anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  i haven't been following closely enough -- has there been a solution
checked in for the (common) problem of recent git trees producing a
totally black screen shortly after boot with onboard intel i915
graphics?

  i'd really like to start building kernels again for my ubuntu system
but everything lately still gives me a black screen.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Greg Freemyer]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Robert P. J. Day
<rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>
> ?i haven't been following closely enough -- has there been a solution
> checked in for the (common) problem of recent git trees producing a
> totally black screen shortly after boot with onboard intel i915
> graphics?
>
> ?i'd really like to start building kernels again for my ubuntu system
> but everything lately still gives me a black screen.
>
> rday

robert,

I haven't seen any reports of that on the opensuse list and they are
using 2.6.37 kernels for factory.

They did have issues like that back in 2.6.34 timeframe (ie. when os
11.3 was released), so one had to disable the new KMS driver if you
had an intel graphics adapter.

So I'm not sure which kernel you're worried about.

Greg

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Robert P. J. Day
> <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> >
> > ?i haven't been following closely enough -- has there been a solution
> > checked in for the (common) problem of recent git trees producing a
> > totally black screen shortly after boot with onboard intel i915
> > graphics?
> >
> > ?i'd really like to start building kernels again for my ubuntu system
> > but everything lately still gives me a black screen.
> >
> > rday
>
> robert,
>
> I haven't seen any reports of that on the opensuse list and they are
> using 2.6.37 kernels for factory.
>
> They did have issues like that back in 2.6.34 timeframe (ie. when os
> 11.3 was released), so one had to disable the new KMS driver if you
> had an intel graphics adapter.
>
> So I'm not sure which kernel you're worried about.

  i was getting that with 2.6.37-rc7, i'm just about to try with the
current git pull to see if anything's changed.  i'll let you know.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Robert P. J. Day
> <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> >
> > ?i haven't been following closely enough -- has there been a
> > solution checked in for the (common) problem of recent git trees
> > producing a totally black screen shortly after boot with onboard
> > intel i915 graphics?
> >
> > ?i'd really like to start building kernels again for my ubuntu
> > system but everything lately still gives me a black screen.
> >
> > rday
>
> robert,
>
> I haven't seen any reports of that on the opensuse list and they are
> using 2.6.37 kernels for factory.
>
> They did have issues like that back in 2.6.34 timeframe (ie. when os
> 11.3 was released), so one had to disable the new KMS driver if you
> had an intel graphics adapter.
>
> So I'm not sure which kernel you're worried about.

  here's a report of mine from back in december:

http://www.spinics.net/lists/newbies/msg41792.html

so this has been going on far more recently than 2.6.34.  what did
disabling the KMS driver involve?  i can try that as a workaround.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Greg Freemyer]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 5:50 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Robert P. J. Day
>> <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
>> >
>> > ?i haven't been following closely enough -- has there been a
>> > solution checked in for the (common) problem of recent git trees
>> > producing a totally black screen shortly after boot with onboard
>> > intel i915 graphics?
>> >
>> > ?i'd really like to start building kernels again for my ubuntu
>> > system but everything lately still gives me a black screen.
>> >
>> > rday
>>
>> robert,
>>
>> I haven't seen any reports of that on the opensuse list and they are
>> using 2.6.37 kernels for factory.
>>
>> They did have issues like that back in 2.6.34 timeframe (ie. when os
>> 11.3 was released), so one had to disable the new KMS driver if you
>> had an intel graphics adapter.
>>
>> So I'm not sure which kernel you're worried about.
>
> ?here's a report of mine from back in december:
>
> http://www.spinics.net/lists/newbies/msg41792.html
>
> so this has been going on far more recently than 2.6.34. ?what did
> disabling the KMS driver involve? ?i can try that as a workaround.
>
> rday

Add "i915.modeset=0" to your boot command line.  At least in 2.6.34
timeframe it used an alternate driver.

Greg

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> Add "i915.modeset=0" to your boot command line.  At least in 2.6.34
> timeframe it used an alternate driver.

  do you know *which* alternate driver, so i make sure i compile it
in?

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Greg Freemyer]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 6:08 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:
>
>> Add "i915.modeset=0" to your boot command line. ?At least in 2.6.34
>> timeframe it used an alternate driver.
>
> ?do you know *which* alternate driver, so i make sure i compile it
> in?

UMS, but I was using pre-compiled kernels, so I don't know what the
config option was.

Greg

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 6:08 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:
> > On Fri, 14 Jan 2011, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> >
> >> Add "i915.modeset=0" to your boot command line. ?At least in 2.6.34
> >> timeframe it used an alternate driver.
> >
> > ?do you know *which* alternate driver, so i make sure i compile it
> > in?
>
> UMS, but I was using pre-compiled kernels, so I don't know what the
> config option was.

  victory is mine!  just built a new kernel from latest git pull,
changed nothing, installed, booted and it works.  no idea what's
changed or what fixed it.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Alexandre Courbot]

> ?victory is mine! ?just built a new kernel from latest git pull,
> changed nothing, installed, booted and it works. ?no idea what's
> changed or what fixed it.

