Bug 736790

Thanks for the bug report.  We have reviewed the information you have provided above, and there is some additional information especially concerning your hardware we require that will be helpful in our diagnosis of this issue.

If the anaconda crashes during the switching to the graphic mode, most likely the problem lies in Xorg support for your graphics chip. There are couple of options how we can obtain information necessary for resolving the issue.

If the computer is not completely frozen when installation fails, switch to the console (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and copy /tmp/X* and /var/log/anaconda.xlog to some other place -- USB stick, some other computer via network, somewhere on the Internet, and please attach it to the bug report as individual uncompressed file attachments using the bugzilla file attachment link above.

If the computer is completely useless after installation fails, you can also install Fedora with a VESA mode driver (see http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/13/html/Installation_Guide/
for more information on that). Then after successful installation you can collect /var/log/anaconda.xlog, /var/log/Xorg.0.log, and the output of the program dmesg instead.

Or you can install Fedora in a text mode completely, and then start X after that. If it fails, still /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of dmesg program from the failed attempt to start X would be useful.

We will review this issue again once you've had a chance to attach this information.

Thank you very much in advance.

Not the original filer but I just recreated this on a HP dv6.  I currently have FC-16 installed on an external hard disk so I have a little flexibility.  When booting with different hardware, I set up Fedora to come up in the equivalent of run level 3.  I then shutdown that system (an older HP laptop) and rebooted the dv6 with the new configuration.  Again, I got only a black screen.  I was able to login and do things like reboot or shutdown the system from the invisible command line (type very carefully).

Interestingly, I turned off rhgb and quiet mode in grub and the normal boot spewage appears as expected.  The display seems to pack up about when the graphical progress indicator would appear.  Since the problem occurs when booting in text mode, I doubt that the X.org log would be of any help.  This setup (same external hard drive and laptop) work as expected with Backtrack 5R2 and CentOS 6.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do or additional information I can extract for you.

Created attachment 544352 [details]
dmesg from FC-16 boot on HP dv6

Do a search for "Synaptics" since the touch pad initializes right before the video.  I found the following odd since it appears that the monitors are detected and then "No monitor connected or invalid EDID".

[    2.415580] [drm] Radeon Display Connectors
[    2.415795] [drm] Connector 0:
[    2.415959] [drm]   VGA
[    2.416135] [drm]   HPD2
[    2.416290] [drm]   DDC: 0x6440 0x6440 0x6444 0x6444 0x6448 0x6448 0x644c 0x644c
[    2.416533] [drm]   Encoders:
[    2.416696] [drm]     CRT1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2
[    2.416861] [drm]     CRT1: NUTMEG
[    2.417035] [drm] Connector 1:
[    2.417169] [drm]   LVDS
[    2.417318] [drm]   HPD1
[    2.417470] [drm]   DDC: 0x6430 0x6430 0x6434 0x6434 0x6438 0x6438 0x643c 0x643c
[    2.417690] [drm]   Encoders:
[    2.417841] [drm]     LCD1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY2
[    2.417993] [drm]     LCD1: TRAVIS
[    2.418156] [drm] Connector 2:
[    2.418306] [drm]   HDMI-A
[    2.418456] [drm]   HPD4
[    2.418607] [drm]   DDC: 0x6460 0x6460 0x6464 0x6464 0x6468 0x6468 0x646c 0x646c
[    2.418828] [drm]   Encoders:
[    2.418978] [drm]     DFP1: INTERNAL_UNIPHY
[    2.533229] usb 4-2: New USB device found, idVendor=138a, idProduct=0018
[    2.533488] usb 4-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
[    2.533737] usb 4-2: SerialNumber: f89261418a9d
[    2.539077] [drm] Radeon display connector VGA-1: No monitor connected or invalid EDID
[    2.659033] [drm] Radeon display connector LVDS-1: No monitor connected or invalid EDID
[    2.762192] usb 3-5: new full speed USB device number 2 using ohci_hcd
[    2.779066] [drm] Radeon display connector HDMI-A-1: No monitor connected or invalid EDID

Also, the behavior is the same regardless of whether the second monitor is attached or not, powered on or not...  I was hoping I could at least get the external monitor to work so I tried everything I could think of.

Just so there's also a workaround here (it's also probably a hint as to the problem)... you can use the kernel parameter nomodeset to stop the startup process from going to graphical mode.  This actually seems to be the problem (although I'd rather blame Plymouth).  I finally got Plymouth to go to the "Details" theme and the screen still went dead when the display went from 80x25 text to some graphical mode during boot.

Funny thing is that I had almost exactly the same problem when I first installed Linux on my old laptop (the one that has been working with FC-16).  In that case the external monitor worked even though graphical mode boot didn't for the laptop's flat-panel.

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