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[Solved] Framebuffer disable

Posted: 07 Nov 2011, 14:01
by xtavras
Hi,

is it possible to turn off the framebuffer during "only text-mode" boot? otherwise there is only the black screen, standard options, like "vga=normal" or "nofb" don't help.

Thx,
Stan

Re: Framebuffer disable

Posted: 07 Nov 2011, 14:20
by fanthom
Welcome on board xtavras,

framebuffer is disabled by default in text mode. when you look at /boot/porteus.cfg you will see that only KDE. LXDE and copy2ram has 'vga=796' cheatcode which initializes VESA framebuffer (it's destroyed by KMS later in the boot process by KMS capable drivers).

what's your GPU model?
please provide log file generated by 'psinfo' uploaded to pastebin.com website.

Cheers

Re: Framebuffer disable

Posted: 08 Nov 2011, 08:12
by xtavras
Hi fanthom,

thx for your help.

its not a standard hardware and namely lspci says: "VGA: XGI Technology Inc. (eXtreme Graphics Innovation) Z11/Z11M". SystemrescueCD can handle it, but I don't like it and would like to use Porteus instead :)

btw, the blackscreen comes immediately after the "triggering udev events" message.

Re: Framebuffer disable

Posted: 08 Nov 2011, 11:05
by fanthom
btw, the blackscreen comes immediately after the "triggering udev events" message.
xgifb is still in the "staging" area of the kernel so may be unstable on some hardware .

please try Porteus-1.1 rc1 which has 3.1 kernel (you can find it in "Development" subsection of the forum).
if you still get black screen in rc1 then try to blacklist xgifb module an check if that gonna work.

Code: Select all

echo "blacklist xgifb" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-xgifb.conf
if you dont save changes then create this file in /portues/rootcopy folder.

btw: is Porteus-1.0 working fine once it's getting into GUI? do you have 2D/3D acceleration, etc..?


Cheers

Re: Framebuffer disable

Posted: 08 Nov 2011, 11:58
by xtavras
Thanks a lot fanthom!

the xgifb blacklisting has helped me, it works now.

Solution for all:
$ mkdir -p /path/to/your/usb-flash/porteus/rootcopy/etc/modprobe.d
$ echo "blacklist xgifb" > /path/to/your/usb-flash/porteus/rootcopy/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-xgifb.conf

Re: [Solved] Framebuffer disable

Posted: 08 Nov 2011, 16:20
by fanthom
glad that it's sorted,

once you blacklisted xgifb - which driver is used in GUI?
please upload /var/log/Xorg.0.log to pastebin.com and link it here.
(it will also tell me if you have 2D/3D acceleration)

i'm trying to find out if we should remove this driver from next release so blacklisting wont be necessary.

Cheers

Re: [Solved] Framebuffer disable

Posted: 09 Nov 2011, 07:53
by xtavras
Hi,

no, X will not start, here is the Xlog

http://pastebin.com/i9nFgpLv

Re: [Solved] Framebuffer disable

Posted: 09 Nov 2011, 09:19
by fanthom
seems that XGI driver is problematic/broken:

Code: Select all

LoadModule: Module xgi does not have a xgiModuleData data object
confirmed in this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... rg-837500/

do you care about GUI at all? (in initial post you were interested in text mode boot).
did you get into GUI before blacklisting xgifb?
does VESA mode work on your PC?

i have recompiled xgi and xgixp on porteus, please try them:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/psjaek95n ... 6-2ftm.xzm
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ncj405l5h ... 6-1ftm.xzm

in case of fail, please upload Xorg.0.log once again.

btw: can you start X session in SystemrescueCD without problems? does it use vesa or xgi driver?
Cheers