[mythtv-users] Nvidia with DVI-to-HDMI blank screen during boot

[Paul Bender]

Krzysztof Adamski wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-07-17 at 21:45 -0700, Paul Bender wrote:
>> Krzysztof Adamski wrote:
>>> On Fri, 2009-07-17 at 16:16 -0400, zablal baz wrote:
>>>> Hey All,
>>>>
>>>> This is more of an annoyance for me then anything else, but I would
>>>> love to know if anyone knows how to fix it. I have a GeForce FX 5200
>>>> video card that is connected to my 47" LCD TV via a DVI to HDMI
>>>> converter cable. Whenever I boot the system, I have to wait for X to
>>>> start before anything appears on the display. I don't get to see any
>>>> boot time messages and that kind of annoys me. I've seen this
>>>> behaviour in F8, F10, and F11.
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone know if there are some kernel parameters or something that
>>>> can be done to get the boot time messages up on the display during
>>>> boot? Or am I just stuck waiting for the nvidia driver to load and
>>>> initialize hardware?
>>> I have the same card connected the same way as you to a DLP Samsung and
>>> it displays the boot up just fine. It is probably your TV that does not
>>> want to display anything except hi res. The only difference is that I
>>> use Debian, but that does not matter since BIOS POST is visible.
>> I am not sure that it is television related.
>>
>> I have a motherboard with integrated nvidia 8200 graphics. Initially, it 
>> displayed BIOS and console via DVI on my television. However, at some 
>> point (apparently I did something via software, but I do not know what), 
>> it stopped displaying BIOS and console via DVI on the same television. 
>> In both cases, the display worked after Xorg started. Therefore, the 
>> hardware went from working to not working on the same television.
>>
>> I have thought that at some point I would boot the system using Windows 
>> in order to see whether or not the Windows drivers/software might fix 
>> the problem. However, since it continues to work via the HDMI interface, 
>>   it has not been a high priority.
> 
> Maybe there is something in the BIOS about which connector should be
> used for output during POST.

I thought so to, but I could not find anything in the BIOS settings.

The problem started after attempting to use the nouveau driver instead 
of the proprietary nvidia driver. The nouveau driver had serious issues 
with the on-board graphics and would not work, so I switched back. After 
that, the DVI did not show output from the BIOS or console.

The sequence of events made me think that there is some setting that is 
not accessible via the motherboard BIOS but can be changed by the video 
driver. I tried reseting the BIOS setting to default and re-flashing the 
BIOS, but neither fixed the problem. As a result, I thought about using 
the Windows driver/software in a last ditch attempt.

However, as I mentioned, since I am using the HDMI output (which does 
show the output from the BIOS and the console), fixing it has not been a 
high priority. As a result, I have never taken the time to add a hard 
disk (the motherboard is used in a diskless frontend) and install Windows.