Re: No console anymore. How to figure this out.

Hello, Dale.

On Sat, Mar 14, 2026 at 14:55:41 -0500, Dale wrote:
> Howdy,

> I did my updates earlier.  Usually I logout, go to boot runlevel and 
> restart services if needed and then go back to default runlevel and 
> login.  I noticed a couple weeks ago that I no longer get a console when 
> I do a CTRL ALT F1.  My monitors turn off saying no signal.  At first, I 
> did the sysrq thing.  Then it occurred to me that I should try CTRL ALT 
> F7 and see if the GUI is still running.  It is.  So, at least I can log 
> back in.

> I've never ran into a situation where CTRL ALT F1 didn't give me a 
> console.  I did check, agetty is running.  I even did a pkill so it 
> would restart, still no console.  I have no idea where to go from here.  
> In some 20 years of using Linux, I've never had a console not be there.  
> This started about two weeks ago.  Maybe three.  I suspect a update but 
> it could be that I either updated a config file or may have changed 
> something not meaning to.

> Anyone have ideas on what to check to fix this?

You've got an nVidia graphics card, haven't you?

I note that you're getting _no_ signal to the monitors, not merely a
blank signal.

In your position, I'd look to see if the card's microcode has been
recently "updated", possibly on building gentoo-sources-6.18.12.  Then
do the same for the card's drivers.  If so, try going to the previous
version of either of these.

Other than that, I've no idea.

> Thanks in advance.

> Dale

> :-)  :-)

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).