Bug 885260 - F18 Beta LiveUSB KDE Boots to Blank Screen in KDE GUI
Summary: F18 Beta LiveUSB KDE Boots to Blank Screen in KDE GUI
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: xorg-x11-drv-nouveau
Version: 18
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ben Skeggs
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-12-07 23:35 UTC by bob
Modified: 2014-02-05 13:41 UTC (History)
11 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2014-02-05 13:41:08 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
cups access_log (18.05 KB, application/octet-stream)
2012-12-10 19:03 UTC, bob
no flags Details
spice-vdagent.log (137 bytes, text/x-log)
2012-12-10 19:05 UTC, bob
no flags Details
Xorg.0.log (38.90 KB, text/x-log)
2012-12-10 19:06 UTC, bob
no flags Details
wtmp (3.38 KB, application/octet-stream)
2012-12-10 19:06 UTC, bob
no flags Details
lastlog (285.44 KB, application/octet-stream)
2012-12-10 19:07 UTC, bob
no flags Details
messages (112.56 KB, application/octet-stream)
2012-12-10 19:07 UTC, bob
no flags Details
secure (2.28 KB, application/octet-stream)
2012-12-10 19:08 UTC, bob
no flags Details
dmesg output (77.84 KB, text/plain)
2012-12-12 04:53 UTC, bob
no flags Details
Xorg.0.log (39.29 KB, text/x-log)
2012-12-12 04:54 UTC, bob
no flags Details

Description bob 2012-12-07 23:35:41 UTC
Description of problem:

I've created a LiveUSB with Fedora-18-Beta-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso, dated 20 Nov 2012.  The Live USB works fine on a non-UEFI system -- I am able to surf the web from the USB OS.  When the Live USB is used to boot a UEFI system, the system displays a "Secure Boot Disabled" message, then the boot cycle proceeds normally.  The system enters runlevel 5 and displays the KDE splash screen as KDE begins to load.  Before the splash screen has finished rendering it's fuzzy objects in focus, the screen goes blank.  Music is played through the speakers as a mouse cursor appears on the blank screen.  It's not possible to exit the GUI to text mode -- Ctrl-Alt-Backspace does nothing.  With a blank display, it's not possible to glean any useful information from the system to help ID the problem.  


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

Fedora-18-Beta-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso, dated 20 Nov 2012

How reproducible:

Every time.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Use liveusb-creator to create Live USB using Fedora-18-Beta-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso, dated 20 Nov 2012
2. Boot Live USB on a non-UEFI system to verify functionality
3. Boot Live USB on a UEFI system & observe blank screen in KDE GUI
  
Actual results:

Live USB boots and loads KDE, but the GUI environment produces a blank (black) screen with a functional/visible mouse cursor and sound.

Expected results:

Functional KDE desktop.

Additional info:

Comment 1 bob 2012-12-10 19:03:11 UTC
Created attachment 661013 [details]
cups access_log

Comment 2 bob 2012-12-10 19:05:20 UTC
Created attachment 661014 [details]
spice-vdagent.log

Comment 3 bob 2012-12-10 19:06:00 UTC
Created attachment 661015 [details]
Xorg.0.log

Comment 4 bob 2012-12-10 19:06:39 UTC
Created attachment 661016 [details]
wtmp

Comment 5 bob 2012-12-10 19:07:14 UTC
Created attachment 661017 [details]
lastlog

Comment 6 bob 2012-12-10 19:07:36 UTC
Created attachment 661018 [details]
messages

Comment 7 bob 2012-12-10 19:08:45 UTC
Created attachment 661021 [details]
secure

Comment 8 bob 2012-12-10 19:13:42 UTC
To try to get better insights into what's going on, I've done the following:

1. I booted to runlevel 3 by editing grub2's kernel command line during boot.
2. I installed the package net-tools
3. I obtained the IP address of the PC using ifconfig
4. I started the SSH daemon
5. I changed the root password
6. I SSH'd into the box from another PC
7. I ran "startx" locally and watched the box lock-up the keyboard with a blank screen after KDE loaded.  the mouse still worked.
8. I used SSH to download the contents of /var/log that had timestamps after X was started. 
 
I hope this helps.

Comment 9 Rex Dieter 2012-12-10 19:31:23 UTC
seems like some sort of video driver glitch, but my perusing doesn't show anything very helpful.

Maybe try logging in to 
KDE Plasma Workspace (failsafe session)
instead?
(this should disable any attempt to use compositing/desktop effects).

though doing so may be difficult due to live's autologin


triaging to xorg-x11-drv-nouveau for now.

Comment 10 bob 2012-12-10 20:02:03 UTC
I just tried performing a yum update in runlevel 3 to get the latest RPM, hoping that the updated xorg files & video drivers would be helpful.  unfortunately the update failed when the 3 GB root file system on the live USB ran out of space. :(

I could boot into runlevel 3 by altering the kernel command line in grub, but I'm not sure how to force KDE into a failsafe session.  If you could advise on how to do that, I could create a new live USB and give it a try.  Alternatively, is there a way to increase the size of the / filesystem?  I created a 4 GB overlay when making the live USB but that doesn't seem to have helped.  I'm thinking it would be helpful to be able to run a live USB with the most current package updates.

Thanks.

Comment 11 bob 2012-12-12 04:49:48 UTC
I've had ongoing failures with every GUI based install, but I've managed to perform a netinstall via VNC to get F18 installed onto bare metal.  I have a working text mode system now that should make this problem easier to diagnose.  

I continue to have the same problem with the bare-metal installation that I had with the Live media: When X11 loads the GUI I get the splash screen, but it progresses to a blank screen display (black screen) with a working mouse cursor.  Probably related to the video driver.

Here's some additional debugging information:

# lspci | grep 'VGA'
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV37GL [Quadro FX 330/GeForce PCX 5300] (rev a2)

Dmesg attachment and Xorg.0.log to follow.

Comment 12 bob 2012-12-12 04:53:12 UTC
Created attachment 661960 [details]
dmesg output

Comment 13 bob 2012-12-12 04:54:22 UTC
Created attachment 661961 [details]
Xorg.0.log

Comment 14 bob 2012-12-12 18:49:51 UTC
Based upon post-installation testing on a new bare metal installation, it appears that this problem is caused by the nouveau driver not supporting "older" PCIExpress video cards by nvidia.  Once F18 is installed on a box using the aforementioned video system, it has the same problem with blank screens as X11 enters the high resolution GUI mode.  Replacing the nouveau driver with the proprietary nvidia driver eliminates the problem.  I'm wondering if this problem with the installation media may be attributable to the use of the nouveau driver and it's lack of support for some PCIE nvidia boards.

Additional information in Bug 886638.

Hope this helps.

Comment 15 Fedora End Of Life 2013-12-21 09:47:57 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 18 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 18. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as WONTFIX if it remains open with a Fedora 
'version' of '18'.

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plan to fix it in a currently maintained version, simply change the 'version' 
to a later Fedora version prior to Fedora 18's end of life.

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able to fix it before Fedora 18 is end of life. If you would still like 
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bugs or makes them obsolete.

Comment 16 Fedora End Of Life 2014-02-05 13:41:12 UTC
Fedora 18 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2014-01-14. Fedora 18 is
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further
security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

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