TTY1 doesn't run at boot, but TTYs 2-6 are OK

**kornfan71** · February 28th, 2013

Hello all,
I'm running Ubuntu Server 12.04.2 LTS, and I have a Lubuntu desktop installed on it. I don't want X Server to start when I boot into Ubuntu, though, so I added the "text" option to Grub's "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT" line.
This much works well. I get dropped to a TTY, and the X server is not started.

However, it drops me to what should be TTY1...but it's just a blank screen with a flashing cursor on it.
If I switch to TTY2, I get a login prompt. I checked the output of ps -ef | grep tty, and there was no mention of TTY1. Running sudo start tty1 starts TTY1 just fine, and it is then 100% usable.

Does anyone know what's going on here?

Thanks in advance.

**matt_symes** · March 1st, 2013

Hi

Waht version os Lubuntu are you using ?

If it is 12.04 or greater then it is using LightDM as the desktop manager.

You can ensure LightDm does not start at startup by creating an override file and this is the way you want to be doing it.

Remove that text parameter from grub as that was only ever a hack to ensure GDM did not boot at startup and, if i remember correctly, was part of GDM's startup scripts.

So, put the system back as it was.

After that, boot into your system and from a terminal or console type

Code:

echo "manual" | sudo tee /etc/init/lightdm.override

Thst should do it for you.

Kind regards

**kornfan71** · March 1st, 2013

matt,
Thanks for the reply. I went ahead and removed the text boot option, and added the override. Unfortunately, the same behavior is still happening. It leaves the screen set to TTY7 with the startup info printed on it, and TTY1 does not start. TTY2-6 all have terminals running on them.

**matt_symes** · March 1st, 2013

Hi

Unfortunately, the same behavior is still happening.

Hmm. That's a surprise.

Any chance you can take a picture of TTY1 at startup and upload it here. I would like to see it.

Can you also post the output of

Code:

cat /etc/init/tty1.conf

Kind regards

**kornfan71** · March 2nd, 2013

Sure. This is what it looks like directly after startup, without hitting anything:
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5ccc0e41.jpg

This is what TTY1 looks like when I hit CTRL+ALT+F1:
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/...psea09fda5.jpg
(Bad timing on the picture, but there was a flashing cursor at the top left.)

And this is TTY2 if you're curious:
http://i1044.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3531429b.jpg

Here's /etc/init/tty1.conf:

Code:

# tty1 - getty#
# This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the point the system is
# started until it is shut down again.


start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345] and (
            not-container or
            container CONTAINER=lxc or
            container CONTAINER=lxc-libvirt)


stop on runlevel [!2345]


respawn
exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1

I also cat'd /etc/init/tty2.conf for comparison:

Code:

# tty2 - getty#
# This service maintains a getty on tty2 from the point the system is
# started until it is shut down again.


start on runlevel [23] and (
            not-container or
            container CONTAINER=lxc or
            container CONTAINER=lxc-libvirt)


stop on runlevel [!23]


respawn
exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty2

Would it be alright to change the tty1.conf to match tty2.conf? I figure they would have to be a little different since you're supposed to be dropped at TTY1 after boot...

This is the outupt of "runlevel," if that's pertinent:

Code:

N  2

Thanks in advance!

**matt_symes** · March 2nd, 2013

Hi

tty1.conf and tty2.conf are both fine as they are.

Your boot messages are being logged to tty1.

Can you post the output of

Code:

cat /proc/cmdline

Kind regards

**kornfan71** · March 3rd, 2013

matt,
Here's the output of "cat /proc/cmdline":

Code:


BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-25-generic root=UUID=6cd9a7c1-d48c-4ba0-8288-343f352bd169 ro quiet

Thanks!

**matt_symes** · March 4th, 2013

Hi

I'm not 100% sure what to suggest at the moment.

You could try adding this to your kernel command line

Code:

vt.handoff=7

I don't think that would help though.

Can you also post the output of

Code:

ps aux | grep tty

Kind regards

**schragge** · March 4th, 2013

Originally Posted by matt_symes

You could try adding this to your kernel command line

Code:

vt.handoff=7

I'd rather suspect vt.handoff being the trigger of this behaviour if it were present, but it isn't. See LP#761830. In other words, this looks as if vt.handoff=1 were present on the kernel command line, but it isn't.

**kornfan71** · March 6th, 2013

Tried the vt.handoff=7; result was a blank screen until I switched to TTYs 2-7 (it appeared to be on 1).

This is the output of "ps aux | grep tty":

Code:

root       851  0.0  0.0  15784   972 tty4     Ss+  18:28   0:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty4
root       869  0.0  0.0  15784   976 tty5     Ss+  18:28   0:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty5
root       875  0.0  0.0 132040  3588 tty2     Ss+  18:28   0:00 /bin/login --       
root       876  0.0  0.0  15784   980 tty3     Ss+  18:28   0:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty3
root       880  0.0  0.0  15784   980 tty6     Ss+  18:28   0:00 /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty6
server    2328  0.0  0.0   9388   924 pts/0    S+   18:31   0:00 grep --color=auto tty

Only other tidbit I noticed: I messed up the vt.handoff command the first time (put in an underscore instead of a period). I was just modifying it at boot time, rather than updating the config, so Grub says it's "Booting a command list." That text stayed on TTY1 after Ubuntu had finished booting. Probably not really important, but I had not seen that happen before. That was also the result with the option vt.handoff=1.