Fedora 11 won't boot without a monitor connected

[bellsal]

Hello Everyone,

I have built a file server using Fedora 11, and it works great if the monitor is connected. If I disconnect the monitor, Fedora 11 won't boot; it hangs. I have found many people having the same problem, but no one seems to have a solution.

Does anyone know of any working solution?

Thanks in advance,

Bellsal

[Hlingler]

Try booting into run-level 3 instead of 5 (when monitor disconnected) ?

Not an ideal solution, as it doesn't "fix" the root cause, but it should provide a "working solution".

V

[bellsal]

Hlingler,

I am in init 3. In fact, the last line of my /etc/inittab is

id:3:initdefault:

So, init 3 doesn't do the job. The system hangs right after the BIOS is done. So, I believe the system hangs way before it reaches level 3.

Bellsal

[Hlingler]

Try kernel boot parameter nomodeset

V

[bellsal]

Hlingler,

I added nomodeset at the end of the kernel line in grub.conf, and it seems to be working fine.

Thanks for your help.

Bellsal

[Hlingler]

Guess we found the root cause of the problem (kernel mode-setting). Looks like some work still needs to be done there... .

Might be useful for posterity to know your video chipset:
su
lspci | grep VGA

Also will be interesting to see if/how nomodeset affects GUI with monitor attached.

Glad it worked in any case.

V

[bellsal]

Hlinger,

Thanks again for your help.

Since I am using the PC as a file server (without monitor attached), I don't really care if/how GUI is affected. If I need to use an application with GUI, I connect to the server with cygwin-x, and I can export any GUI without any problems. However, I wish Fedora 11 can fix this problem with a fix update.

The output of the lspci | grep VGA* is:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

Bellsal

[robevansaus]

I had this exact same problem and spend a while trying to work out what kernel parameter would stop it from trying to set the text mode on bootup (as I suspected this might be the issue). I wish I had have searched Google sooner as the "nomodeset" worked a treat! For your reference, here's my video card:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)

Looks like integrated Intel cards don't like when a different mode is set without a monitor attached.

Rob

[freddyshamster]

Originally Posted by Hlingler

Try kernel boot parameter nomodeset

V

Thanks Hlingler, this worked great for me.

For any other newbies with the same problem go to /boot/grub/grub.conf and add nomodeset to the end of the line starting with 'kernel'