Confirmed! I had the same problem on my two intel machines. At first I
thought it was a misconfiguration of mine (X started and virtual
consoles worked from then on, but I had no boot messages after the
initial kernel mode setting). Glad to see this fixed.

Alex.

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2011, Alexandre Courbot wrote:

> > ?victory is mine! ?just built a new kernel from latest git pull,
> > changed nothing, installed, booted and it works. ?no idea what's
> > changed or what fixed it.
>
> Confirmed! I had the same problem on my two intel machines. At first
> I thought it was a misconfiguration of mine (X started and virtual
> consoles worked from then on, but I had no boot messages after the
> initial kernel mode setting). Glad to see this fixed.

  are you confirming that you had the same problem, or that you can
see it's fixed?  the blackout clearly started early in the boot, when
the kernel tried to switch to high-res mode to continue printing
kernel messages.  suddenly, with a kernel based on a pull from the
latest merge window, that switch works just fine and booting is good.
but i still have no idea which commit resolved that.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2011, Robert P. J. Day wrote:

> On Sat, 15 Jan 2011, Alexandre Courbot wrote:
>
> > > ?victory is mine! ?just built a new kernel from latest git pull,
> > > changed nothing, installed, booted and it works. ?no idea what's
> > > changed or what fixed it.
> >
> > Confirmed! I had the same problem on my two intel machines. At
> > first I thought it was a misconfiguration of mine (X started and
> > virtual consoles worked from then on, but I had no boot messages
> > after the initial kernel mode setting). Glad to see this fixed.
>
>   are you confirming that you had the same problem, or that you can
> see it's fixed?  the blackout clearly started early in the boot,
> when the kernel tried to switch to high-res mode to continue
> printing kernel messages.  suddenly, with a kernel based on a pull
> from the latest merge window, that switch works just fine and
> booting is good. but i still have no idea which commit resolved
> that.

  a quick perusal of the git log shows a number of recent i915-related
commits.  still not sure what fixed things so i'll be keeping at least
a couple earlier working kernels around.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Philip Downer]

On 15/01/11 10:37, Robert P. J. Day wrote:

>    a quick perusal of the git log shows a number of recent i915-related
> commits.  still not sure what fixed things so i'll be keeping at least
> a couple earlier working kernels around.

There was a recent mention of what I think is the issue on LWN, I tried 
to find out what the 'blank screen' issue was when mentioned as I have 
several boxes with intel graphics that haven't had issues, but couldn't 
find any more info, anyway excerpt and link below...

"While we were on our holiday break, 2.6.37-rc8 was released on December 
28. "The -rc8 release shouldn't be all that exciting. The most 
noticeable is probably the fact that hopefully the 'blank screen' 
problem with intel graphics is fixed. But on the whole, it's all just a 
collection of random fixes all over." See the full changelog for all the 
details." -lwn [1]

Phil

[1] http://lwn.net/Articles/420887/

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sat, 15 Jan 2011, Philip Downer wrote:

> On 15/01/11 10:37, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>
> >    a quick perusal of the git log shows a number of recent
> > i915-related commits.  still not sure what fixed things so i'll be
> > keeping at least a couple earlier working kernels around.
>
> There was a recent mention of what I think is the issue on LWN, I
> tried to find out what the 'blank screen' issue was when mentioned
> as I have several boxes with intel graphics that haven't had issues,
> but couldn't find any more info, anyway excerpt and link below...
>
> "While we were on our holiday break, 2.6.37-rc8 was released on
> December 28. "The -rc8 release shouldn't be all that exciting. The
> most noticeable is probably the fact that hopefully the 'blank
> screen' problem with intel graphics is fixed. But on the whole, it's
> all just a collection of random fixes all over." See the full
> changelog for all the details." -lwn [1]
>
> Phil
>
> [1] http://lwn.net/Articles/420887/

  i remember reading that, but i *tried* a kernel based on -rc8 and it
still had the same issue.  at this point, i'm going to count my
blessings and just hope it's been resolved once and for all.

rday

-- 

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
========================================================================

anyone know of a resolution for the intel i915 "black screen" issue?

[Alexandre Courbot]

> ?are you confirming that you had the same problem, or that you can
> see it's fixed?

Both. At first I thought I forgot to enable something in my kernel
configuration and did not care that much about it, then I saw your
message and tried again with the latest git, to see the problem was
fixed.

> the blackout clearly started early in the boot, when
> the kernel tried to switch to high-res mode to continue printing
> kernel messages. ?suddenly, with a kernel based on a pull from the
> latest merge window, that switch works just fine and booting is good.

Yes, this is exactly the behavior I had.

Alex.