Ubuntu 8.10 screen going blank on boot, with keyboard lockup

[edraven]

Version is Ubuntu 8.10 2.6.27-7-generic. I get the orange bar going across, then the screen goes black, then shortly after that the keyboard locks up. (numlock on/off stops working).

If I boot in recovery mode I can get to the Recovery Menu, and I have already tried the "xfix" option, but that doesn't work, as "resume" leads to the same black screen lockup. Same thing after doing "fsck", then "resume".

I'm at a loss, any ideas?

[D-cat]

Seeing as the screen's going black, it sounds like a classic graphics driver lockup (though it could potentially be another hardware issue)

From the recovery mode, you'll need to enter the console. You should then check the system and the X logs to see if anything jumps out...

tail /var/log/messages will show you most recent system events
tail /var/log/dmesg will show you most recent kernel messages
tail /var/log/Xorg.0.log will show you what X was doing right before the computer crashed (note, that's a zero).

Please post your results if possible.

[devils casper]

Which Graphics Card do you have?

[edraven]

The last thing I see in /var/log/messages is:

mtrr: base(0xf2000000) is not aligned on a size(0x5000000) boundary

and from my Xorg.0.log, looks like it's a Savage video card:

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//savage_drv.so
(II) Module savage: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.5.0, module version = 2.2.1
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 4.1
(II) SAVAGE: driver (version 2.2.1) for S3 Savage chipsets: Savage4,
Savage3D, Savage3D-MV, Savage2000, Savage/MX-MV, Savage/MX,
Savage/IX-MV, Savage/IX, ProSavage PM133, ProSavage KM133,
Twister PN133, Twister KN133, SuperSavage/MX 128, SuperSavage/MX 64,
SuperSavage/MX 64C, SuperSavage/IX 128, SuperSavage/IX 128,
SuperSavage/IX 64, SuperSavage/IX 64, SuperSavage/IXC 64,
SuperSavage/IXC 64, ProSavage DDR, ProSavage DDR-K
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01@00:00:0

[D-cat]

Turns out this is a known problem. I don't know yet how to make the savage driver work right (looking at it), though I could suggest as a fallback to reconfigure X to use the generic VESA SVGA driver if nothing else pans out; that'll at least boot, but no accelerated video would be quite sub-optimal for anything other than basic tasks like word processing.

I'll see what else I can find out (on a practical level).

---

Someone created a patched driver that reportedly works (from the document linked above), you can find the DEB package here.

Download the xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb file and copy it to a removable media (like a floppy disk).

You'll have to enter the recovery mode command console of your new install. Insert and mount* the media the above file is located (man mount for help), and run

dpkg -i /media/(drive)/xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb

to install the new driver. Assuming no errors, umount your media, type reboot and eject or pull out your removable media. With any luck, your computer should boot up normal.

*I don't know if auto-mounting works in the recovery console, I'm just assuming it doesn't. Auto mounts of removable media typically appears in the /media directory.

[edraven]

I can get the machine online via recovery console and start SSH to get in, but I have a conflict trying to install that deb:

# dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb
dpkg: regarding xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb containing xserver-xorg-video-savage:
xserver-xorg-core conflicts with xserver-xorg-video-2
xserver-xorg-video-savage provides xserver-xorg-video-2 and is to be installed.
dpkg: error processing xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb (--install):
conflicting packages - not installing xserver-xorg-video-savage
Errors were encountered while processing:
xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb

# apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting xserver-xorg-video-via instead of xserver-xorg-video-2
Package xserver-xorg-video-via is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package xserver-xorg-video-via has no installation candidate

[D-cat]

I always love venturing into dangerous territory (/Sarcasm)

try dpkg -i --force-conflicts xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb

I would never do it this way if it wasn't a new install that failed from the get-go. It still might fail, requiring a --force-overwrite too, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[edraven]

# dpkg -i --force-conflicts xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb
dpkg: regarding xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb containing xserver-xorg-video-savage:
xserver-xorg-core conflicts with xserver-xorg-video-2
xserver-xorg-video-savage provides xserver-xorg-video-2 and is to be installed.
dpkg: warning - ignoring conflict, may proceed anyway !
(Reading database ... 158399 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace xserver-xorg-video-savage 1:2.2.1-1build2 (using xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.2.1-2_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement xserver-xorg-video-savage ...
Setting up xserver-xorg-video-savage (1:2.2.1-2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...

Then I rebooted, and it works again. Thanks for your help.

Though I do have an issue because of that fix now:

# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
xserver-xorg-core: Conflicts: xserver-xorg-video-2
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

root@ssalinux:/home/drew# apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-savage
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
After this operation, 270kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

I don't want to remove those packages do I?

[D-cat]

The following packages will be REMOVED:
xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-savage

Probably ought to use Synaptic or Aptitude to see if it can come up with a more acceptable solution. Obviously, you're right; allowing the default "solution" will put you right back to where you started. Welcome to dependency h3ll. I'm not sure if there's a way to put xserver-xorg-video-savage on an ignore list like RPM based distros, that would be ideal right now, since the current config is working. I've never dealt with this in Debian/Ubuntu, but I'll see if I can find something. If anyone else knows the answer, please jump in now! Thank you.

[D-cat]

Possible solution... I don't exactly know how to do this, so I'm going to overkill it. After doing this, I'd be careful to not upgrade anything that has to do with X.

Edit the file '/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg' (you'll need root priv... sudo nano /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg)

Add the line:

ignore-depends=xserver-xorg-core,xserver-xorg-video-2

and save. (Ctrl + X , y )

I'm basing the package selections on the above 'apt-get upgrade' output. If it doesn't work, edit the file again, adding to the line so it reads:

ignore-depends=xserver-xorg-core,xserver-xorg-video-2,xserver-xorg-video-all,xserver-xorg-video-savage

If I'm interpreting the manual documents correctly, this should solve those messages.