Gutsy rc boot is a dark experience

[sktsee]

On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:50:11 -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:

> I've been running the gutsy leading edge on my X31 laptop for a while
> now. Recent updates, combined with some ill-advised meddling on my part,
> took the system to a point where it would no longer boot.  So I grabbed
> the RC release and installed from the beginning.  Most things seem to
> work well, but...
> 
> Once grub passes control to the kernel, the screen goes black.  It stays
> that way until the login screen shows up.  In between is a
> discouragingly long time when the only sign of life is the disk activity
> LED.  I've learned to be patient, knowing that the system will
> eventually come back to me, but it sure would be nice to have my display
> back during the boot process.
> 
> Has anybody else seen this?  Any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> jon

Try doing the following:

$ sudo cp /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/vesafb.ko
 /lib/modules/`uname -r`/initrd   <--this is on one line

$ sudo update-initramfs -u

(`uname -r` gives the current release version of the running kernel)

To reverse the change, just delete vesafb.ko from the /lib/modules/`uname
-r`/initrd directory (leave the copy in ..kernel/drivers/video alone!) and
either run sudo update-initramfs -u again, or copy the backup 
initrd image version (/boot.initrd.img-`uname -r`.bak) over the one made
when you ran the update-initramfs command listed up top.

$ sudo cp /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r`.bak /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r`

-- 
sktsee