Switching Nvidia Cards results in blank screen on boot
Running SuSE 8.2 with a Nvidia GeForce2 MX/MX 400 card. This is what is reported under /proc/driver/mvidia/cards/0. When I switch the card to a GeForce FX 5200 and reboot I can the GRUB screen and select linux. After that the screen goes blank and never show the normal booting screen (the one where F2 shows the details). I've switch back to the MX 400 card until this problem can be solved. Can anyone help me out? BTW I'm using nvidia driver 1.0-5328. Thanks, Terry -- SuSE Linux 8.2 (i586) ---- 2.4.20-4GB-athlon --- Sat 04/10/04 19:50 7:50pm up 3:02, 4 users, load average: 0.56, 0.86, 0.86 There are 10 types of people, those who know binary and those who don't
On Sat, 2004-04-10 at 20:57, Terry Eck wrote:
Running SuSE 8.2 with a Nvidia GeForce2 MX/MX 400 card. This is what is reported under /proc/driver/mvidia/cards/0. When I switch the card to a GeForce FX 5200 and reboot I can the GRUB screen and select linux. After that the screen goes blank and never show the normal booting screen (the one where F2 shows the details). I've switch back to the MX 400 card until this problem can be solved. Can anyone help me out? BTW I'm using nvidia driver 1.0-5328. Thanks, Terry
Hi Terry, This procedure might be of some help. While the old card is still installed: a. Log out of KDE. Let it sit at the login prompt. b. Hit Ctl-Alt-F1 to switch to a text console. c. Log in as root d. type "init 3" - this lands the system in runlevel 3 (no X) e. type "init 6" - this shuts down and reboots the system. f. POWER OFF the system when it's testing it's memory on re-boot. g. switch cards h. POWER ON the system and THE INSTANT you see your GRUB menu: i. type "vga=0x317" and hit [Enter] (assuming Linux is default) If you follow these instructions, the system should simply boot to text mode in runlevel 3 with the new card installed. --> YaST is available in text mode (called "ncurses"): Log in as root and type "YaST" [Enter]. --> SaX2 runs *graphically* at this resolution, too: As root, type "SaX2 -l" [Enter] (the lower case L stands for "low res".) Hope this helps, good luck & regards, - Carl - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C. E. Hartung Business Development & Support Services Dover Foxcroft, Maine, USA http://www.cehartung.com "Jello is never very interesting until it is set and sure of itself."
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Hartung
Running SuSE 8.2 with a Nvidia GeForce2 MX/MX 400 card. This is what is reported under /proc/driver/mvidia/cards/0. When I switch the card to a GeForce FX 5200 and reboot I can the GRUB screen and select
On Sat, 2004-04-10 at 20:57, Terry Eck wrote: linux.
After that the screen goes blank and never show the normal booting screen (the one where F2 shows the details). I've switch back to the MX 400 card until this problem can be solved. Can anyone help me out? BTW I'm using nvidia driver 1.0-5328. Thanks, Terry
Hi Terry,
This procedure might be of some help. While the old card is still installed:
a. Log out of KDE. Let it sit at the login prompt. b. Hit Ctl-Alt-F1 to switch to a text console. c. Log in as root d. type "init 3" - this lands the system in runlevel 3 (no X) e. type "init 6" - this shuts down and reboots the system. f. POWER OFF the system when it's testing it's memory on re-boot.
Simply type init 0 to shutdown and eliminate e & f.
g. switch cards h. POWER ON the system and THE INSTANT you see your GRUB menu: i. type "vga=0x317" and hit [Enter] (assuming Linux is default)
If you follow these instructions, the system should simply boot to text mode in runlevel 3 with the new card installed.
Wrong! The system will always boot to the run level set in /etc/inittab. If you want to boot to run level 3 then type at the boot prompt "3" (without the quotes) plus any additional params. Test the new card without any changes by logging in with your user ID and run startx. If you go into your desktop there is no need to run yast of sax2. Log out and then login as root and type init 5 at prompt. KDE login should start. Ken
On Sun, 2004-04-11 at 07:16, Ken Schneider wrote: <snip>
Wrong! The system will always boot to the run level set in /etc/inittab. If you want to boot to run level 3 then type at the boot prompt "3" (without the quotes) plus any additional params. Test the new card without any changes by logging in with your user ID and run startx. If you go into your desktop there is no need to run yast of sax2. Log out and then login as root and type init 5 at prompt. KDE login should start.
Ken
Wow, I scrambled *that* pretty good, didn't I? ;-) Thanks for the correction, Ken. I don't know what I was thinking so late last night... In other words, just shut down normally and switch the cards. Then, at the boot prompt in GRUB, make sure 'Linux' is highlighted (if it isn't by default) and type "3 vga=0x317" (no quotes) or "3 vga=normal" (no quotes) before hitting [Enter]. One of these combinations should instruct the system to boot into run level 3 (no X) using VESA-compliant VGA mode to avert the "black screen" problem -- assuming the card is working correctly, right? regards, - Carl - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - C. E. Hartung Business Development & Support Services Dover Foxcroft, Maine, USA http://www.cehartung.com "Jello is never very interesting until it is set and sure of itself!"
Thanks Carl and Ken for the information. I will do the following next time I have to shutdown and reboot. 1) At the GRUB line type "3 vga=normal". 2) Run "sax2 -l" as root to configure card. 3) Test with startx and maybe reinstall nvidia drivers for 3D. 4) Run "init 5" if 3) works. 5) Be Happy. Terry -- SuSE Linux 8.2 (i586) ---- 2.4.20-4GB-athlon --- Sun 04/11/04 12:05 12:05pm up 19:17, 3 users, load average: 0.32, 0.30, 0.16 There are 10 types of people, those who know binary and those who don't
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Terry Eck