You are not logged in.

#1 2019-05-06 03:42:11

AndrewK
Member
Registered: 2019-05-06
Posts: 3

[SOLVED] Screen goes black during boot - Dell Latitude D800

During bootup on my Dell Latitude D800 laptop, the screen would go black after perhaps 50 messages (before the login prompt).

One fix which worked was to add "nomodeset" to the kernel command line, but then I couldn't run X.

The fix which actually worked completely was to put "video=VGA-1:e " as mentioned here: https://www.osadl.org/Single-View.111+M … d12.0.html

I did not need to put an explicit EDID file.

If someone understand this I'd be pleased to hear it.

Andrew

Offline

#2 2019-05-06 04:46:27

levi
Moderator
From: Yorkshire, UK
Registered: 2018-06-16
Posts: 1,197

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes black during boot - Dell Latitude D800

Yes, after about a screen and a half of messages is where kernel modesetting generally occurs on my machines.  Good to hear you've found a good workaround there; I doubt I'd have been able to come up with that particular kernel option setting myself.  Supplying the nomodeset setting stops that happening during boot, and instead leaves it to the X session to set up the graphical monitor.

It sounds as if the monitor is perhaps sending a partial edid.  Am I right to assume it's a LCD monitor with an intrinsic native resolution, and not an old CRT?  If it's using the wrong resolution, you might need to give it a better edid, but if it is at least documenting it's native resolution right then it may well be set up correctly.


Architecture: pentium4, Testing repos: Yes, Hardware: EeePC 901+2GB RAM+OS half on the SD card.

Offline

#3 2019-05-07 01:10:13

AndrewK
Member
Registered: 2019-05-06
Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes black during boot - Dell Latitude D800

Yes, Levi, it's an LCD monitor.  It's set up right, now, AFAIK.

My real question is why this stopped working and had to be fixed.  This machine was working fine from before Arch 32 split off.  Sorry, but I can't refine the time much better. (I didn't use the machine for several months.)  Lately, when I tried to boot, this new error cropped up.

It seems as if some kernel bug has been introduced.  (I'm also seeing a failure to power down, but since I can do it manually, I have no great need to fix this one.)

Offline

#4 2019-05-07 05:51:14

levi
Moderator
From: Yorkshire, UK
Registered: 2018-06-16
Posts: 1,197

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes black during boot - Dell Latitude D800

It's hard to say for sure, but if I had to put money on it, I'd say that some change to the kernel required the edid to me more correct or changed the default assumptions.  I wonder, does your computer have more than one video output, like a VGA output and a DVI output?  Maybe the kernel assumes monitors are more likely to be plugged in over DVI these days.  It seems to be extremely unlikely to be related to your switch from old arch to the latest arch32 other than that the latest arch32 has the newer kernel.


Architecture: pentium4, Testing repos: Yes, Hardware: EeePC 901+2GB RAM+OS half on the SD card.

Offline

#5 2019-05-07 06:51:25

AndrewK
Member
Registered: 2019-05-06
Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes black during boot - Dell Latitude D800

Well, I think it has a VGA plug plus the built-in screen. (Sorry, it's not handy just at the minute.)  But, what X complained about when it was starting was that there were no video devices, not too many.  I think that's why forcing it to enable one worked.

I agree about the newer kernel.  According to Wikipedia, this model is from 2003.

Offline

#6 2019-05-07 15:37:10

levi
Moderator
From: Yorkshire, UK
Registered: 2018-06-16
Posts: 1,197

Re: [SOLVED] Screen goes black during boot - Dell Latitude D800

Oh, so you force it to VGA but actually it ends up using the internal screen?  That's... unexpected.


Architecture: pentium4, Testing repos: Yes, Hardware: EeePC 901+2GB RAM+OS half on the SD card.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB