On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:56:15 +0000 Rémi Moyen <rmo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, > > I'm installing Debian on a new computer and although the install of > stable version works fine, after upgrade to testing I am unable to > boot on the 3.1 kernel. There is no X on the machine (for the moment) > and I get a blank screen a few seconds after boot. I suspect a problem > with the graphics card (NVidia GTX 570) and nouveau, but couldn't find > a workaround. > > Here are the details. Sorry, that's a bit long, but I wanted to put > all I can here. Also, note that I'm not in front of the machine right > now, so I'm typing this from memory and some notes, and cannot test > stuff until tonight... > > I've bought myself a new computer and want to install a Debian/testing > on it. I burnt a CD with the latest stable to start with (I was not > quite sure how to get a testing CD and anyway I've had years of > upgrading various Debian so I was quite confident the stable -> > testing upgrade would work fine). The installation with the CD works > perfectly, I can use the graphic installer and I install the > "standard" system (no graphical environment at that point). > > After reboot, I get a working Debian/stable with kernel 2.6.32 (I > think). First thing I do is to change sources.list to add the contrib > & non-free repos as well as the testing ones (main, contrib & > non-free). Update, full-upgrade: almost everything seems to be > updated, as expected, including installing a kernel 3.1.0. No error > messages, except one warning when the kernel is upgraded about > potentially missing firmwares for my network card (realtek) and > nouveau. For nouveau, these are the same warnings as described here, > for example: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=185&t=83587. > > Now, this is only a warning, but after this, whenever an upgrade step > rebuilds the initrd, I get warnings about missing firmware for > realtek. Only for realtek, nothing about nouveau here. So I install > the firmware-realtek package, and lo and behold, the warning disappear > when initrd is rebuilt. Because I never get warnings about nouveau > while generating initrd, I don't know whether these missing firmware I > was warned about are really missing... > > Are these firmwares really useful? I couldn't find anyone on the web > saying so, all I find are messages where people ask about it. They > don't seem to be anywhere in any Debian package (even in non-free). > > OK, so now I get what I think should be a working up-to-date testing > system. Rebooting on the 2.6.32 kernel works again perfectly. But > rebooting on the 3.1 kernel starts to boot (it prints at least the > "waiting for udev to be populated" message) and then all I get is a > blank screen. Some messages get displayed before, but so fast that I > have no hope to even catch a glimpse of a word. The screen flickers > when it becomes black, at about the time where in the 2.6 kernel the > screen resolution changes, so I guess this is the step that fails. > With the blank screen, I can't do anything. Keyboard seems dead (at > least "Caps Lock" doesn't respond, although "Num Lock" does). The > machine is still alive and can be logged-on remotely, but that's all. > I didn't see anything strange in syslog or dmesg, but I might have > missed something. > > I stress here the fact that I am only working in console. No X server > has been installed yet, and certainly no display manager (so when > booting, it stays in console). I will install an X server later but I > feel that I should fix problems one at a time... (actually, I did a > first install with the graphic environment as well and things didn't > work better, so I started again a fresh install without it, to better > isolate problems) > > >From searching on the web, it looks like a KMS or nouveau problem. I > have tried blacklisting nouveau (by adding a custom file containing > "blacklist nouveau" in /etc/modprobe.d), but this doesn't change > anything. I tried also installing the nvidia driver (since I want to > install it ultimately anyway), by installing the nvidia-glx package. > It installs OK, build the 3.1 DKMS kernel module without errors, but > still get the same error when booting. It does install an X server at > that stage (which is expected) but this server is normally not started > at boot, so I'm still only dealing with console. I also tried to put > "nomodeline" in the boot parameters (/etc/default/grub, then > update-grub) but again, this doesn't change anything. > > So I'm stuck with a working 2.6.32 kernel, and a broken (and unusable, > at that point) 3.1 kernel. > > As a last resort, I wanted to try and install the nvidia module on the > 2.6 kernel (thinking that I could stay with that one for some time, > assuming later versions of the 3.1 kernel will work better that the > current one...), but trying to do so requires the kernel headers, > which in turns requires an older version of gcc, and one thing causing > another, aptitude would basically downgrade most of my system back to > stable, which is not what I want (I mean, if I wanted a stable system, > I would have stuck with it from the start). > > So, does anyone have an idea of what is causnouveauing the problem, and how > to fix it? I must say that I am very disappointed, my old computer is > running the 3.1 kernel without ever complaining (well, not about this > at least...) and I was not expecting such big problems with a brand > new one... > > Thanks! Remi try first blacklisting nouveau /etc/modprobe.d/ HTH -- Best wishes / 73 Richard Bown e-mail: rich...@g8jvm.com or richard.b...@blueyonder.co.uk nil carborundum a illegitemis ################################################################################## Ham Call G8JVM . OS Fedora FC16 x86_64 on a Dell Insiron N5030 laptop Maidenhead QRA: IO82SP38, LAT. 52 39.720' N LONG. 2 28.171 W ( degs mins ) QRV HF + VHF Microwave 23 cms:140W,13 cms:100W,6 cms:10W & 3 cms:5W ################################################################################## -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? 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