Unreadable console after closing X

[Salix]

This is what I see after X closure. ("Exit to prompt", "shutdown",etc.) Is there a way to repair it?

[Salix]

The best (and only) advice I got comes from IRC.

Code: Select all

09:50
	genera	i assume, Xvesa is ending and giving control back to VESA/BIOS
	genera	and the latte simply doesnt re-initialize the gpu
	genera	i would try Olive and Freesbie

But I'd like to solve it in Puppy if possible. Any other tips for debugging, testing, solving?

[trapster]

I have to ask the obvious...did you try Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (to exit to prompt) then try poweroff?

[WhoDo]

But I'd like to solve it in Puppy if possible. Any other tips for debugging, testing, solving?

Delete /etc/X11/xorg.conf and do a cold reboot. You will be sent to the xorgwizard like the first boot. Then choose a different resolution or try Xvesa. There seems to be a basic incompatibility between your chosen video mode, however detected, and what the display can actually "manage" - meaning returning control to simple vga for the console. Deleting xorg.conf let's you start with a clean slate. Xvesa often works when Xorg is picky. It's worth a try.

Hope that helps.

[Salix]

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

...did you try Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (to exit to prompt) then try poweroff?

From the JWM menu I chose "exit to prompt" then I got that screen. Then I type xwin (although I can't see what I write) and then the GUI comes back smoothly.

If I choose "power off" from the menu then I get a similarly unreadable screen.

Frankly said it's not obvious for me how does it help but I hope it gives you an idea what's going on...

Delete /etc/X11/xorg.conf and do a cold reboot. [...] Then choose a different resolution or try Xvesa. [...] Xvesa often works when Xorg is picky.

The problem shown there is in case of Xvesa 800x600x16. I got the same with Xvesa 640x480x16. If I choose Xorg it gets even worse. In this case the console is a full black screen with nothing on it. Practically I can't see anything. (In an other topic I was struggling to change back from Xorg to Xvesa because it can't be done from the GUI and the console is unusable.)

Is there any way to make sure what is the problem and/or how to handle it?

[alienjeff]

What version of Puppy?

[Salix]

Version Puppy Linux 3.01

[Bruce B]

The default TUI mode is white fg on black bg. But the default white is not bright white. I'd call it light gray.

Does your kernel line have vga=normal in it?

Do you see text display when booting?

When X is running you can pull up a tty with left-alt+left-ctrl+f2, what happens, can you see text?

You can return to X with left-alt+left-ctrl+f3

When in TUI mode, can you see what you type on the command line?

[Salix]

I do not know if my kernel line have vga=normal in it.

At booting I can see everything clearly.

Alt-Ctrl-F2 gives me a similar screen than in the picture.

I can not return to the X screen. I see black blank screen.

In general if I see the ugly screen as above I can see some changes in case I type something. A few pixel/character is changing its color. I know that something is happening. (And I can also return from "exit to prompt" by typing "xwin".)

[Pizzasgood]

I do not know if my kernel line have vga=normal in it.

Checking it depends on how you're booting Puppy. If from a CD, it will be in the isolinux.cfg file on the CD, on the "append" line rather than the "kernel" line.

If booting from the harddive using Grub (standard for Frugal and Full harddrive installs) it will be on the relevant kernel line of the menu.lst file. This is located in the "grub/" directory. Usually it's somewhere like this:
/mnt/hda1/boot/grub/menu.lst
or maybe
/mnt/home/boot/grub/menu.lst
or possibly
/initrd/mnt/dev_ro2/boot/grub/menu.lst

If you're booting from USB, it's in the syslinux.conf file on the USB drive.


Usually, having no vga=xxxx entry at all will default to vga=normal, but making it explicit never hurts. If you instead have vga=785 or some other number, chances are that's your problem.

To add that entry you open the relevant file and add it to the line that says something like "initrd=/boot/initrd.gz pmedia=idehd". That line is often called the "kernel" line because in grub it starts with the path to the kernel.

If you're using a live-cd, you can't change that file without editing the iso and reburning it (Puppy has Isomaster for iso editing). But that situation should only happen if you're using a derivative of Puppy, because the standard ISO doesn't use the framebuffer.

[Salix]

Does your kernel line have vga=normal in it?

I confirm that at booting I see a vga=normal flying by.

[Pizzasgood]

Try running clear though I doubt it will help.

Also, try this:
Xorg -configure
note the capital X. Running that causes the screen to get blanked during the probing, so maybe that will reset things. It won't change any of your settings, but it will create the file /root/xorg.conf.new, which you can go ahead and delete.

Another idea: Since not using the framebuffer doesn't help, try using it instead. If booting from LiveCD, when it pauses at the beginning, type this and press enter:
puppy vga=785
(If not using LiveCD but want to try this, see my previous post. Additionally, with Grub you could instead press the 'e' key over the Puppy option after turning on the computer, then press it again over the kernel line, which lets you make a temporary edit (will be lost next boot). After finished typing, press enter to return to that second screen, then 'b' to boot)

Then after exiting from X, run this command:
modprobe fbcon
That loads the driver that lets the console use the framebuffer. If this works, you can make the framebuffer permanent and also add that command to /etc/rc.d/rc.local to load the module each boot.

[Salix]

Thanks for the suggestions but the problem is not solved.

I exited to prompt and typed Xorg -configure. The screen turned from the blueish, yellowish thing (see above) into full black. After rebooting I found the xorg.config.new file. Is there any line that I should pay special attention to?

I booted from LiveCD with puppy vga=785 but the screen turned immediately black. I had the same result with the GRUB 'e' startup where I changed the vga=normal to 785.

I also tried modprobe fbcon but it gives fatal error. It doesn't seem to find this module. Is it possible?

[Pizzasgood]

I booted from LiveCD with puppy vga=785 but the screen turned immediately black.

That's normal, it's because you haven't run modprobe fbcon yet. Running that should replace the text. But, I forgot that Puppy doesn't include that module by default anymore. I was shooting in the dark anyways.

After rebooting I found the xorg.config.new file. Is there any line that I should pay special attention to?

No, just delete it. The idea was to run that command so that Xorg might reset the screen. That's not a good solution though, because even if it worked you'd have to run that every time you exit X.

I'm out of ideas.

[alienjeff]

Salix: Give serious consideration to trying a mid-2.xx series version of Puppy.

[muggins]

Hi Salix,

What version of Puppy?

I think AJ is suggesting your display problems could be resolved if you tried a different pupversion.

Edit: AJ you must have got in only seconds before my post! But I agree with your diagnosis. From my reading of the forum, 2.17, 2.16, 2.15CE & pakt/dougal's 2.14R are all solid candidates. I'm currently using 2.16.