[syslinux] no display what can I try.

[Jeff Sadowski]

On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 4:40 AM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 10:37 PM, Locane <locane at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Have you tried a different monitor?  Has that monitor ever shown you a boot
>> loader menu?  It might be that it just doesn't support the low-level
>> resolutions Grub is trying to use.
>
> I can't say I've ever seen a monitor that didn't interpolate the very
> low output sizes.

This is really recent with supermicro MB and Top line Nvidia cards.
>
> With that, have you tried other monitor ports?
Yup, all of them.
One of the cards(also newer nvidia) that didn't work in that machine
had svga and that didn't work either. Even more odd that card worked
in another machine but that was a different monitor so maybe it is
some kind of combination.
And I can't figure out how it works in the bios it uses a lower rez there.
>
>> On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 7:09 PM, Jeff Sadowski via Syslinux
>> <syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I want to see things,  I'm not sure how quiet would work.
>
> I was pointing out that you had "quiet" which would preclude you from
> seeing anything from when you activated a menu option until well after
> the Linux kernel has control.
>
We are on the same page now. Yeah that isn't where my issue was.
>>> Maybe next time I get the box I can re-put in the older working card
>>> and try to do a firmware upgrade.
>>> This does not seem distro specific. All versions of grub and syslinux
>>> do not work in the default configs.
>
> I misinterpreted your initial statement.  You really meant that after
> the POST, there's no output until a higher graphics mode is enabled.
> This is an almost pure hardware/firmware discussion.
>
OK so might not be anything I can do accept hammer on nvidia or card
manufacture.

> Lots of things to check that you may or may not have examined.
>
>  - Did you hook that monitor to another machine and see Syslinux/GRUB output?
Yup, monitor works on most machines. I have plenty to choose from.
>  - Did you try plugging in monitors to some of the other outputs
> including any possible onboard ports?
Yup, discussed above.
>  - Is the machine actually a UEFI irmwware machine and you're using
> the CSM for BIOS/legacy boot?
Actually very probably. I know we are using BIOS boot method and that
the machine supports EFI
I didn't know of issues with this and video display. I have many
machines using BIOS boot with EFI support that have been put in legacy
mode without the issue and odd that it works with older nvidia cards.

>  - If UEFI, did you consider a UEFI boot?
I'll have to devise a way to try this with pxe boot for testing and if
it works I can make a EFI boot partition and try and convert it.

>  - Did you check on motherboard firmware updates?
I'd need the board again. I'm sure there are some.

>  - Did you try without vesamenu.c32?
not yet

>  - What output sizes did you try?
640x480,800x600,1024x768

>  - Regarding VESA modes that are reported, there may be a way with HDT
> to automate the reporting to a TFTP server of the VESA modes the
> system reports.
>
Interesting.

>>> I will try using menu.c32 vs vesamenu.c32 as well. To see if it won't
>>> display.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 4:52 AM, Gene Cumm <gene.cumm at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > On Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 3:47 PM, Jeff Sadowski via Syslinux
>>> > <syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:
>>> >> I have an odd issue.
>>> >> I have one machine that does not display to the monitor when it goes
>>> >> to a linux boot loader.
>>> >> It has the issue with grub and pxelinux.
>>> >>
>>> >> I see the bios but between bios and graphics driver I see a blank
>>> >> screen.
>>> >>
>>> >> Any recommendations on how to fix it?
>>> >>
>>> >> More to it. It is a newer nvidia card, That I need to drive a 4K
>>> >> monitor at 60Hz . If I replace it with an old nvidia card I can see it
>>> >> fine but it doesn't get me 4K at 60Hz.
>>> >>
>>> >> In grub I tried setting the resolution to 1024x768 using
>>> >>
>>> >> GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768
>>> >>
>>> >> and ran "upgrade-grub"
>>> >>
>>> >> But I still ended with a blank screen.
>>> >>
>>> >> I really want pxelinux more than grub in hopes that some way I could
>>> >> boot clonezilla via pxe boot.
>>> >> Which I have working for the rest of my machines.
>>> >>
>>> >> I have a second video card that has the same symptoms in that machine
>>> >> but not in another.
>>> >> So something about motherboard+video card+(maybe monitor) that causes
>>> >> the issue. If someone has some suggestions of something to pass to
>>> >> pxelinux via it's config that I could try out I'd much appreciate it.
>>> >>
>>> >> my pxelinux config looks like so
>>> >>
>>> >> default vesamenu.c32
>>> >> #menu resolution 800 600
>>> >> #prompt 1
>>> >> #timeout 30
>>> >>
>>> >> display boot.msg
>>> >>
>>> >> label local
>>> >>   menu label Boot from ^local drive
>>> >>   menu default
>>> >>   timeout 20
>>> >>   kernel chain.c32
>>> >>   append hd0
>>> >> label memtest86
>>> >>   menu label ^Memory test
>>> >>   kernel memtest
>>> >>   append -
>>> >> label Clonezilla-live Stable 2017-02-20 x64
>>> >>   menu label Clonezilla Live 2017-02-20 x64 (Stable)
>>> >>   kernel cz170220.x64/live/vmlinuz
>>> >>   append initrd=cz170220.x64/live/initrd.img boot=live union=overlay
>>> >> username=user hostname=clonezilla config quiet components noswap
>>> >> edd=on nomodeset nodmraid noeject locales=en_US.UTF-8
>>> >> keyboard-layouts=NONE ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
>>> >> ocs_live_extra_param="" ocs_live_batch=no vga=788
>>> >> toram=filesystem.squashfs ip=dhcp net.ifnames=0  splash
>>> >> i915.blacklist=yes radeonhd.blacklist=yes nouveau.blacklist=yes
>>> >> vmwgfx.enable_fbdev=1 ocs_prerun="dhclient && mount -t nfs
>>> >> loki:/ifs/it/sysadmin/clonezilla /home/partimag"
>>> >> fetch=tftp://10.0.100.78/cz170220.x64/live/filesystem.squashfs
>>> >
>>> > For starters, the keyword "quiet" silences all messages from Syslinux
>>> > and the Linux kernel.  Most initrds also adhere to this.
>>> > "nouveau.blacklist" controls an nVidia driver.
>>> >
>>> > Consider also firmware upgrades/downgrades to the motherboard and
>>> > graphics card.  On occasion, you work around a bug in the current
>>> > firmware with a mildly older one.
>>> >
>>> > Beyond that, it's distro-specific or hardware-specific.
>>> >
>>> > Also, I hope the initrd/rootfs uses DHCP itself as some DHCP clients,
>>> > including some PXE clients, send a DHCPRELEASE, invalidating the lease
>>> > to allow other clients to use it.
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > -Gene
>
> --
> -Gene

Thank you Gene for your suggestions. Next time I am presented with one
of these funky machines I have some things to try.