, It sounds like something funny is going on with the boot splash program. If this was happening to me I would turn it of and do some debugging.
You can do this right from grub. When the menu appears hit 'e' (less the quotes of course) to edit. Then move the cursor down once to the kernel line. Hit 'e' again and remove the words 'splash' and 'quiet' from the line. Then hit <enter>, and lastly 'b' to boot.
This is a one time change for this boot. You can make these changes permanent by editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst. Read the directions inside the comments and modify it appropriately. Do not edit the lines directly. If you do they will get overwritten by an update. Once you have edited the file appropriately run the 'update-grub' command and reboot.
There is a possibility that you are out of range too. I believe that there is a configuration file in /etc/usplash. You should be able to change the splash screens resolution there.
The last bit of advice I can give is to make sure your Nvidia drivers are up to date (the stock Ubuntu one's "should" work... I haven't had to download from NVidia in a while). And then you can reconfigure your xserver by running 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg'. Make sure you select 'nvidia' and the appropriate screen resolutions. Sometimes I find that NOT specifying the sync ranges of the monitor helps (especially in laptops).
Hopefully you can get some logs using the advice above. The output from dmesg and /var/log/Xorg.0.log would also be helpful.
Cheers, Mike
<quote who="Kieran O'Callaghan">
I have system I just put together with a PCI-Express Geforce 8800 GTS running ubuntu 7.04. During installation of Ubuntu everything showed up fine on screen. After installation, I ran into the problem that right after grub starts loading linux, the screen goes blank (monitor light turns from green to amber) and stays that way right up until X loads, at which point I get video. This hasn't been a problem so far, but I just installed some updates and it seems like now X isn't loading or I'm getting some sort of message before X loads, because it turns on and just stays blank the whole time. It seems like it would be easy if I just put a different video card into the system, but I don't even have another PCI express video card. I also don't have any PCI video cards anymore. All I have are AGP cards and the system doesn't have an AGP slot. So, it looks like taking the hard drive out and moving it to another system is the only option. Any thoughts on why the screen is doing that would be appreciated. The monitor doesn't seem to be getting no signal, because normally it brings up a message saying no signal rather than just blanking. It seems more like it's gone into a power saving mode. I've tried it with other monitors and had the same results.
-- Kieran O'Callaghan _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security --Ben Franklin
_______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
-- Lee Keyser-Allen (lkeyser@alum.wpi.edu)
participants (5)
-
Andy Stewart -
Eric Stein -
Kieran O'Callaghan -
Lee Keyser-Allen -
Mike