Bug 126926

Summary: Blank screen on installer startup (text mode)
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Rafal Smyka <rsy>
Component: anacondaAssignee: Jeremy Katz <katzj>
Status: CLOSED DUPLICATE QA Contact: Mike McLean <mikem>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 2CC: gajownik
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: i386   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2006-02-21 19:04:16 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
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Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Rafal Smyka 2004-06-29 07:50:05 UTC
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Description of problem:
Not sure if anaconda is a right component to report. I haven't found
anything better though.

My screen goes blank when I start installation.
I boot from FC2 CD1. Then on boot prompt I proceed. Then I can see
'loading vmlinuz...', 'loading initrd.img...' and then it switches to
darkness.

My hardware is: Nvidia GeForce2 MX-200, motherboard Asus P4S333.

I tried to run installer on another PC and it was fine there. I ran
mediacheck there and it succedded for all the CDs.

I thought it could have been the fb problem, so I tried nofb, text,
skipddc, noprobe arguments in different combinations. No result.

Then I tried to press random keys on my keyboard. Hitting enter caused
my CD spinning for a while. Apparently it was performing mediacheck.
So the good news was, the installer was running, only the display failed.
This brought me to another Idea. I restarted install, and when it
stopped, I pressed right arrow key and then enter to bypass the
mediacheck. And the miracle happened - the graphical installer started
and I could see it! Then I could proceed with install.
Funny thing is that when my graphical installer opens, I can switch to
the text consoles (Alt+F1, 2, etc.) and they work. So the screen is
blank only until the graphical mode is started.

So finally I succeeded with installation.
Now I have the same behaviour on system load. When I start loading
from grub, my screen goes blank and then it switches to a graphical
mode. Afterwards the virtual text consoles work fine.
If I start to boot to a text mode, I cannot see anything.

It looks like it switched to a text mode my card doesn't support on boot.

BTW, I had installed on the machine Aurox Linux and it was fine. I
guess it is based on RH9. So I pressume that RH9 installation would work.

I searched the web for similiar problem but haven't seen anything like
that.  Perhaps my video card is somehow broken. But why can I see the
text consoles after the graph mode has been initialized then?

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot from install CD1.
2. On boot prompt press enter.
3. The screen goes blank.
    

Additional info:

Comment 1 Jeremy Katz 2004-06-29 19:01:05 UTC

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 121819 ***

Comment 2 Red Hat Bugzilla 2006-02-21 19:04:16 UTC
Changed to 'CLOSED' state since 'RESOLVED' has been deprecated.