Solved Black screen - Still pulling my hair out over xorg -Freebsd 11.2-stable

I've scoured the forums, Googled, and still cannot find a solution to my problem. I am currently using the Nvidia 390 drivers from ports, with no apparent issues looking at the logs. The modules are in sync with my currently compiled kernel. Suspecting something might be off with my custom, no module kernel, I did a generic build as well, no joy.

I'm using the nvidia and nvidia-modeset kld modules with my GeForce GTX 750 Ti. I have portmastered -a to ensure up to date binaries, swapped out to a previously working AMD card and my FreeBSD 10 settings for that card, (the source tree provided drm2 stuff), with no happiness. So back to the GeForce.

What I'm seeing is the same or similar issue others are having, a black screen with what appears to be a cursor at the top left of the screen. I even swapped out monitors, just in case working monitor frequencies were at issue.

EDIT:
(It may say I'm a new member next to my name, but I had to re-register. I've been around since version 2, and even helped squash a bug or three...)
 

Attachments

  • Xorg.0.txt
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No, VT switching seems to work properly, meaning no garbled video or freezing, but for me it's alt+F6 (ttyv5) that X is on and it brings me back to the black screen. I've always had a limited number of VTYs, never had a issue.
Do I need to configure more VTYs? Doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'm willing to try anything. Some things are Magic.


Any Xorg experts that may need any additional info, I'm happy to post it!
This is the first time I'm using EFI boot, my dear departed ASUS has died, and I'm on a Dell XPS 8910 - about a year old. I'll admit, I switched to Linux for a while, but came running back, no screaming and running back, I felt like I was cheating on my wife... :)
 
The exact setup described above was working perfectly with Ubuntu 18.04, right out of the box and no grief at all.
 
Right out of the box Ubuntu should be using Nouveau. Anyway, it's probably safe to say: 1. this is not a FreeBSD specific issue; 2. if it were a perfectly reproducible bug with a well known root cause it likely would be fixed by Nvidia already. You can switch to Intel if you are unable to find any workaround for your issue.
 
Right out of the box Ubuntu should be using Nouveau. Anyway, it's probably safe to say: 1. this is not a FreeBSD specific issue; 2. if it were a perfectly reproducible bug with a well known root cause it likely would be fixed by Nvidia already.

You're correct, but during installation, I chose third party drivers and upon reboot, the Nvidia logo flashed by and 3D demos flew by fairly impressively. But I totally agree, this is a FreebBSD issue and we should stick to that. I'm a little dubious about it being limited to Nvidia, I tried a proven supported Radeon and unfortunately, the same result. This Radeon card was fully supported by the drm2 modules. If I recall correctly, it was a Juniper chipset.
 
I remember the days when I had a tape drive that did not work with the then new ATA driver. I posted the problem, and I exchanged numerous emails with the committer, who's name I won't mention here but you can probably figure it out. He didn't blame the tape drive, he blamed himself for the deficiencies in his driver. After a full night of debugging on my part and his, we worked out the issue and FreeBSD had a new supported device. Blatantly flipping off Nvidia isn't going to solve the problem here. As I stated, I swapped in a Radeon card that worked just fine in previous versions. I have the same issue with a known, previously working, supported card.

I rarely need to ask for help. Reading up and looking through the forums will, in most cases, resolve my issue.

Believe me, I'm trying. I have cuts on my fingers from opening the case.

I tried booting in legacy mode, trying to eliminate the EFI crap, no luck.
I tried both cards, the Nvidia and the previously supported Radeon.
I'd rather stick with the Nvidia, consoles look like crap with the Radeon.

By the way, my board has an Intel built in. I removed the PCIe card and tried the Intel with the drm-next-kmod and the drm-stable-kmod. Same black screen.

Please don't take this as a flame, it's not. I'm a bit frustrated at this point, and again, I have to stress that it's not just Nvidia.
I posted an Xorg log. Nothing looks funny to me, but if someone can look at it, perhaps a problem does exist.

I write this with the kindest regards...
 
I wish I could see it once again. When I rebooted the Ubuntu system, yes, for a split second the logo flashed by.
 
The only Nvidia issue I am aware of when installing or upgrading to FreeBSD 11.2 is that the packaged Nvidia driver is still built for FreeBSD 11.1, causing Xorg errors when trying to start X. I had this issue after upgrading, but once I installed the Nvidia driver from ports and ran nvidia-xconfig I have not experienced any graphical errors on my GTX 970.
 
For new cards nvidia-modeset_load="YES" should be enough. Also, nvidia-xconfig or a complete xorg.conf should not be needed anymore (more like don't use it unless you have a reason).

