Ubuntu – How to get the blacked out ttys back

11.04grub2nvidiattyvirtual-console

Original Question:

After I replaced my Ubuntu 10.10 with 11.04 all I get when I Ctrl+Alt+F1–F6 into a tty is a black screen. Also when I boot there's a while of black screen after grub2 menu is displayed. Then until just before gnome starts it stays black.

I have an Nvida Geforce Quadro FX 770M on my HP EliteBook 8530w. How do I get my ttys (aka 'virtual terminals') to work again?

My efforts in chronological order:

So grub and gfx-payload seems to be the problem, I figured. I went along with this guide for higher tty resolution. Which led to the grub2 menu displaying in my native resolution rather than 800×600. The black screen problem remains.
I googlehit some bugreports on other nvidia cards having that problem.
I tried uninstalling the nvidia driver. No effect. Also tried different resolutions
With an older version of the kernel it works. Though not perfectly. The ttys are usable, black screen between grub2 menu and gnome start remains. Not really a solution.
Tried so much, that I lost track. Reinstalled grub2 and linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic. Then did this to my /etc/default/grub in accordance with the aforementioned guide (/etc/grub.d/00_header edited as well):
```
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=3
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050x32
```
To my surprise I can now use my ttys in native resolution. Black screen between grub2 menu and gnome login screen is still there though. That is annoying since I also use an encrypted disk thus having to enter my passphrase in total dark… Still looking for a solution but urgency is low.
Downloaded and installed a later version of nvidia driver. No difference to last edit.
Tried GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="vga="-parameter. No effect.
nomodeset has no effect. not even in combination with vga=...
Tried echo FRAMEBUFFER=y > /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash no effect (see comment)
On the verge of resignation…
Bounty period soon to end.

Best Answer

I experienced the same problem as you when I replaced Ubuntu 10.10 by a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04 (and later on, Ubuntu 11.10): my "console" tty's were desperately blanks but actually working -- i.e. I could log in and enter commands that actually work, but there was nothing visible on my screen.

I spent a huge number of hours on Google and various Ubuntu forums, I tried plenty of suggestions and I finally came to the following conclusion: the problem is linked to the proprietary NVIDIA driver -- if I remove the proprietary NVIDIA driver and use the "nouveau" driver, the problem disappears but then of course I can't benefit from the hardware acceleration any more.

I managed to fix the problem on my system (ZOTAC ZBOX with on-board NVIDIA GT218) by using the Uvesafb framebuffer driver.

Here is the procedure I used:

apt-get install v86d
apt-get install hwinfo
hwinfo --framebuffer

From hwinfo's output, I picked up the "best" resolution compatible with my screen -- in my case 1280x800 24-bit -- and I added the following line at the end of /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file:

uvesafb mode_option=1280x800-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

(The string "1280x800-24" comes from the resolution I chose -- your mileage may vary.)

Then I rebuilt grub and initramfs images as follows:

update-initramfs -u
update-grub

Finally I rebooted the system and my console tty's were finally visible again.

I don't use encrypted filesystem, so I cannot check whether or not the passphrase is to be entered "in the dark", but anyway I hope the above workaround will help you.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – No splash screen after Nvidia propietary drivers

Also remove \$vt_handoff on line 70 in /etc/grub.d/10_linux and things should be working again. If you're using the script it needs to be updated to work with the recent changes in this file.

Ubuntu – Can’t view output in tty. (Ctrl+alt+f1 to f6 don’t work, and display a black screen).

OK, I found a fix for myself, and I am leaving it here in case other people with the same problem find this. First run sudo apt-get install v86d Then run cat /sys/bus/platform/drivers/uvesafb/uvesafb.0/vbe_modes, and remember the highest of the modes it outputs. (If this doesn't output anything you may need to restart your computer after installing v86d, I can't quite remember). Then run gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub, and make the grub_cmdline_linux_default look like this: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1024x768-32,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap", also check if this file contains the GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=something or other line. If it does, then remove it. But replace 1024x768-32 with the highest listed resolution from the second step. Then run gksudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules, and add this to the bottom: uvesafb mode_option=1024x768-32 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap Once again replacing 1024x768-32 with the mode you found. Then run gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/10_linux, and find the part which looks like this:

function gfxmode {
    set gfxpayload="${1}"
    if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then
        set vt_handoff=7
    else
        set vt_handoff=
    fi
}

and make it look like this:

function gfxmode {
    set gfxpayload="${1}"
    if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then
        set vt_handoff=
    else
        set vt_handoff=
    fi
}

Then run sudo update-grub; sudo update-initramfs -u. Reboot and the problem will be fixed :)