Virtual Consoles (Ctrl-Alt-F(1-6)) broken in Intrepid Ibex

[Altay_H]

After installing Intrepid Ibex I no longer can use the six virtual consoles. To clarify, I can switch to them and I think they're working correctly, but I cannot actually see any text on the screen. The screen is black, and about once every ten seconds (inconsistently) displays what it should in a single flash. This makes it difficult to use them, because commands like ls are completely useless, and I can't see if I make a mistake. Any ideas?


Here's my lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:04.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 10)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc SB400 AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)
03:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
03:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
03:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
03:04.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
03:04.4 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller
03:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

I'm not sure, but my only thought is that my graphics card driver could be the problem. I'm using an ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M with the FGLRX driver, which I know isn't flawless in Linux.

[Altay_H]

Bump.

I'm still having this problem.

[MorphWVUtuba]

I'm having this problem too.

Any luck finding a solution?

[Altay_H]

Unfortunately not. What I find strange is that I installed Intrepid Ibex on a separate partition of my hard drive, but I recently noticed that my Hardy Heron partition has the same problem. My only guess is that it's graphics card related.

What graphics card and driver are you using?

[Altay_H]

Bump.

Still having this problem.

[zman58]

Could it be a problem of your monitor not supporting the mode that the tty* console requires? Try using an older multi-syncing CRT monitor if you have one lying around.

[Altay_H]

Could it be a problem of your monitor not supporting the mode that the tty* console requires? Try using an older multi-syncing CRT monitor if you have one lying around.

This problem exists on a laptop, so I'd be surprised if it's the monitor. Especially because it worked before upgrading to Intrepid. I do happen to have an old CRT monitor, so I'll give it a try. Could you explain how I can tell whether or not it's multi-syncing? Are all CRT monitors multi-syncing, or must the monitor be both CRT and multi-syncing?

A small update: I tried disabling my graphics card driver (FGLRX) to see whether or not that would solve my problem. It did not.

[zman58]

CRT monitors, particularly higher end units, tend to be very flexible in supporting many different modes of operation (text and/or graphic). They can automatically sync to any of the modes they support (multisyncing). I have noticed that some of the LCD monitors I have worked with tend to be more limited as to what specific text or graphic modes they support--they typically do not handle the wide range that the CRT does. But since you are running on laptop, you are probably not using analog VGA port, so syncing is probably not your problem.

One other thought that came to mind is to try disabling any desktop acceleration. That is "Preferences - Appearance - Visual Effects" set to "none". Sometimes the desktop acceleration interferes with switching between screen sessions. --I have seen this in the past.

[Altay_H]

One other thought that came to mind is to try disabling any desktop acceleration. That is "Preferences - Appearance - Visual Effects" set to "none". Sometimes the desktop acceleration interferes with switching between screen sessions. --I have seen this in the past.

I'd try this, except that I already keep visual effects on none.

I just tried hitting Ctrl+Alt+F1 again, and it worked. I think it's because I recently rebooted after disabling my graphics card driver. I'm going to try enabling it again and see if the problem returns.


Update:
Yes, the problem is with my graphics card driver (FGLRX). Disabling it causes my Virtual Consoles to work perfectly, and enabling it causes them to mess up again. Should I submit a bug report?

[lowtolerance]

I'm having the same problem with the nonfree nvidia driver.