blank screen after killing Xorg

[althalus]

First off, this is only a problem I'm having with Xorg - Xvesa works fine, and if it could manage a 1280x800 res, I'd not even bother with the full Xorg.

The problem is, once Xorg has started, I can't get back to a virtual terminal (doesn't matter how I try to go back to a prompt, pkill Xorg, ctrl+alt+backspace, ctrl+alt+f1). All I get is a blank screen. The terminal is still there, I just can't see it (Can verify this by killing X then typing startx - X starts again and works fine, unfortunately, I just can't see what I'm typing).

Anyone know of a fix?

[tinypoodle]

What happens if you type

Code: [Select]

reset
and hit "Enter"?

[althalus]

Nothing

[curaga]

Hardware, driver?

[althalus]

Sorry, bit of a brainslip there.

Code: [Select]

$ lspci
...
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS780M/RS780MN [Radeon HD 3200 Graphics]
...

Using the radeon driver available in graphics-2.6.33.3-tinycore although the same behaviour is observed without graphics-2.6.33.3-tinycore.

[curaga]

@althalus

Is your console a plain text mode, or a vesa framebuffer?

Either way, I gather you're not using KMS yet, so I recommend trying it first. If it too doesn't work, then the other one of the above options.

Enabling radeon kms should work with a bootcode "radeon.modeset=1". edit: Also remove the vga= code when using KMS, if it's there.

[althalus]

@althalus

Is your console a plain text mode, or a vesa framebuffer?

Either way, I gather you're not using KMS yet, so I recommend trying it first. If it too doesn't work, then the other one of the above options.

Enabling radeon kms should work with a bootcode "radeon.modeset=1". edit: Also remove the vga= code when using KMS, if it's there.

Enabling KMS doesn't seem to achieve what I wanted - Screen is blanked (also turning off the backlight, which is new) and X won't start back up again after blindly typing startx.

Silly question, but how do I tell whether it's plain text or using a framebuffer, and how do I switch between them? The framebuffer info in the FAQ and wiki seem to be about using a framebuffer as an alternative to Xorg or Xvesa, not just as a console?

[curaga]

If there's a vga= code present, it's the fb; if a high-res console, kms; if neither, likely plain old text mode.

[tinypoodle]

Silly question, but how do I tell whether it's plain text or using a framebuffer

Try

Code: [Select]

fbset -s
You can do that within X.

The framebuffer info in the FAQ and wiki seem to be about using a framebuffer as an alternative to Xorg or Xvesa, not just as a console?

Xfbdev is an X server, not to be confused with framebuffer console.

[althalus]

If there's a vga= code present, it's the fb; if a high-res console, kms; if neither, likely plain old text mode.

That's pretty much what I was expecting to hear. In that case, regardless of whether kms is enabled, and regardless of whether I use fb or text mode, the problem persists. This problem is observed with Xorg 7.4 and 7.5, but not Xvesa or Xfbdev.

Xfbdev is an X server, not to be confused with framebuffer console.

Yes, that was the conclusion I came to. Unfortunately, the FAQ isn't very clear on that point.

[tinypoodle]

You could see which resolutions xrandr has to offer with Xvesa and Xfbdev. If xrandr doesn't play nicely with Xvesa from base, try the Xvesa extension.

[althalus]

Another interesting (read: annoying) behaviour I've noticed, is the tendency for the laptop (or at least the screen) to become entirely unresponsive after shutting the lid and reopening it - Like the rest of this thread, it is only observed with Xorg.

[^thehatsrule^]

Another interesting (read: annoying) behaviour I've noticed, is the tendency for the laptop (or at least the screen) to become entirely unresponsive after shutting the lid and reopening it - Like the rest of this thread, it is only observed with Xorg.

That might signal sleep/resume, which others have observed problems specifically with xorg 7.5.

Split intel, etc. discussion to http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=6887.0

[tinypoodle]

Did you check if there is a BIOS setting what is to be done when lid is closed?

[althalus]

Unfortunately, the BIOS is rather useless on this particular laptop. Don't have it on hand at the moment, but the only things you can change are the clock and the boot order, if I remember correctly.