# Under kernel 4.4.6 Xorg does not exit cleanly

## v_andal

I've noticed strange issue after switching to kernel 4.4.6. At the end of Xorg session I don't get back to command prompt. The screen stays black with cursor blinking in the top left corner of the screen. I can ssh to PC and everything seems to be OK, except that I can't get the screen to show the console.

It doesn't happen always. If I start X and then stop it after short time then things are OK. If I keep X running for couple of days, then the problem shows up. So far the only cure for it was reboot.

For now I've switched back to 4.1.5 and that fixed the issue, at least it didn't show up when I stopped X after 2 days of running. I have 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
> 
> 

 

and use x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel for it. Obviously I start X from console using "startx"  :Smile:  The kernel configuration was done using "make oldconfig".

Any suggestions on why it does not work under 4.4.6?

EDIT. Oops, it appears that there's already version 4.6 of kernel, so I have to be more clear about which version was problematic for me   :Embarassed: Last edited by v_andal on Thu May 12, 2016 8:01 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Hu

When you are at the blinking cursor, can you vtswitch to a different virtual console?  tty1-tty6 all should have getty waiting if no one has logged in there.  Some people have tty12 set to show syslog output.

From your problem description, it sounds like either you are left on a terminal that had X, and now has nothing, or you are switched to a virtual console which has no getty running.  Either way, if you can vtswitch, you can get back to an interactive shell without rebooting.

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## Logicien

With Systemd, using startx from a virtual terminal make X use the same terminal number. You should look with the ps command on which terminal number X start. The kernel parameters for the Intel video driver may be different with the version 4.6 than before.

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## v_andal

 *Hu wrote:*   

> When you are at the blinking cursor, can you vtswitch to a different virtual console?  tty1-tty6 all should have getty waiting if no one has logged in there.  Some people have tty12 set to show syslog output.
> 
> From your problem description, it sounds like either you are left on a terminal that had X, and now has nothing, or you are switched to a virtual console which has no getty running.  Either way, if you can vtswitch, you can get back to an interactive shell without rebooting.

 

Forgive me my ignorance, what do you mean by "vtswitch"? If you are talking about "Alt-Fx" combination to go to another virtual console, then no, it does not work. I've even tried Ctrl-Alt-F7 (or whatever is used under X to return to linux console) it also does not work.

Is there any command that I can try to run from ssh login?

 *Hu wrote:*   

> With Systemd, using startx from a virtual terminal make X use the same terminal number

 

I'm not using systemd and I don't use any explicit parameters for intel drivers. X server starts on tty7.

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## charles17

 *v_andal wrote:*   

> I've even tried Ctrl-Alt-F7 (or whatever is used under X to return to linux console) it also does not work.
> 
> Is there any command that I can try to run from ssh login?

 

Ctrl-Alt-F1 should take you back to  tty1. Please pastebin your /var/log/Xorg.0.log so we can see what's going on.

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## Hu

Alt+Fn is sufficient to vtswitch when you are on a virtual console.  The Ctrl modifier is required when under X because the X server is responsible for performing the switch and the X developers picked a different key sequence than the kernel uses.  Since the sequence is difficult for users to change, I think that it is better that it is Ctrl+Alt+Fn, so that plain Alt+Fn is available for the window manager and application programs.

OP: you can use chvt to perform a programmatic vtswitch.  If I recall correctly, you must be root for chvt to change the active terminal.  Also, note that you attributed both my post and Logicien's post to me when you quoted us.

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## v_andal

Ok. Next time when this happens I'll capture the Xorg.log and also try force switch to another console.

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## v_andal

OK, I got this problem again. There's nothing special in Xorg.0.log. The last line says

 *Quote:*   

> Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

 

Funny thing, I've done ssh to my PC and in ssh executed "startx". The Xorg has started on my PC without any problem. Exiting this new session still leaves me with black screen. So, I suspect that there's some glitch in the kernel's function that restores the tty after Xorg exits. Nothing else is broken, only the screen is messed up.

I've checked list of running agetty processes and the one for tty1 is missing.

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