[mythtv-users] New Mythbuntu 14.04 battle with nvidia boot up

[faginbagin]

On 10/16/2014 3:24 PM, Craig Huff wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 3:42 PM, Kingsley Turner <krt at krt.com.au> wrote:
>> I'm just guessing here (I had to back-port to 12.04 after 14.04 failed on my
>> nvidia 9400)
>> But I would try completely disabling any sort of framebuffer / GUI boot
>> splash.
>>
>> I notice that 14.04 has framebuffer GUI splash/logo stuff, and 12.04 does
>> not, it's pure text.
>>
>> Even with just the install CD/DVD I got some screen corruption just before
>> the framebuffer GUI started.
>> (With both Mythbuntu 12.04.04, and 14.04.01)
>> So .. have you tried FRAMEBUFFER="n"  (or whatever it takes to turn this
>> sucker off).
>>
>> cheers,
>> -kt
> 
> 
> Been beating on this problem and I've not made any progress.
> 
> I tried using FRAMEBUFFER=n, but that didn't seem to do anything.
> 
> I have tried searching for pointers in webpages on grub configuration
> that might help and googled "linux nvidia boot freeze", but none of
> the following suggested actions helped (not necessarily tried in this
> order):
>      1) twiddle with vmalloc=nnn[KMG]B (instead of default 128MB) in
> linux boot command line (or if it had worked in /etc/default/grub as
> an addition to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" line.
>      2) twiddle with the screen resolution in /etc/default/grub with
> various values for parameters GRUB_GFXMODE=nnnxmmm, and
> GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=nnnxmmm, including 640x480, 1280x1024.
>      3) remove nouveau driver
>      4) remove nvidia driver, reboot, reinstall nvidia driver (nvidia-304).
> 
> The only thing I can say for sure is that given these lines from
> /boot/grub/grub.cfg:
> 
>      ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
>      function gfxmode {
>          set gfxpayload="${1}"
>          if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then
>              set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7
>          else
>              set vt_handoff=
>          fi
>      }
>     set linux_gfx_mode=1280x1024
>     export linux_gfx_mode
> 
> then these lines (which follow immediately after the above) always
> results in the system freezing on cold boot before anything gets
> logged in /var/log/<anything>:
> 
>      menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu
> --class os $menuentry_id_option
> 'gnulinux-simple-f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6' {
>              recordfail
>              load_video
>              gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
>              insmod gzio
>              insmod part_msdos
>              insmod ext2
>              set root='hd0,msdos1'
>              if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
>                search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root
> --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1
> --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6
>              else
>                search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root
> f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6
>              fi
>              linux   /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-37-generic
> root=UUID=f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6 ro  quiet splash
> $vt_handoff
>              initrd  /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-37-generic
> }
> 
> and choosing the following menu entry will always succeed (with manual
> intervention to hit return a couple of times in the boot process):
> 
>      menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-37-generic (recovery mode)'
> --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os
> $menuentry_id_option
> 'gnulinux-3.13.0-37-generic-recovery-f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6'
> {
>              recordfail
>              load_video
>              insmod gzio
>              insmod part_msdos
>              insmod ext2
>              set root='hd0,msdos1'
>              if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
>                  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root
> --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1
> --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6
>              else
>                  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root
> f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6
>              fi
>              echo    'Loading Linux 3.13.0-37-generic ...'
>              linux   /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-37-generic
> root=UUID=f559581d-fb44-482a-8751-ce00ea705bd6 ro recovery nomodeset
>              echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
>              initrd  /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-37-generic
> }
> 
> I'd hate to spend money on a new video card just to find out that
> didn't fix the problem, but I'm about out of other ideas to try.
> Seems like there ought to be a way to get this system to run with a
> newer version of Mythbuntu since it works perfectly (albeit with
> outdated features and security) on the old version (Mythbuntu 10.04
> with _no_ updates to kernel or MythTV).
> 
> Any more suggestions I can try?
> 
> --
> Craig.

If you are able to boot using grub's recovery option, then you should be able to get the default boot option to boot, too.

What you need to do is edit /etc/default/grub, and change this line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to this line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"

Then execute the command:
sudo update-grub

Once that's done, reboot. You will see the splash screen is replaced with lots of text output by the kernel, very similar to what you see when you boot into recovery mode. But, you won't get the recovery menu letting you choose whether to continue normal boot, or single user with or without networking ... Instead, the X server should start up without any user intervention. If it doesn't, chances are you'll have some hint as to what's wrong from all that text output.

HTH,
Helen