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

On 3/16/26 6:18 AM, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> Hello, Dale.
>
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2026 at 02:07:40 -0500, Dale wrote:
>> On 3/15/26 8:04 PM, Dale wrote:
>>> On 3/15/26 7:00 PM, Dale wrote:
> [ .... ]
>
>>> Update.  None of this worked.  Everything I disabled resulted in a
>>> failed kernel make.  I had to go back to the original config.  It
>>> appears the things I have enabled must be enabled for the kernel to
>>> finish the make process.
>>> I'm going to try to reboot in a bit.  Supposed to be storms here
>>> shortly and power may fail and I'll have to shutdown anyway.  The
>>> storms look kinda ugly on the radar.  o_O
>>> Any more ideas?  Maybe the re-emerge of nvidia-drivers will work. One
>>> can hope.
>>> Dale
>>> :-)  :-)
>
>> OK.  I didn't lose power during the storm but I have rebooted.  The
>> updated nvidia drivers is in use now.  Still no console.  I have no idea
>> where to go next.  Changing options in the kernel, which has worked for
>> many months, results in a failed make due to missing kernel drivers.
>> Changing nvidia drivers didn't help either.
>> I checked the inittab file to see if anything got changed but it looks
>> like it always has.  Of course, since I could login blindly and reboot,
>> we know agetty is being spawned like normal.  I might add, during the
>> boot up, the usual kernel lines and services starting was scrolling up
>> the screen.  The best I can figure, once the GUI starts, it can't switch
>> back to a console.
>> Anybody have other ideas?
> Not much of one, but could you please check that
> CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE is enabled in your kernel?  It's found at
> Device Drivers/Graphics support/Console display driver
> support/Framebuffer Console support.
>
> Without this, a there is no console to display on the framebuffer.  But
> seeing as how you see boot messages, it's probably set anyway.  But maybe
> you're seeing the boot messages through grub's text handling, I don't
> know.  Switching the display from boot loader to kernel, then from one
> framebuffer to another is complicated, and probably not wholly defined.
> But it's got to worth the time for a quick check.
>
>> Thanks.
>
I did a search for it.  This is the part of the screen, in case some 
other setting is wrong in that section.  I edited it to make it not line 
wrap.  Nothing important missing tho.



(80) Initial number of console screen columns
(25) Initial number of console screen rows
[*] Framebuffer Console support
[*]   Enable legacy fbcon hardware acceleration code
[*]   Enable Scrollback Buffer in System RAM
(128)   Scrollback Buffer Size (in KB)
[*]     Enable a working GPM for scrolled back scrollback buffer in 
System RAM
-*-   Map the console to the primary display device
[ ]   Framebuffer Console Rotation
[ ]   Framebuffer Console Deferred Takeover



That look like the same as a working system you have?

Thanks for the help.  As you said, it only takes a minute to check. :-D

Dale

:-)  :-)