Hello, Dale. On Sat, Mar 14, 2026 at 18:04:47 -0500, Dale wrote: > On 3/14/26 4:19 PM, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > > 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 > >> :-) :-) > That would make sense. Where does the microcode come from? Sorry, I used the wrong word. I really meant firmware. This is in the kernel configuration under Device Drivers/Generic Driver Options/Firmware Loader in make menuconfig. There, I have a (long) list of firmware files for the built in AMD graphics I use on my machine. You surely have a similar list there, but for an nVidia graphics card. I don't think one can use the kernel module mechanism for these files. Are you using a recently build kernel (e.g. 6.18.12)? If so, have any of these firmware files been updated recently? They are probably in package sys-kernel/linux-firmware. > I use Nvidia drivers. I tried the other one but it was a disaster. > Even on this fast rig, the mouse couldn't move smoothly. It would jump > and jerk to places. Windows were slow too. Is that where the > microcode comes from or something else? See above. > I think the nvidia drivers updated a while back so that is a good > idea. I wouldn't have thought about that. If it was the GUI, then I > would. Might it be possible that nVidia simply removed the console driver from the code? > Oh, would I need to reboot for the code to take effect once I go back a > version of something? I think that's likely. :-( > Dale > :-) :-) -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
