No Virtual Terminals with nvidia proprietary drivers

sgage · #1 14th April 2012, 05:50 PM

When I press ctl-alt-Fn I get a black screen instead of a login for a virtual terminal. The monitor says "no signal" after a few seconds. A restart is necessary at this point - ctl-alt-sysrq-b usually works.

Anyone else seeing this? Is there a known fix or workaround?

nonamedotc · #2 15th April 2012, 12:42 AM

It seems to work fine for me. No issues. Did you try different Fn keys??

sgage · #3 15th April 2012, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nonamedotc

It seems to work fine for me. No issues. Did you try different Fn keys??

Yes, I've tried them all. Luckily, I can get back to the X session with ctl-alt-F1, so I don't have to reboot.

I wonder if it's the proprietary nvidia drivers... what graphics are you using?

[edit: I notice that there are new nvidia drivers this morning. Let's see if they help matters...]

---------- Post added at 09:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 AM ----------

Turns out that the problem is with the proprietary nvidia drivers. I reverted to nouveau, and no more problem.

The nvidia drivers were updated this morning, but didn't solve the problem.

Oh well!

JEO · #4 15th April 2012, 03:41 PM

This could affect the virtual terminals problem with nvidia. Do you have a line in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg like:

set gfxpayload=1024x768x32

I put it right before the insmod lines.

pindakoe · #5 15th April 2012, 04:22 PM

Intel Graphics here (i5-2500), similar issue: Ctrl-F1 & F2 -- switch to black. Ctrl-F3: go to X; Ctrl F4-6 start virtual terminal. 7 and beyond nothing (blackness). Is this specific to fedora (or F16) -- my experience is with Mandriva where 1-6 was virtual and 7 and beyond for X (normally only VT7; VT8 and beyond for switch user).

sgage · #6 15th April 2012, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pindakoe

Intel Graphics here (i5-2500), similar issue: Ctrl-F1 & F2 -- switch to black. Ctrl-F3: go to X; Ctrl F4-6 start virtual terminal. 7 and beyond nothing (blackness). Is this specific to fedora (or F16) -- my experience is with Mandriva where 1-6 was virtual and 7 and beyond for X (normally only VT7; VT8 and beyond for switch user).

Actually, in F16 1 is X and 2-7 are virtual.

---------- Post added at 12:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:43 AM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by JEO

This could affect the virtual terminals problem with nvidia. Do you have a line in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg like:

set gfxpayload=1024x768x32

I put it right before the insmod lines.

Tried it - no joy. Interestingly, I can get a VT if I try right after logon. A couple of minutes later and it doesn't work any more. Strange...

sgage · #7 12th May 2012, 05:42 PM

This is a long-standing problem. With the nouveau drivers, VT's work fine. With the nvidia drivers installed, no VT's. Does anyone have any insight into this problem?

mtk · #8 14th May 2012, 04:27 PM

what fails for you specifically?

sgage · #9 14th May 2012, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtk

what fails for you specifically?

When I have the nvidia proprietary drivers installed, and try to get to a Virtual Terminal using ctl-alt-Fx, the screen goes black and the display gives the "no signal" msg. I can ctl-alt-F1 back to my X session, however.

With the nouveau drivers, it all works as expected.

I reported this problem a month ago in the General Support forum (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showth...ghlight=nvidia), but got no help there. The problem persists.

This is F17 32-bit, Nvidia Geforce 8500GT video.

mtk · #10 14th May 2012, 06:13 PM

hmm... so systemd. i wonder if you need to arrange for getty's to run on those VT's? by adding links
in the /usr/lib/systemd/system/getty.target.wants directory? /mark

jpollard · #11 14th May 2012, 06:21 PM

I don't think the video signal depends on there being an active getty on the VT.

Normally when you select an unused VT you get a blinking cursor in the upper left corner, and nothing else.

"No video" from the monitor states that there is no signal.

mtk · #12 14th May 2012, 06:27 PM

you're right. leigh, do you know anything about this?

mkudro · #13 14th May 2012, 07:35 PM

hm...strange...i do have nvidia drivers installed, but i do have my VTs. Resolution drops from full HD to, well, very low (1280x800 i think), by VTs are there.

sgage · #14 18th May 2012, 11:17 PM

Does anyone have any further info on this issue? It is still a problem.

CronoCloud · #15 19th May 2012, 02:49 AM

I've seen something similar, if I was to log out and switch users, the act of doing so would cause a de-sync of monitor and computer causing a blank screen A simple input toggle, or powering off the monitor and turning back on again resyncs

Try switching to a VT and then turning your monitor off and onn again.

CronoCloud