Black tty 1-6 screens

After installing Ubuntu 10.04 I had some flickering issues, so I tried upgrading drivers and such, then I installed the fglrx driver and the flickering have gone away but when trying to access the TTY screens from 1-6 the screen goes blank. I'm able to get back in to gnome on tty7.

any one have a suggestion on what to try here?

Dennis

the output is:

glennwiz@Linux-laptop:~$ sudo cat /dev/vcs1

Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS Linux-laptop tty1

Linux-laptop login:    

Nerdfest im using radeon x1300

lspci output
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [Mobility Radeon X1300]
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
02:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
02:06.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
02:06.4 Communication controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 GemCore based SmartCard controller
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5753M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 21)
10:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)

Anyone have a suggestion?

Solution 1:

I know this thread has been dead for quite a while now, but the problem may still exist for some of you, as it did for me until some moments ago. Here is how to get your tty-consoles back if you just get black screens after hitting Ctrl+Alt+F1 to F6:

1. In a console, run

   sudo apt-get install v86d
   

2. When installation finishes, open:

   gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub
   

3. Find the line that reads:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
   

   Note: there may be more entries between the ""s, depending on previous changes.

   Replace it with (or expand accordingly):

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"
   

4. Find another line which reads:

   #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
   

   And replace it with:

   GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024
   

   Note: be sure there's no # in front.

5. Save and close the editor.

6. Now open:

   gksudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
   

   At the end of the file, add the line:

   uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
   

7. Save and close the editor.

8. Finally run:

   FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash && sudo update-grub2 && sudo update-initramfs -u
   

9. Now reboot. After reboot, your tty-consoles should be accessible again.

Source: crunchbanglinux.org: How to fix tty1-6 (Ctrl+Alt+Fx terminals) if they are not working

Solution 2:

Per this answer on another site:

I needed to create the file /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf, add following line

options radeon modeset=0

and had to restart. Now flickering is gone. :)

Solution 3:

I remember that I had that problem a couple of years ago with a computer running an ATI card. IIRC the solution was to give the kernel a different resolution in the boot options.

You can try to add a vga=785 to your boot command. If you hit SHIFT while Ubuntu is starting to load, you should be able to see a GRUB menu. Press 'e' and you must be able to edit the boot command. At the end of the line that starts with "linux" append vga=785 at the end. Hit CTRL+X to boot.

You can try with some other resolutions, you can find instructions to create mode numbers in this wiki.

Note that I can't check this and it's based in my very flawed memory. Hope that it works. Don't hesitate to downvote it if it is just a too wild guess.