# uvesafb broken with latest kernel / nvidia drivers gtx 980

## -=GGW=- $ol!d $n4>|e

Hey all,

I just did my monthly update and it seems uvesafb has broken with the most recent mix of kernel / driver. I still boot and get text but the text thats rendered looks blitted to the screen, i'm not sure how else to describe it, like its taking the full resolution blitting it to a muc much smaller resolution, then interpolating back to the full resolution.

Anyone else experiencing this? here are my relevant specs

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> eix nvidia-drivers
> 
> [I] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers
> ...

 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> cat /etc/default/grub 
> 
> # Copyright 1999-2014 Gentoo Foundation
> ...

 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/modes 
> 
> U:2560x1440p-60
> ...

 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> mike@~ ∫ eix gentoo-sources
> 
> [I] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources
> ...

 

let me know if i can provide more info, would be happy to

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## dweezil-n0xad

Today I installed Gentoo on a brand new system with a gtx 970 and I have the same problem. (gentoo-sources-3.18.3 + nvidia-drivers-346.35)

When the kernel boots, everything looks fine. I can view in 1920x1080 openrc starting the services. Then the screen refreshes and the fonts are unreadable and tuxes at the top of the screen blurry.

```
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] (rev a1)
```

```
linux   /vmlinuz-3.18.3-gentoo root=UUID=93457e11-af81-4adc-8040-30570374260b ro rootflags=subvol=@root  rootfstype=btrfs video=uvesafb:1920x1080-32,mtrr:3,ywrap

```

```
cat /sys/bus/platform/drivers/uvesafb/uvesafb.0/vbe_modes

640x400-8, 0x0100

640x480-8, 0x0101

800x600-8, 0x0103

1024x768-8, 0x0105

1280x1024-8, 0x0107

320x200-16, 0x010e

320x200-32, 0x010f

640x480-16, 0x0111

640x480-32, 0x0112

800x600-16, 0x0114

800x600-32, 0x0115

1024x768-16, 0x0117

1024x768-32, 0x0118

1280x1024-16, 0x011a

1280x1024-32, 0x011b

320x200-8, 0x0130

320x400-8, 0x0131

320x400-16, 0x0132

320x400-32, 0x0133

320x240-8, 0x0134

320x240-16, 0x0135

320x240-32, 0x0136

640x400-16, 0x013d

640x400-32, 0x013e

1920x1080-8, 0x014b

1920x1080-16, 0x014c

1920x1080-32, 0x014d

1280x800-8, 0x0160

1280x800-32, 0x0161

```

edit: it works fine in gentoo-sources-3.17.8-r1. There is no support for later kernels yet.

```
 * Gentoo supports kernels which are supported by NVIDIA

 * which are limited to the following kernels:

 * <sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-3.18

 * <sys-kernel/vanilla-sources-3.18

 * 

 * You are free to utilize epatch_user to provide whatever

 * support you feel is appropriate, but will not receive

 * support as a result of those changes.

 * 

 * Do not file a bug report about this.
```

----------

## Linubie

Today I updated to gentoo-sources-3.17.8-r1 (AMD64/NVIDIA GTX660), but uvesafb is not working,:

```

[    0.715169] v86d (50) used greatest stack depth: 14416 bytes left

[    1.704042] tsc: Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 2812.709 MHz

[    2.703961] Switched to clocksource tsc

[    5.713375] uvesafb: Getting VBE info block failed (eax=0x4f00, err=1)

[    5.713883] uvesafb: vbe_init() failed with -22

[    5.714391] uvesafb: probe of uvesafb.0 failed with error -22

```

with kernel-3.17.7 it was running without problems.

----------

## platojones

Yep, same thing happening to me.  Text in console is 'blitted'...nice way to describe it.  I just put a new Nvidia gtx 960 card on my system and thought it was related to that somehow.  Actually, 3 out of 4 replies thus far are an Nvidia gtx 9xx series card, so it may be related to that card series with the currently kernel/drivers combination.  This is with the 3.18.4 gentoo sources.  I've also been getting strange lockups that started randomly occuring as well, but may be completely unrelated to the 'blitted' output on the console.

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## dweezil-n0xad

I tried uvesafb and efifb, both have same problem with the text in console.

----------

## jagdpanther

Similar issue on with my Evga GTX 970.  nvidia-drivers-346.35 breaks my console.

The only console that I can get to work with 346.35 is the default very low resolution text.

Old working grub.cfg:

```
menuentry "Linux 3.17.8-gentoo-r1" {

  insmod gzio

  insmod part_gpt

  insmod ext2

  set gfxpayload=1920x1200x8

  root=hd0,gpt3

  linux /kernel-3.17.8-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/sdb2 

}
```

With nvidia-drivers-346.35, if I comment out 'set gfxpayload=1920x1200x8', then my console works at low resolution.

With the above grub.cfg, I  notice that the console appears to work at the desired resolution for a few lines until the nvidia-driver is loaded, then the console text becomes 'fuzzy' and unreadable.

Workaround:  Use nvidia-drivers-343.36.

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## platojones

Definitely sounds like a driver issue then, at least with these Maxwell GPUs, though it may affect other GPUs.  Doesn't bother me too much since, except at boot-up, which I do rarely, I'm in X anyway.  Probably gets fixed in the next nvidia-driver update.

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## jagdpanther

blacklisting the nvidia kernel module so that it does not load during system boot also solves my issue here.  I can start X with either startx after logging into to the console, or I can run '/etc/init.d/xdm start' at the end of the boot process if I want a gui login.

Edited:  No I am wrong:  startx worked but when I went back to the console from X the console fonts were corrupt again:  back to nvidia-drivers-343.36 for meLast edited by jagdpanther on Sun Feb 22, 2015 2:37 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## Tatsh

Same problem. Others on the Nvidia forum know about this too. Just downgrade to 343 for now.

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## dweezil-n0xad

It seems to be fixed here with the new 346.47 drivers.

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## jagdpanther

 *Quote:*   

> It seems to be fixed here with the new 346.47 drivers.

 

Yes, the issue vanishes in nvidia-drivers-346.47.

----------