This is usually enough to get the video running, later you may would just need to do some X related tweaks:

/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
Code:
Section "Device"
   Identifier     "nVidia Card"
   Driver     "nvidia"
   VendorName     "nVidia Corporation"
   BoardName     "GeForce GT 630"
EndSection
 
Does that logo appear at POST or when the driver is loaded?
 
So does anyone else have anything constructive to say, aside from accusing me of falsehoods?

Note that there is a least one legitimate situation where that logo would be displayed. I'm yet to accuse you of anything.

And, by the way, is there a possibility the rendering is fine and you are looking at an actual black background with a nonmoving cursor? I remember Xorg replacing their traditional gray pattern with solid black some time ago. What does X -retro display?
 
I've seen the nVidia logo recently (nvidia-driver-340-340.107) after an OS source upgrade (10.4-STABLE). I have the driver commented out in /boot/loader.conf.local so I suspect it was when manually loading it before running X (or more likely after running X, finding it failed and then remembering to load the driver :)
 
For new cards nvidia-modeset_load="YES" should be enough. Also, nvidia-xconfig or a complete xorg.conf should not be needed anymore (more like don't use it unless you have a reason).

This is usually enough to get the video running, later you may would just need to do some X related tweaks:

/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf
Code:
Section "Device"
   Identifier     "nVidia Card"
   Driver     "nvidia"
   VendorName     "nVidia Corporation"
   BoardName     "GeForce GT 630"
EndSection

I will try this again, I did try just the relevant section at one time, however, the screen remained black.

EDIT:

Deleted /etc/X11/xorg.conf and tried just the device section again.

Nothing weird in my log, at least I don't see anything, so here's the result.


Code:
[   394.924]
X.Org X Server 1.18.4
Release Date: 2016-07-19
[   394.924] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[   394.924] Build Operating System: FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE amd64
[   394.924] Current Operating System: FreeBSD gravy.kishka.net 11.2-STABLE FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE #0 r335979: Sun Jul  8 20:40:20 EDT 2018     bryan@gravy.kishka.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GRAVY amd64
[   394.924] Build Date: 02 July 2018  09:30:44AM
[   394.924] 
[   394.924] Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
[   394.924]     Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.
[   394.924] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[   394.924] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Tue Jul 10 07:08:53 2018
[   394.964] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[   394.964] (==) No Layout section.  Using the first Screen section.
[   394.964] (==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
[   394.964] (**) |-->Screen "Default Screen Section" (0)
[   394.964] (**) |   |-->Monitor "<default monitor>"
[   394.965] (==) No device specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
    Using the first device section listed.
[   394.965] (**) |   |-->Device "nVidia Card"
[   394.965] (==) No monitor specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
    Using a default monitor configuration.
[   394.965] (==) Automatically adding devices
[   394.965] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[   394.965] (==) Not automatically adding GPU devices
[   394.976] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[   395.048] (==) FontPath set to:
    /usr/local/share/fonts/misc/,
    /usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/,
    /usr/local/share/fonts/OTF/,
    /usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/,
    /usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/,
    /usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/
[   395.048] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
[   395.048] (II) The server relies on HAL to provide the list of input devices.
    If no devices become available, reconfigure HAL or disable AutoAddDevices.
[   395.048] (II) Loader magic: 0x8193a0
[   395.048] (II) Module ABI versions:
[   395.048]     X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[   395.048]     X.Org Video Driver: 20.0
[   395.048]     X.Org XInput driver : 22.1
[   395.048]     X.Org Server Extension : 9.0
[   395.048] (--) PCI: (0:0:2:0) 8086:1912:1028:072a rev 6, Mem @ 0xdd000000/16777216, 0xb0000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x0000f000/64
[   395.048] (--) PCI:*(0:1:0:0) 10de:1380:10de:105f rev 162, Mem @ 0xde000000/16777216, 0xc0000000/268435456, 0xd0000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x0000e000/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/65536
[   395.048] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[   395.071] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[   395.442] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[   395.442]     compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[   395.442]     Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[   395.442] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  390.67  Thu May 31 22:47:14 PDT 2018
[   395.453] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[   395.453] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
[   395.499] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[   395.499]     compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[   395.499]     Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[   395.500] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  390.67  Thu May 31 22:22:58 PDT 2018
[   395.500] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
[   395.501] (--) Using syscons driver with X support (version 2.0)
[   395.501] (--) using VT number 6

