SILO Boots linux then screen goes black

Sugarat · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 348

Hi All,

I booted into my finished gentoo installation without any hitches.. everything was dandy.. then I rebooted it.

Now when silo loads linux the screen just goes black. The system is working and I can ssh into it.. but no console, just a pitch black screen!

Any ideas?

smart · Guru Joined: 19 Nov 2002 Posts: 455

a not working framebuffer console ? try using simple console first, in case.

Sugarat · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 348

Well like i say.. it was working fine, i just rebooted it.

How do I just use straight console?

Mark Clegg · Posted: Mon May 03, 2004 4:42 pm Post subject:

Sounds like you haven't built a framebuffer into your kernel.

Re-boot from the install CD and rebuild your kernel.

You might also want to add PROM Console support so you'll get a little bit more info before the framebuffer kicks in.

Sugarat · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 348

When I say it worked fine before a reboot, I dont mean in the gentoo livecd environment, I meant that it really did work fine on rebooting into my gentoo.. It did have framebuffer working fine.. I just rebooted it... ?

Sugarat · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 348

Okay, I just double checked and the kernel running does have framebuffer support.. Any more ideas chaps?

Odd one this.

Mark Clegg · Posted: Tue May 04, 2004 11:20 am Post subject:

Ok, so you're booting the system, and you get the PROM messages and SILO prompt

therefore (stupid I know) the monitor lead hasn't fallen out.

So...

You press Enter at the SILO prompt, and it starts loading the kernel and then the screen goes blank.

You know the kernel framebuffer support is correct because it's booted Ok before, so that leaves three possibilities that I can think of

1: The framebuffers fried - I suspect not because PROM wouldn't display either

2: The monitors fried - but only for one scan rate - I doub't that, unless you've changed the framebuffer settings in nvram

3: You're not booting the kernel you think you are...

I assume you can get at the system via serial/network? if so does dmesg give any clues?

Like you say - it's an odd one.

foxtrot · n00b Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 30 Location: Atlanta, GA

Are you using more than one framebuffer? I'm not entirely certain that works yet. (I certainly haven't figured it out here, at least.

)

-JDF

Sugarat · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 348

Theres a Raptor GFX framebuffer card plugged into one of the PCI slots, but the OBP isnt set to use it.

Hm.. maybe I'll try unplugging it tomorrow and see what happens.