blank screen w/ kernel 2239, but not 2054

[persona]

Hi everyone.

I'm new here. I've done a brief search but have have yet to find any thread with similar issues. I may be a bit long winded, but pls bare with me.

I installed FC5 with kernel 2054 and installed an old version of the nvidia drivers, which I think was 8776, if I remember correctly. Everything was working fine. Then I did the software updates and updated everything, including the kernel, which is now 2239. Then I installed the new 9629 drivers. It then started to get strange.

After the install, I'll do a

init 5

to get to the login GUI, without any problem. Everything works fine. When I do a shutdown and a cold boot the next day, I would get a blank screen. Even

CTRL-ALT-F1

didn't work. I didn't get to the virtual console, which I believe I should get. Doing a

CTRL-ALT-DEL

would reboot my PC, except that I don't even get to see the shutdown process.

Now, during this warm boot, when I press ESC at the boot loader, I get an option to boot into the older 2054 kernel. Doing so, the boot process would continue normally, until it reaches the console login prompt. The screen would flicker a few times, presumably the X server was trying to start. Failing which, it would prompt that it failed to start and after displaying the error messages, suggest starting X with the default conf file. After saving this new conf file, the GUI would be able to load, but with the default VESA driver. Going to

System -> Administration -> Display

allowed me to switch to the nvidia driver. Subsequent log off and login again would get the driver working.

One trend I have noticed so far is that from a cold boot, 2239 kernel would give me a blank screen. Following the procedure as above and doing a restart, booting into the 2239 kernel appears to work.

Anyone with any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance.

[netllama]

The FC5 '2054' kernel has a bug which prevents it from working with the nvidia driver. See:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=72490

Thanks,
Lonni

[persona]

Hi Netllama,

thanks for your reply. I guess I forgot to add that I had followed steps 1 - 3 in that post.

In kernel 2054, I did the

# yum install kernel-devel xorg-x11-server-sdk pkgconfig

before installing the drivers.

The driver (8776) worked fine after that.

After the "Software Update" updated the kernal, I did the

# yum install kernel-devel xorg-x11-server-sdk pkgconfig

thing again, but yum stated that there was nothing to do.

I think the issue here is that the xorg.conf file isn't being saved. Either that, or perhaps the xorg.conf file created by the 2054 kernel isn't being accessed by 2239 kernel? Just a thought...

-- EDIT --
I guess I should add that I'm using GeForce 4 MX440. AMD Athlon 1.1 GHz, if it matters.

[netllama]

Please generate and post an nvidia-bug-report.log which captures this problem.

[persona]

I think this should be the bug report file I should be attaching.

It was created in the 2054 kernel, right when X server failed to start. I didn't allow X to reconfigure the xorg.conf file.

Hope this helps. I noticed that the 9631 driver has been released. I think I'll try to install this and see if I still get the same problems as before. Will report back.

-- Edit --
Ok, so the 9631 driver didn't work for me either.

[netllama]

As I stated above, the FC5 '2054' kernel has a bug which prevents it from working with the nvidia driver. See:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=72490

You can *NOT* use the FC5 '2054' kernel with the nvidia X driver.

Thanks,
Lonni

[persona]

Hi Lonni,

thanks for replying.

The issue I'm facing right now is that when I boot into the '2239' kernel, I get a blank screen. Pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 doesn't help either. You're right in that I can't run the nvidia drivers in the '2054' kernel.

Any idea if I would have better luck getting the rpms from the Livna repo? The only thing I noticed is that there isn't any Livna 9xxx rpm files available. I guess I'll be have to use the 8776 drivers then?

Thanks for your patience. Appreciate it.

[netllama]

If you're running into a problem with the 2039 kernel, please post a bug report which captures that problem.

Thanks,
Lonni

[persona]

Ok, I'll see how it goes.

Wonder if somehow, this is related to all the problems. It's quite old though.