Hi Andrew, I was able to find a workaround to your problem. For the little story I was experiencing the same problem on my own config (since dist-upgrade from wheezy to jessie). My config:
* GNU/Debian jessie/sid *"linux 3.9-1-amd64" * fglrx-* : 1:13.4-2 In order to "recover" access to the TTY I just update some grub2 config files : 1) in /etc/default/grub add the following : GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768,800x600 2) in /etc/grub.d/00_header add the following just after the line "set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}" set gfxpayload=1280x1024,1024x768x,800x600 3) launch command to update grub: $> update-grub And after a reboot everything come back to normal : access to TTY with the CTRL-ALT-F* was available... Best regards, Ressource link (in French) : http://www.tux-planet.fr/plymouth-et-les-drivers-proprietaires-nvidia/