How do I convince GRUB2 to boot in text-only mode?

[joober]

I have installed the latests NVIDIA beta drivers (304) from Rawhide recently. However, at the end of my dmesg output, I noticed this:

[   21.769608] NVRM: Your system is not currently configured to drive a VGA console
[   21.769612] NVRM: on the primary VGA device. The NVIDIA Linux graphics driver
[   21.769615] NVRM: requires the use of a text-mode VGA console. Use of other console
[   21.769618] NVRM: drivers including, but not limited to, vesafb, may result in
[   21.769620] NVRM: corruption and stability problems, and is not supported.

I do experience the occassional "spontaneous logout" from KDE and I am trying to eliminate all errors reported by NVIDA, in the hope of solving that.
I did a lot of searching on Google to understand where this message comes from and more importantly, how to get rid of it. I have seen plenty of "solutions" but nothing seems to have worked on my system.

For instance, I found this thread in this forum and followed its advice.

Specifically, I did this:

The quickest way to disable it is to edit /etc/default/grub and remove rhgb from the boot options.
You will need to run "grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg" afterwards.

However, after reboot, dmesg still shows the output above.

I have also tried other suggestions, such as setting these options in /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
They don't work either. I have also seen suggestions to set vga=0 or similar, but I understand with grub2 the vga= options are deprecated?

How can I convince grub2 to get rid of vesafb and all other console drivers?


Just noticed I posted in hardware, but last I looked, grub2 was still software. Can a moderator move this, please?

[ryptyde]

Taken from the Fedora wiki:

How do I change the default runlevel?

systemd uses symlinks to point to the default runlevel. You have to delete the existing symlink first before creating a new one

rm /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Switch to runlevel 3 by default

ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

Switch to runlevel 5 by default

ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target /etc/systemd/system/default.target

systemd does not use /etc/inittab file.

phil

[joober]

Thanks for the reply, Phil.

I didn't know the unformation you copied from the wiki, so I appreciate that. However, that's not what I am trying to accomplish.

I don't want to boot to a different runlevel, I want to boot to runlevel 5, however without loading a framebuffer driver like vesafb or so. My question is about how to configure grub2 to load only a text console during the start up?

[smr54]

the option is nomodeset. I'm not sure where it goes in grub2 though.
Ah, a nice little tutorial on Ubuntu forums.


http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

I think you also want to remove the options rhgb quiet

On the other hand, I don't boot to runlevel 5 or whatever it's termed in these systemd days, so I'm not sure what happens when you're booting into GUI mode. But, assuming you do mean the text type informative messages that come up, removing the rhgb quiet and adding nomodeset are what you want. The Ubuntu link given above answers where to do that, but after doing it, the command is slightly different in Fedora--after making the changes, run

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

[vallimar]

If you are booting in EFI mode, then do not waste your time.
Those changes will not make that message go away, just ignore it.

[joober]

Originally Posted by smr54

the option is nomodeset. I'm not sure where it goes in grub2 though.
Ah, a nice little tutorial on Ubuntu forums.


http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

I think you also want to remove the options rhgb quiet

On the other hand, I don't boot to runlevel 5 or whatever it's termed in these systemd days, so I'm not sure what happens when you're booting into GUI mode. But, assuming you do mean the text type informative messages that come up, removing the rhgb quiet and adding nomodeset are what you want. The Ubuntu link given above answers where to do that, but after doing it, the command is slightly different in Fedora--after making the changes, run

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Thank you, I will try this out and report back the results!

---------- Post added at 03:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:54 PM ----------

Originally Posted by vallimar

If you are booting in EFI mode, then do not waste your time.
Those changes will not make that message go away, just ignore it.

How do I tell if I am booting in EFI mode?

---------- Post added at 04:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:55 PM ----------

Removing "rhgb" and "quiet" and adding "nomodeset" to the /etc/default/grub config file does not fix the NVIDIA error message. Yes, I did do:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

My /etc/default/grub config file:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Fedora"
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.md=0 rd.dm=0  KEYTABLE=us SYSFONT=True rd.luks=0 rd.lvm.lv=vg_deepthought/lv_root rd.lvm.lv=vg_deepthought/lv_swap LANG=en_US.UTF-8 nomodeset"
#GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub2/themes/system/theme.txt"

[Magickman]

This is easily done, friend. Fire up a Terminal, get into root, and post this command:

plymouth-set-default-theme details

Press Enter.

Then post this command:

/usr/libexec/plymouth/plymouth-update-initrd

Press Enter. This will tale a little while, be patient. Soon as it is done, reboot.

You can see all of the themes with this command:

plymouth-set-default-theme --list

[joober]

Originally Posted by Magickman

This is easily done, friend. Fire up a Terminal, get into root, and post this command:

plymouth-set-default-theme details

Press Enter.

Then post this command:

/usr/libexec/plymouth/plymouth-update-initrd

Press Enter. This will tale a little while, be patient. Soon as it is done, reboot.

Thanks Magickman! I did as you suggested, however, no dice.
After the reboot, dmesg stubbornly reports:

[   23.819321] NVRM: Your system is not currently configured to drive a VGA console
[   23.819326] NVRM: on the primary VGA device. The NVIDIA Linux graphics driver
[   23.819328] NVRM: requires the use of a text-mode VGA console. Use of other console
[   23.819331] NVRM: drivers including, but not limited to, vesafb, may result in
[   23.819333] NVRM: corruption and stability problems, and is not supported.

Looks like this console graphics driver just won't die...

[vallimar]

How do I tell if I am booting in EFI mode?

Check if this path is populated: /sys/firmware/efi/

[joober]

Originally Posted by vallimar

Check if this path is populated: /sys/firmware/efi/

Thanks!
No, that path doesn't exist so efi is probably not available on my system.