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I was recently reminded of one of the things I didn't like about nVidia cards & Linux. I've installed 3-4 of them over the years in different machines (different cards, driver versions), and every one of them did the same thing to me:

After installing the proprietary driver (the open-source is fine), the virtual consoles (1-6) no longer work. (The problem was mentioned in this question, but a permanent solution was not the asker's priority.)

Upon switching to a text console, the monitor(s) no longer receive a signal from the video card.* Pressing Ctrl-F7 brings back the X console.

*In my current configuration, 2 of the monitors shut down but the 3rd displays a text screen with 

Ubuntu 15.04
 .  .  .  .

EDIT: sometimes the above message is replaced with an additional console message, like

[    0.490534] ACPI PCC probe failed.
starting version 219
_

Also interesting in the current setup is that when I switch back to #7, I usually get a dialog box "Authentication is required to update SMART data from...(/dev/sda) I'm only 90% sure this happened at the same time as the card & driver install.

I verified that /sbin/agetty processes are running for tty1-5.

Based on my own luck, I'd assume that it was a universal problem, but I sure haven't heard it discussed as if it were.

Any thoughts on how to get text consoles back without getting rid of nVidia's driver?

Community
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Charles Boling
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1 Answers1

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Apparently, the current version of the driver on this card does not clone the console screen on all monitors, but instead displays it only on one, powering down the other two.

Adding nomodeset to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT parameters (so the line reads, for example, GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset") in /etc/default/grub (and then running sudo update-grub) fixed the main problem; I now have normal virtual console operation. (I also got rid of the quiet & splash options, since there was no usable splash screen anyway, only a blank screen during most of the boot process.)

(Note that this solution does not do anything to help the problem of the "Authentication is required to update SMART data..." dialog appearing most of the time after switching back to X from text.)

Zanna
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Charles Boling
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