How do I get my blacked out ttys back?

Solution 1:

I experienced the same problem as you when I replaced Ubuntu 10.10 by a fresh install of Ubuntu 11.04 (and later on, Ubuntu 11.10): my "console" tty's were desperately blanks but actually working -- i.e. I could log in and enter commands that actually work, but there was nothing visible on my screen.

I spent a huge number of hours on Google and various Ubuntu forums, I tried plenty of suggestions and I finally came to the following conclusion: the problem is linked to the proprietary NVIDIA driver -- if I remove the proprietary NVIDIA driver and use the "nouveau" driver, the problem disappears but then of course I can't benefit from the hardware acceleration any more.

I managed to fix the problem on my system (ZOTAC ZBOX with on-board NVIDIA GT218) by using the Uvesafb framebuffer driver.

Here is the procedure I used:

apt-get install v86d
apt-get install hwinfo
hwinfo --framebuffer

From hwinfo's output, I picked up the "best" resolution compatible with my screen -- in my case 1280x800 24-bit -- and I added the following line at the end of /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file:

uvesafb mode_option=1280x800-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

(The string "1280x800-24" comes from the resolution I chose -- your mileage may vary.)

Then I rebuilt grub and initramfs images as follows:

update-initramfs -u
update-grub

Finally I rebooted the system and my console tty's were finally visible again.

I don't use encrypted filesystem, so I cannot check whether or not the passphrase is to be entered "in the dark", but anyway I hope the above workaround will help you.

Solution 2:

I encountered the same problem, all ttyX terminals running (getty proccesses running), but no loggin prompt on either Ctrl+Alt+F1-6 (black screen with rest of splash picture on top). When I type in logname and password user is properly logged (who command). Only solution I found is to switch to text mode while boot proceeds.

1) edit: /etc/default/grub GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

2) and update of grub: update-grub2 update-initramfs -u