# Console blanking

## curmudgeon

This is one of the stranger things I have seen recently. I have never had a problem with the console not blanking properly before, but on a brand new computer, the ordinary gray letters blank, and the letters in different colors stay on the screen. This is a GeForce 9500 GT, if that matters.

Is there any trick to making this work the same way that is has on every other machine I have come across in the last dozen years or so?

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## wswartzendruber

 *curmudgeon wrote:*   

> This is one of the stranger things I have seen recently. I have never had a problem with the console not blanking properly before, but on a brand new computer, the ordinary gray letters blank, and the letters in different colors stay on the screen. This is a GeForce 9500 GT, if that matters.
> 
> Is there any trick to making this work the same way that is has on every other machine I have come across in the last dozen years or so?

 

Are you using Nouveau's kernel modesetting?

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## curmudgeon

 *wswartzendruber wrote:*   

> Are you using Nouveau's kernel modesetting?

 

I have installed the closed) nvidia driver (and not nouveau), but I don't know much that even comes into effect at the console.

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## wswartzendruber

 *curmudgeon wrote:*   

>  *wswartzendruber wrote:*   Are you using Nouveau's kernel modesetting? 
> 
> I have installed the closed) nvidia driver (and not nouveau), but I don't know much that even comes into effect at the console.

 

Are you using a framebuffer driver?  When in the boot process does this happen?

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## curmudgeon

 *wswartzendruber wrote:*   

> Are you using a framebuffer driver?  When in the boot process does this happen?

 

No framebuffer at the moment (am looking to add vesafb so I get something a little more than 80x25 text on a giant monitor). :)

It doesn't happen during boot. It happens after I have not touched the keyboard for ten minutes. On over fifty linux machines over the last decade plus, the screen goes completely blank when that happens (and any keystroke restores the screen). On this machine the normal (gray) text goes blank, but the color text stays on the machine.

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## eccerr0r

I think I've seen this issue before, no fix however.  I think it is a semi-widespread issue, I don't believe it's only nvidia that's suffering, though I don't recall which machine had this issue anymore (I tend to not leave machines in console mode anymore.)

Should definitely try fbcon and use that as a workaround if you can.  I'm not sure how to reliably trigger this issue yet as it's probably a real bug slid in, probably due to newish hardware...

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