Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

[evans62]

My kernel upgrade today killed my video again. My Monitor says "video resolution out of range. "

I can't boot any of my old kernels either. And the recovery mode doesn't work for any of the kernels either. ONE TIME ONLY I got a message saying it was running in low resolution mode. I haven't gotten that again since.

I know I need to do something with my xorg.conf, but I don't remember how to get to it since my monitor can't sync up. Help!

Also, can someone remind me the quickest way to show what version of KDE I am running (after I get my video working again of course)

- John

[lmilano]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

What kubuntu version are you running? What video card do you have? How did you install the drivers?

In the last couple releases, Ubuntu has been using a mechanism for managing binary drivers (DKMS, donated by Dell), which should ensure (in principle) that these drivers will be rebuilt for each kernel upgrade.

Also, what do you mean exactly when you say that the rescue mode? If you can't even boot to a text mode interface in recovery mode, then there are bigger issues than just the video

The more info you give us the better!

[evans62]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

I'm running Karmic, it was the kernel upgrade from 31.14 to 31.15 that messed up my video.

I have an ATI Radeon X300. If I remember correctly, I didn't have to do anything to install the video driver.

By Recovery Mode I mean text mode. I can't boot 31.15, 31.15 Recovery Mode, 31.14, 31.14 Recovery Mode, or any of the other kernels I still have showing up in GRUB. They all do the same thing. It starts to boot, then I get the Kubuntu logo in graphics mode, then it switches to some resolution that my monitor cant handle.

[lmilano]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

Arrg, it seems as if the recovery mode is not finishing the boot up to the menu where it gives you a few options, such as fixing your video, right?

This seems more serious than a display problem, really. Can you please boot to grub, please "e" to edit, and see if you can remove the "splash" option from the boot options? Then you can press "b" to boot. Without the splash, you may get more relevant info to debug the issue.

This could be an issue with data integrity, if you can boot from a live CD and run a filesystem check (fsck) on that drive, it might help! (I've seen it happen in cases like this, though it doesn''t always help)

Good luck, and keep us posted!

[lmilano]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

Let me add more, there is something really weird. The Rescue Mode should not start the graphical boot up (splash). So, there is something really strange, either you are doing something different than I think, or your grub got screwed.

Another thing you can try is ctrl+Alt+F1 once the bootup hangs, see if you can get a terminal login. If you do, type this:

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Hope that does it!

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

I am having the same problem.

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Don't do that. This appears to be a bug in the startup scripts; it is starting kdm before the video driver loads, which is bound to cause problems.

Two things to check:

1. If you are using proprietary video drivers, you will have to reinstall them after a kernel update. You probably have already done that, else you would get no graphics screen at all.

2. In some cases, you can just wait a while, and the video driver will load, and then kdm will restart on its own. That is why you are seeing the graphical interface after choosing the root console. So if you just wait a while, kdm may start on its own. Edit: In the error message that I get, there is a "cancel" option in the message box. Choosing that, and then waiting a few seconds, brings up the normal login screen on my system.

If not, then from the error box, choose console login, or else CTRL-ALT-F1. From the console, do the following:

sudo service kdm stop
sudo service kdm start

That should bring up the login screen.

This is a bug in the startup process, and so far I haven't been able to pin down the script that is doing it. Maybe someone else knows. Until then. this is the workaround.

Edit: A while back there were some posts that the developers wanted to get away from usplash by starting kdm earlier in the boot process. This may be the result of that attempt. What they need to do is make sure any video driver modules get loaded before kdm, else the present problems will occur.

[lmilano]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

ah, if that's the case, would installing gdm help?

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

ah, if that's the case, would installing gdm help?

Haven't tried that, so I don't know. If the 'start kdm early' is an ubuntu-wide thing, probably not.
I have found all I need to do is hit 'OK' on the first error screen, and 'Cancel' on the second, then the console login appears briefly, and then kdm starts up normally.

<opinion> This should have been tried and debugged BEFORE the stable release. Now it's just scaring people. </opinion>

[lmilano]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

So this is a widespread issue? Can you please post a link to the launchpad bug report here? It would be useful, really!

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Kernel Update killed my video again, please remind me what to do!

I gave up on launchpad. Impossible for me to figure out. Besides, I don't know which package the problem is with. It's a startup script, somewhere, and if I knew which one, I'd try to fix it and post the results. Oh well.