NVIDIA Screen Blanking and White Screen

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The NVIDIA driver does not restore the display when switching to console, 
and sometimes crashes and fades to white. When using the 195.xx series of 
drivers, the entire display locks up randomly (the solution is to use 
190.xx).

- Screen restoration when going back to console
- White screen of death
- Random crashes with 195.xx series

Original issue reported on code.google.com by Jason.Donenfeld on 10 Feb 2010 at 10:07

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I get white shading screen using 185.xx when shutting dowm the system

Original comment by u.lon...@gmail.com on 11 Feb 2010 at 9:13

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@u.longhi
Try upgrading to the 195.xx series and see if that fixes the problem.

Original comment by Jason.Donenfeld on 11 Feb 2010 at 4:08

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I get the same weird screens on shut down. Is that bad for my display? 

I'm using 185.xx series.

Original comment by kenjiru...@gmail.com on 23 Feb 2010 at 11:21

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With 190.xx it's gone ;-)

Original comment by u.lon...@gmail.com on 25 Feb 2010 at 10:37

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With kernel 2.6.31-20-generic-pae and nvidia driver 190.53 installed from
ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa, the white screens still there at shutdown.

Maybe it's a kernel issues..

Original comment by kenjiru...@gmail.com on 27 Feb 2010 at 2:22

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I don't know if I'm in the right thread... 
I may not allow my machine to enter standby mode, because the screen doesn't 
come
back after I try to wake it up. It's very annoying because I can't even close 
the
notebook. 
My machine is the vpcf111fx (with Ubuntu 9.10 64).
I was using the 185.xx Nvidia driver and have it updated to 190.56. I tried to 
use
the 195.xx but I could not keep it, because I haven't success applying the 
patch for
kernel 2.6.32. And without this kernel I don't have wireless connection.

Original comment by mruf...@gmail.com on 1 Mar 2010 at 8:02

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Reported it to the nvidia Linux support forum:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=149043

Original comment by tilman.vogel on 17 Mar 2010 at 9:32

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I've found that the nvidia driver can restore graphics after this whitescreen; 
it
just needs to be told to do so, which can be done with nvidia-settings or 
xrandr. I
added a small script to /etc/pm/sleep.d to accomplish this. It's an ugly kludge 
but
enables suspend for now (with pm-utils installed). Console switching is still
broken, as it can't restore text mode.

Original comment by yann.ver...@gmail.com on 20 Mar 2010 at 9:42

Attachments:

• xrandrhack

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The issue exists also when using the nv driver, but I haven't been able to get 
Yann's
xrandr hack to work for that case. Maybe I need to try some more.
Should try it with the nvidia driver.

Original comment by mag...@rubidium.dyndns.org on 25 Mar 2010 at 5:46

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That workaround was only for the nvidia driver. If you want to run a free 
driver, I
suggest Nouveau where this issue does not occur. It requires other work though, 
such
as patching to detect the display as 1920x1080 rather than the 2048x1536 the 
BIOS
table seems to say.

Original comment by yann.ver...@gmail.com on 25 Mar 2010 at 7:12

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Hi Yann, I would like to use the free Nouveau driver - and I have the issue 
where the 
bios is reporting 2048x1536.  Do you have pointer into fixing this.

Original comment by bherrma...@gmail.com on 28 Mar 2010 at 9:11

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Hello,

I have copied xrandrhack to /etc/pm/sleep.d and pm-utils is installed but I 
still
have the problem with the white screen.  Are there any additional steps which 
need to
be done in order to get this to work?

How would I accomplish the same thing through nvidia-settings?  Do I need to 
turn off
the Power Mizer?

Thanks for your help,

Patrick

Original comment by psmce...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2010 at 7:16

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For nouveau driver - in nouveau_bios.c function nouveau_bios_fp_mode, change the
[hv]display entries, as I mentioned in a comment on the NVIDIASetup page. This 
is a
crude workaround only, the actual fix is reading the information from ACPI 
(which is
in the works, pending ACPI updates in the kernel).
As for nvidia-settings, I've no clue how to script it.
The trick is that I run xrandr to change display mode after each resume, and 
the way
I triggered that is rather ugly - it may be that your system isn't running the 
script
at all or that the script fails to give xrandr access to your X server. The 
script
was just enough to work for me.

Original comment by yann.ver...@gmail.com on 29 Mar 2010 at 10:03

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This page has information to fix (allow) switching from X to text consoles
(CTRL-ALT-F*) using the binary NVIDIA drivers!  :)

http://idyllictux.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/lucidubuntu-10-04-high-resolution-ply
mouth-virtual-terminal-for-atinvidia-cards-with-proprietaryrestricted-driver/

Original comment by c.ra...@gmail.com on 17 May 2010 at 6:04

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Also, I have tested on a VPCF1190x using the stock ubuntu 10.04 kernel.  
However when
trying to get it working when I build a custom kernel (33-zen2), I am having 
some
issues.  First, I am building without an initrd.  The instructions in the link 
seem
to rely on it.  Any ideas about applying the solution in 17 without using an 
initrd?
 Second, if I actually enable the initrd, for some reason make-kpkg won't build the
initrd image.  Googled some articles that seem to imply a 10.04 issue.  Thanks!