[   395.511] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[   395.511] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[   395.511] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/libfb.so
[   395.528] (II) Module fb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   395.528]     compiled for 1.18.4, module version = 1.0.0
[   395.528]     ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[   395.528] (II) Loading sub module "wfb"
[   395.528] (II) LoadModule: "wfb"
[   395.540] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/libwfb.so
[   395.557] (II) Module wfb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   395.557]     compiled for 1.18.4, module version = 1.0.0
[   395.557]     ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[   395.557] (II) Loading sub module "ramdac"
[   395.557] (II) LoadModule: "ramdac"
[   395.557] (II) Module "ramdac" already built-in
[   395.564] (WW) VGA arbiter: cannot open kernel arbiter, no multi-card support
[   395.564] (II) NVIDIA(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
    "Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
[   395.564] (==) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
[   395.564] (==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
[   395.564] (==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[   395.564] (==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
[   395.565] (**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling 2D acceleration
[   396.249] (--) NVIDIA(0): Valid display device(s) on GPU-0 at PCI:1:0:0
[   396.249] (--) NVIDIA(0):     CRT-0
[   396.249] (--) NVIDIA(0):     DFP-0
[   396.249] (--) NVIDIA(0):     DFP-1 (boot)
[   396.249] (--) NVIDIA(0):     DFP-2
[   396.250] (II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce GTX 750 Ti (GM107-A) at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU-0)
[   396.250] (--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 2097152 kBytes
[   396.250] (--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 82.07.84.00.02
[   396.250] (II) NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 16X
[   396.253] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): CRT-0: disconnected
[   396.253] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): CRT-0: 400.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[   396.253] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0):
[   396.256] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-0: disconnected
[   396.256] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-0: Internal TMDS
[   396.256] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-0: 330.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[   396.256] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0):
[   396.270] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): LG Electronics LG TV (DFP-1): connected
[   396.270] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): LG Electronics LG TV (DFP-1): Internal TMDS
[   396.270] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): LG Electronics LG TV (DFP-1): 340.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[   396.270] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0):
[   396.271] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-2: disconnected
[   396.271] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-2: Internal TMDS
[   396.271] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0): DFP-2: 330.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[   396.271] (--) NVIDIA(GPU-0):
[   396.273] (==) NVIDIA(0):
[   396.273] (==) NVIDIA(0): No modes were requested; the default mode "nvidia-auto-select"
[   396.273] (==) NVIDIA(0):     will be used as the requested mode.
[   396.273] (==) NVIDIA(0):
[   396.273] (II) NVIDIA(0): Validated MetaModes:
[   396.273] (II) NVIDIA(0):     "DFP-1:nvidia-auto-select"
[   396.273] (II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1920 x 1080
[   396.276] (--) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (304, 304); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config
[   396.276] (--) NVIDIA(0):     option
[   396.276] (--) Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp
[   396.277] (II) NVIDIA: Reserving 6144.00 MB of virtual memory for indirect memory
[   396.277] (II) NVIDIA:     access.
[   396.300] (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "DFP-1:nvidia-auto-select"
[   396.377] (==) NVIDIA(0): Disabling shared memory pixmaps
[   396.377] (==) NVIDIA(0): Backing store enabled
[   396.377] (==) NVIDIA(0): Silken mouse enabled
[   396.377] (==) NVIDIA(0): DPMS enabled
[   396.378] (II) Loading sub module "dri2"
[   396.378] (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
[   396.378] (II) Module "dri2" already built-in
[   396.378] (II) NVIDIA(0): [DRI2] Setup complete
[   396.378] (II) NVIDIA(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: nvidia
[   396.378] (--) RandR disabled
[   396.381] (II) Initializing extension GLX
[   396.381] (II) Indirect GLX disabled.
[   396.779] (II) config/hal: Adding input device Dell KB216 Wired Keyboard
[   396.779] (II) LoadModule: "kbd"
[   396.779] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/input/kbd_drv.so
[   396.809] (II) Module kbd: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   396.809]     compiled for 1.18.4, module version = 1.9.0
[   396.809]     Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[   396.809]     ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 22.1
[   396.809] (II) Using input driver 'kbd' for 'Dell KB216 Wired Keyboard'
[   396.809] (**) Dell KB216 Wired Keyboard: always reports core events
[   396.809] (**) Dell KB216 Wired Keyboard: always reports core events
[   396.809] (**) Option "Protocol" "standard"
[   396.809] (WW) Option "Device" requires a string value
[   396.809] (**) Option "XkbRules" "base"
[   396.809] (**) Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
[   396.809] (**) Option "XkbLayout" "us"
[   396.809] (**) Option "config_info" "hal:/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_413c_2113_noserial_if0"
[   396.809] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Dell KB216 Wired Keyboard" (type: KEYBOARD, id 6)
[   396.812] (II) config/hal: Adding input device USB RECEIVER
[   396.812] (II) LoadModule: "mouse"
[   396.812] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/input/mouse_drv.so
[   396.824] (II) Module mouse: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   396.824]     compiled for 1.18.4, module version = 1.9.3
[   396.824]     Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[   396.824]     ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 22.1
[   396.824] (II) Using input driver 'mouse' for 'USB RECEIVER'
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: always reports core events
[   396.824] (**) Option "Device" "/dev/ums0"
[   396.824] (==) USB RECEIVER: Protocol: "Auto"
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: always reports core events
[   396.824] (==) USB RECEIVER: Emulate3Buttons, Emulate3Timeout: 50
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: ZAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: Buttons: 5
[   396.824] (**) Option "config_info" "hal:/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_46d_c50e_noserial_if0"
[   396.824] (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "USB RECEIVER" (type: MOUSE, id 7)
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: (accel) acceleration profile 0
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: (accel) acceleration factor: 2.000
[   396.824] (**) USB RECEIVER: (accel) acceleration threshold: 4
[   396.824] (II) USB RECEIVER: SetupAuto: hw.iftype is 5, hw.model is 0
[   396.824] (II) USB RECEIVER: SetupAuto: protocol is SysMouse
[   396.824] (WW) fcntl(25, F_SETOWN): Inappropriate ioctl for device
[   408.211] (II) UnloadModule: "mouse"
[   408.211] (II) UnloadModule: "kbd"
[   408.263] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Deleting GPU-0
[   408.263] (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.
 
