Hi Robert, I have a tiny comment - inline - On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 4:18 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@crashcourse.ca> wrote:

 this is a copy of something i forwarded to the linux kernel mailing list, and i'd be interested if anyone else would test this and reproduce the problem:

===== start =====

 on my ubuntu laptop (gateway NV79), a 2.6.37-rc7+ kernel i just built now boots to a black screen.  no text mode, no virtual consoles, nothing.

 this is probably the best explanation:

http://www.oblurb.com/ubuntu-dell-latitude-e6510-intel-gpu-blank-screen.html

annoyingly, i'm currently running a 2.6.37-rc5+ hand-rolled kernel that works fine, but this more recent kernel doesn't, and a kernel *earlier* also doesn't work, so this issue seems to come and go.

 here's another extended conversation on the same topic:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/600453

here's the relevant output from lspci:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 12) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 031c        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 41        Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]        Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]        I/O ports at 3050 [size=8]        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]        Capabilities: <access denied>        Kernel driver in use: i915        Kernel modules: i915

if i use "nomodeset", i can boot to the command line and no further. i'm open to suggestions.

===== end =====

 in short, a while back, building a kernel from the git repo failed to give me a working kernel.  suddenly, as of 2.6.37-rc5, it worked fine and it's the kernel i'm running under right now:

$ uname -r 2.6.37-rc5+ $

 and now, as of 2.6.37-rc7, it's back to being borked.  i'd love to have piles of free time to track this down but, before i do that, i'd be interested in having someone else try this and let me know if exactly the same thing happens for them.

 this is a a gateway NV79 laptop, intel core i3-330m, with intel integrated graphics controller.  thoughts?

rday

p.s.  it seems clear that the system doesn't simply hang.  even after the screen goes black very early in the boot process, there is ample disk activity showing that the boot is continuing, and i eventually hear the little ubuntu "drum roll" that indicates i'm at the login screen.  so it's just the video that's died.

What parameters are being passed to the new kernel via Grub? I had the same issue (don't remember, but I think it was with one of the rc build of 2.6.34) and it could drill it down to a 'vga' parameter on the Grub command line. I removed everything (including any standard 'quiet' parameter which Ubuntu distro kernel has) and managed to boot with some vga value I can't recall (will search and post in case I can find it). I understand that you priority could be to find the solution to this bug - what I state here is just a stop gap solution in case you have not already figured that out. Apologies in case this is obvious to you.

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======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA                        http://crashcourse.ca

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