Original comment by c.ra...@gmail.com on 17 May 2010 at 6:15

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The solution in comment #17 also allows suspend / resume to work properly.

Original comment by c.ra...@gmail.com on 18 May 2010 at 7:34

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I was able to build an initrd following the instructions on the Ubuntu wiki for
Kernel/Compile (<--crazy, right?).  Have to manually create the initrd image 
(or use
scripts in usr/share/doc).  I think the problem was related to no longer being 
able
(2.6.33+) select vesafb as a module.  I disabled vesafb and built uvesafb as a 
module
and am back to having custom kernel, binary nvidia, virtual consoles and a 
working
suspend / resume.

Now just to work on removing initrd again...

Original comment by c.ra...@gmail.com on 18 May 2010 at 5:28

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tried the solution in comment 17 and got suspend and tty's working now. but i 
have one 
issue: when switching to console window, i get shivering lines??????? also on 
shutdown 
plymouth shivers a lot! *lol* any suggestions?

thx

Original comment by elmar.sc...@gmail.com on 18 May 2010 at 7:20

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This problem is fixed by installing uvesafb. I've updated the wiki, and I'm 
closing 
this bug.

http://code.google.com/p/vaio-f11-linux/wiki/NVIDIASetup

Original comment by Jason.Donenfeld on 19 May 2010 at 3:03

• Changed state: Fixed

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Hi,

after following the instructions on installing uvesafb I'm really able to 
switch to 
virtual consoles via CTRL-ALT-F*.
But I have a [not that small] problem: regardless of which resolution I choose 
for 
the framebuffer, my virtual consoles always have distorted picture. It is 
distorted 
in the similar manner to how CRT monitors produce distorted image when asked to 
use a 
refresh rate which is higher then they can support.
This problem makes using of virtual consoles very uncomfortable. Symbols can be 
read, 
but well, my eyes get tired in moments :) And I'm not sure it's not a problem 
for the 
display / card to show such picture.

Also, hwinfo --framebuffer doesn't correctly recognize graphics hardware and 
therefore doesn't list all available modes, including the native fullhd...

Does anyone has any thoughts on these issues?

Original comment by shand...@gmail.com on 22 May 2010 at 10:00

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I have the same problem shandyba :

I'm using the  256.44 nvidia driver 

I've installed theses packages : v86d hwinfo 

# hwinfo --framebuffer

02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer                           
  [Created at bios.464]
  Unique ID: rdCR.+9U5l6S7P63
  Hardware Class: framebuffer
  Model: "NVIDIA GT216 Board - 0696a290"
  Vendor: "NVIDIA Corporation"
  Device: "GT216 Board - 0696a290"
  SubVendor: "NVIDIA"
  SubDevice: 
  Revision: "Chip Rev"
  Memory Size: 14 MB
  Memory Range: 0xe1000000-0xe1dfffff (rw)
  Mode 0x0300: 640x400 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x030e: 320x200 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x030f: 320x200 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
  Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
  Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0330: 320x200 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0331: 320x400 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0332: 320x400 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0333: 320x400 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0334: 320x240 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0335: 320x240 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0336: 320x240 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x033d: 640x400 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x033e: 640x400 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0345: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0346: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
  Mode 0x034a: 1600x1200 (+6400), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0360: 1280x800 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0361: 1280x800 (+5120), 24 bits
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

I've added theses lines in the grub config file  (/etc/default/grub)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset 
video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024

And this line in this file : /etc/initramfs-tools/modules 

uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

I've added this line in : /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash

FRAMEBUFFER=y

And finally I've updated grub and initramfs :
sudo update-grub2
sudo update-initramfs -u

Original comment by olivel...@gmail.com on 11 Aug 2010 at 11:01

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I have the same problem with the distorted image in virtual consoles. I'm using 
256.53 driver and I've also played with all the uvesafb parameters but with no 
luck.
The model is VPCF12M1EH.

Original comment by serban.ionica@gmail.com on 6 Sep 2010 at 11:49

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Someone can change the status of this issue ? : The problem has not been solved.

Thanks

Original comment by p1dep...@gmail.com on 6 Sep 2010 at 3:58

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I can confirm this issue on VPCF12C5E with 256.53 Nvidia Driver on Debian 
testing with trunk Kernel 2.6.35

Original comment by glaubens...@gmail.com on 6 Sep 2010 at 5:30

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Updated version of xrandrhack, which attempts to find the Xauthority database 
based on Xorg arguments. This works for gdm3 in Debian. Still a crude hack.

Original comment by yann.ver...@gmail.com on 16 Sep 2010 at 9:55

Attachments:

• xrandrhack