Install Blank Screen

[barryg]

Hi. After getting excited about the Nvidia support i got hold of the Fedora 11 Beta this morning. When booting up i see the auto boot in 10 seconds message then i get a blank screen. After a pause of some 15 seconds the DVD drive spins up and the install begins. I hear the pre-desktop music but still i have a blank screen and there lies the problem.

I have an Nvidia 9800 GTX+ which works flawlessly with other distro's, but this beta doesn't seem to like my system. Any help please.

Regards

[AdamW]

is this the live CD or the installer?

try adding 'vesa' as a kernel parameter - at the 'boot in 10 seconds' screen hit any key, then hit tab to edit the boot options, and just add the word 'vesa' (no quotes) then carry on the install.

let us know what happens with that.

[barryg]

I'm using the live version. I tried adding vesa and got the same results - blank display.

Regards

[EDIT] forgot to add (if it helps), the version shows 10.92 at the loading bars

[AdamW]

if you get a black screen before X would ever kick in, that's...hmm...not entirely sure what that would be, actually. um. perhaps if you add 'vga=normal nomodeset' to the kernel parameters it may help? (although mode setting shouldn't be enabled by default in any case...)

[barryg]

No joy at all. This is very strange. Perhaps i'll wait for the final release and try again.

Thanks for the reply

Regards

[Azrael_II]

I am have the same trouble here. Tried those suggestions with no luck. I have an nvidia 9800 gx2. Any pointers much appreciated.

[mcmackin]

Right after starting atd, I get a blank screen with a solid cursor in the upper left corner. If I add a vga=0x318, it just hangs at that spot. I also have selinux=0. This is blowing my mind...

[barryg]

My card is 0x0612 so i tried that and got an 'undefined video number' error, it then asked me to press enter to 'scan' for available modes. the modes reported were from 80x25 to 1600x1200x32. My monitor is a 22" lcd with a default display of 1650x1050 so i'm thinking perhaps thats the problem whereby the OS is trying to set to that high display but is not suporting it natively.

I selected 31b from the vesa list it provided and rebooted. I entered vesa=31b and continued to watch the screen change resolution to 1280x1024x32 and see a blue screen the loading bars on the base of the display and the Fedora logo. Once the loading bars got to the right-hand side, the screen blanked and an 'out of range' error shows on the screen.

I'm now guessing Fedora changed the refresh rate during install.

Regards

[barryg]

Hmmm, after writing 'Fedora changed the refresh rate during install'. i rebooted, entered vga=31b refresh=60 and it loaded all the way upto desktop. The resolution is at 1650x1050x32 and all looking good. I thought i'd post this as soon as i got to desktop.

Regards

[barryg]

Last update.

I installed the liveCD version and now have no way to get at the boot options to change the video mode or refresh rate, as it doesn't pause for user input at all and it boots up with a blank screen. Thing is also i cannot see myself keep breaking into the boot option (somehow) to type in commands to use it. I'm guessing the DVD version will be the same.

Perhaps some kind person could do the bugzilla thing (if it is a bug).

Regards

[cheesie]

I have also a NVIDIA card. With every kernel update I have to boot into runlevel init 1 and then init 3, login, change to root and then run the downloaded NVIDA driver installer (sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run)
and then I can boot and log-in. It's a little bit complicated,but at least it works for me.

[barryg]

Your determination is admirable :p

Regards

[AdamW]

cheesie: there's a much easier way to use the proprietary driver; it's packaged in a commonly used third party repository, and if you use that version, it will be kept up to date without you having to keep re-running the installer.

barryg, there's clearly two bugs here, but unfortunately they can't get fixed unless you provide some information.

Here's an idea: can you just add the single number '3' as a boot parameter? That should boot up in text mode and let you log in to a console. Then you can try 'startx', which should try and start X (and probably fail). Then you can reboot again with the '3' and take a copy of /var/log/Xorg.0.log to put in a bug report. Thanks!

[barryg]

10 steps

1. Fresh Install
2. Enter as a boot parameter - 'Vga=31b refresh=60'
3. Got to desktop - Installed Fedora from desktop. (Assuming after 10 minutes of no activity, install has finished as there is no visual indication.
4. Reboot
5. No Grub menu by default, have to reboot and keep pressing 'ESC' to get Grub displayed.
6. Enter '3'.
7. System hangs, have to reboot
8. As #2
9. Can only login as Guest.
10. No authorisation to access /Var folder/

Sorry i can't be of any real help.

Regards

[barryg]

Ok i have managed (after substancial amounts of coffee) to get this os installed. I still cannot boot up normally, rather i have to do the break into grub and enter vga=31b refresh=60 thing.

I can now access the log file and see that the 9 series nvidia is not supported :confused:

(II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
RIVA TNT (NV04)
RIVA TNT2 (NV05)
GeForce 256 (NV10)
GeForce 2 (NV11, NV15)
GeForce 4MX (NV17, NV18)
GeForce 3 (NV20)
GeForce 4Ti (NV25, NV28)
GeForce FX (NV3x)
GeForce 6 (NV4x)
GeForce 7 (G7x)
GeForce 8 (G8x)

I must have mis-read the blurb when it said the 9 series was supported. Perhaps this is my problem.

I'll copy the log file anyway.

Regards

[AdamW]

the 9 series is actually supported, that text just hasn't been updated (I'll mention it to Ben).

So the issue now is basically that if you boot without "vga=31b refresh=60", you get no display at any point - during boot or after it? If so, can you file a bug? Thanks.

[YeOK]

The 10.92 beta also fails to load for me on my 9800GT. I have not tried to fix the issue simply because I've been too busy and Fedora 10 is working perfectly.

I'm 99.99% sure its a video driver issue and will try to get the beta booted as soon as I get time, thanks for the suggestions.

[barryg]

I've no idea how to submit the xorg.0.log file i have. Perhaps if i attach it here it may help :confused:

Regards

[cheesie]

cheesie: there's a much easier way to use the proprietary driver; it's packaged in a commonly used third party repository, and if you use that version, it will be kept up to date without you having to keep re-running the installer.


Thanks.
Having re-runned the NVIDIA installer today for two kernel updates, Im getting a little bored, even if it works. I only use the Feodra - Rawhide - Development package for the next Fedora release.
What's the name of this repository: RPM Fusion for Fedora 10.92 Non Free?

I wouldn't like to mix up different repositories.