amd64 10.1 RELEASE ---> 11.0 CURRENT custom kernel build. White screen in standard VGA mode fail.

I

igumnov

Hello, everyone!

I get a white screen in standard VGA console mode in 2-3 seconds, after selecting user mode in bootloader.
make.conf:
Code: 
MALLOC_PRODUCTION=YES
CPUTYPE?=native
CFLAGS=-O2 -pipe -fno-strict-aliasing -ferror-limit=100
COPTFLAGS=-O2 -pipe -funroll-loops -ffast-math -fno-strict-aliasing
KERNCONF=GENERIC
OPTIMIZED_CFLAGS=YES
BUILD_OPTIMIZED=YES
WITH_CPUFLAGS=YES
WITH_OPTIMIZED_CFLAGS=YES
WITHOUT_DEBUG=YES
BUILD_STATIC=YES
NO_PROFILE=YES
MAKE_JOBS_NUMBER?=8

See $dmesg -a for 11.0 custom and 10.1 release kernel in attachments.

Some additional system info:
GPU: GeForce GT 730
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K
Monitor: 29 inches BENQ LED 1920-1080px connected via HDMI cable.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3

It's alive after boot. I can get in via SSH from my laptop. But a constant white screen in VGA mode is very strange behavior. I tried:
  1. Booting with/without NVIDIA driver kernel module. White screen.
  2. Start X and gdm. No response.
  3. Build a kernel with 10.1 /sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC. Same white screen.
Old kernel and 10.0 RELEASE works fine.

Second 10.1 dmesg -a is posted with loaded via
boot/loader.conf NVIDIA driver. But it works fine in VGA mode with standard driver.

I can see new kernel dmesg for 2-3 second before white screen appears. Bootloader VGA mode works fine. BIOS works fine in VGA mode too.

Any ideas how to fix this white screen trouble?

Thanks in advance.
 

Attachments

Setting CFLAGS and COPTFLAGS is a frequent cause of problems. Does the ordinary GENERIC kernel built without all those fragile settings work? Then add one setting at a time. But it is still not recommended to use non-default CFLAGS.
 
So I tried to turn off: -fno-strict-aliasing -funroll-loops -ffast-math and BUILD_STATIC:
Code: 
MALLOC_PRODUCTION=YES
CPUTYPE?=native
CFLAGS=-O2 -pipe -ferror-limit=100
COPTFLAGS=-O2 -pipe
KERNCONF=GENERIC
OPTIMIZED_CFLAGS=YES
BUILD_OPTIMIZED=YES
WITH_CPUFLAGS=YES
WITH_OPTIMIZED_CFLAGS=YES
WITHOUT_DEBUG=YES
NO_PROFILE=YES
MAKE_JOBS_NUMBER?=8
And short version with everything turned off.
Code: 
CPUTYPE?=native
KERNCONF=GENERIC
I also built with
Code: 
CPUTYPE?=nocona
Everything fails due to white screen. Now I'll try directly:
Code: 
CPUTYPE=core2
And if it fails. I do not know what to do next.
 
Doh, white screen again. Will use a 10.1 RELEASE kernel until somebody somehow finds the cause of this.
 
Please comment or remove all those options and try again. It might also be necessary to rebuild the KMS-related ports.
 
Finally I did it after two days of annoying kernel rebuilding. To resolve it
one must go to kernel build configuration file and turn off the vt(4) Newcons console driver:
/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC
Code: 
190 # vt is the new video console driver
191 device vt
192 device vt_vga
193 device vt_efifb
by removing or commenting lines 191,192,193.
 
Modifying GENERIC is not recommended. Make your own kernel configuration by copying and then modifying it or including GENERIC in your new configuration.
 
Yes it's a rude solution, but I have here only a small home network with five hosts and don't even use FreeBSD as a router, just as an office desktop. Probably there is a better way to turn kernel mode switching off, but I do not know about that. Thank you for your warning. I'm out of this thread.
 
Here it goes.
$grep -A 20 20141104 /usr/src/UPDATING

Code: 
20141104:
  vt(4), the new console driver, is enabled by default. It brings
  support for Unicode and double-width characters, as well as
  support for UEFI and integration with the KMS kernel video
  drivers.

  You may need to update your console settings in /etc/rc.conf,
  most probably the keymap. During boot, /etc/rc.d/syscons will
  indicate what you need to do.

  vt(4) still has issues and lacks some features compared to
  syscons(4). See the wiki for up-to-date information:
  https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons

  If you want to keep using syscons(4), you can do so by adding
  the following line to /boot/loader.conf:
  kern.vty=sc
 
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