Description of problem: Cannot read screen after booting any F18 kernel using the latest noveau driver. F18 does boot with the 3.6.11-5.fc17 kernel (which uses an older nouveau driver), but all the newer drivers are unable to set the timer (reporting the "unknown input clock frequency" warning. The default timing is (un)clearly incorrect for my system, since all I see is a whites screen with a few darker vertical lines. See the "additional information" below for card and system information. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Not sure: The nouveau.ko is in the kernel package, so the one that works was shipped with the 3.6.11-5.fc17.i686 kernel, and no version shipped with any f18 has worked. (Even the 3.6.10-4.fc18.i686 kernel fails to display properly.) How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run dracut to build an initramfs 2. Boot using the new initramfs.img 3. Actual results: "White screen of death" displayed. (Note that ctrl-alt-f2, etc., can be used - with no visual feedback - to do some things.) Expected results: Normal boot Additional info: System: Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop, 2Gb RAM, 500Gb SATA Intel Pentium M x86 (32 bit), 1.4GHz, processor From the working nouveau driver "dmesg" output: nVidia NV30 generation card, NV34 version, BMP BIOS version 5.40, Bios version 04.34.20.4 NV17 power sequencing microcode loaded From the non-working nouveau driver"dmesg" output: Chipset: NV34 Family: NV30 PARMIN image: Valib BMP version 5.28 Bios version 04.34.20.42 Unknown input clock frequency ------------------------------------ The KDE spin LiveCD did not display the "white screen of death," but failed to boot to a graphic screen. I tried booting from the 3.6.10-4.fc18.i686 kernel extracted from the LiveCD ISO file, but that produced the same "WSOD".
Issue likely not related to the PTIMER message. Can you attach your *full* kernel log please.
All I can attach are the dmesg outputs I saved from an unsuccessful boot using a 3.7.2.fc18 kernel and one from a successful boot using a 3.6.11.fc17 kernel. I'll do that, but I now think that the problem is not in the nouveau driver since the "all white" display occurs as soon as the ro kernel is loaded (before the initramfs is read). Can you move this bug to, I guess, the "kernel" section? Or wherever you think it should go. (Sorry, I hadn't thought through the boot sequence before I posted.)
Created attachment 692460 [details] dmesg output after 2.7.2 boot: no usable display This boot resulted in a display with characters displayed as white "blobs," about two characters wide. I think that the tty settings made by the kernel are not correct, although the output from the tty command looks identical to that output made from a "working" boot.
Created attachment 692472 [details] dmesg output from successful boot using a 3.6.11 fc17 kernel The prior attachment description should have read "3.7.2 fc18 kernel" This boot results in a correctly working display. (It's what I'm using for this post.)
On the other hand, perhaps it is the nouveau driver. I just compared the Xorg.0.log from a good boot with the Xorg.0.log.old from a bad boot, and there was one difference just before the driver unloaded itself: "setversion 1.4 failed" The was, as is typical for these messages, no indication of the reason for the failure. But it is, at least, somewhat suggestive. (Of course, it might have been unable to set the version because of the tty issue, but one could hope that if the driver could have loaded, it would have reset things properly.)
Well, I've found another indication that this might be a bug in the nouveau driver: The nv driver works (provided nomodeset is in the boot parameters). The nouveau driver seems to require a mode setting kernel, and I fear that the 3.7 kernel series has really messed up mode setting on this old laptop. If the messed-up mode setting is the root cause, perhaps this thread should be passed to the kernel people. (I don't know how to do that.) Oh, adding the "nomodeset" to the boot parameters does not fix the unreadable direct terminal display problem. That is still a "white blob" for each character on a mostly white background. (Really makes it hard to do anything.) The terminal windows inside the X display work fine.
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