I've seen the nVidia logo recently (nvidia-driver-340-340.107) after an OS source upgrade (10.4-STABLE). I have the driver commented out in /boot/loader.conf.local so I suspect it was when manually loading it before running X (or more likely after running X, finding it failed and then remembering to load the driver :)
I am loading the driver in loader.conf, however, I did start out loading the module manually.
When I used the radeon, starting the X server loaded the module automatically, but it doesn't seem to be the case now.
 
Note that there is a least one legitimate situation where that logo would be displayed. I'm yet to accuse you of anything.

And, by the way, is there a possibility the rendering is fine and you are looking at an actual black background with a nonmoving cursor? I remember Xorg replacing their traditional gray pattern with solid black some time ago. What does X -retro display?

X -retro gives me a gray screen with the X cursor in the center. I can't move it, as you mentioned. It does seem that I'm rendering a screen!
 
The only Nvidia issue I am aware of when installing or upgrading to FreeBSD 11.2 is that the packaged Nvidia driver is still built for FreeBSD 11.1, causing Xorg errors when trying to start X. I had this issue after upgrading, but once I installed the Nvidia driver from ports and ran nvidia-xconfig I have not experienced any graphical errors on my GTX 970.

I'm building the driver as I usually do with all ports. The packaged driver will give me an ABI mismatch.
 
X -retro gives me a gray screen with the X cursor in the center. I can't move it, as you mentioned. It does seem that I'm rendering a screen

Then you have something improperly configured regarding window manager and/or input. No idea what to try next, but at least it's not the GPU driver.
 
Then you have something improperly configured regarding window manager and/or input. No idea what to try next, but at least it's not the GPU driver.

I'm using the simplest case at the moment, ctwm as a window manager before I go to gnome or KDE.
The log does say I have a mouse, it is curious that it's not moving. I don't know if I have a wired mouse hanging around but I'll try it.

Happy to say that I see my ancient CTWM setup is running, now I need to figure out what's going on with the mouse.
KDE starts too, but krunner, is indicating a crash.

So, thanks guys, I can start pulling my hair out WITH an X display now.
 
So, yes, problem solved. One small thing, I could not get direct rendering working at all with the driver version 340 or version 390 in ports.

I test this with xscreensaver-demo, glxgears, etc...
If direct rendering isn't working, the 3D screensavers in xscreensaver-demo simply do not appear - the demo says "no preview".
Further testing with nvidia-settings showed no indication of direct rendering with v340 or v390, just a blank area where graphics information should be.
I was happy to have a display going, but disappointed to see that direct rendering was not working.

I went to NVIDIA's website, downloaded and built 396. 3D acceleration works in this version.
396 is designated as beta, but roll the dice, it seems stable and it's working as I would expect it to.

I'm not sure if it's just the port or a problem with the driver.
Testing with both xscreensaver and nvidia-settings with version 396 shows all of the 3D features that I want.

Happy camper. Thanks for the troubleshooting tips, especially the X -retro.

I am a bit crazy, so I put my Radeon card in there and used drm-stable-kmod and drm-next-kmod - nothing but grief, complaints that the firmware can't be loaded for my JUNIPER chipset, then a blank screen panic.

I'm sure things will get worked out, but it seems that NVIDIA doesn't hate FreeBSD anymore, they give you working, compilable drivers.
I know I'm not using high end cards, but the 3D rendering sure looks a heck of a lot better on the NVIDIA.
 
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