TTY and Power Saving Issue

Hello,

A couple days ago, I have noticed, that the virtual terminals (TTY) are not working. (I am writing a book about Linux and needed the Terminal to check on something). I have done some investigation and some guy on the web mentioned, that when closing the session or creating a new session, it works. I have tried that, and it worked indeed. As soon as I close my session and return to the login screen or when I click on “Create New Session” and the login screen appears, the virtual terminals work. However as soon as I use CTRL+ALT+7 to go back to my desktop session, or as soon as I created a new session and are logged in, the terminals don’t work anymore.

Instead, the keys CTRL+ALT F1 and F2 change the virtual desktops, CTRL+ALT+F8 is opening the overview of all windows, that are open on the current desktop. I have thought that this might be an issue, because of some misconfiguration of the keyboard. However, I have not touched the keyboard settings for anything but adding an additional keyboard layout. I have even tried to “reset” to the default keyboard values there, but the issue persists. If I am checking on the keyboard shortcuts, I notice that the default CTRL+ALT1-7 keys are still assigned to the virtual consoles. Still, I am using a desktop computer as well, with the same openSUSE version and it does have the same issue. Terminals do not open with the CTRL+ALT+F Keys. So I am fairly sure about a settings issues. Even though on that machine, nothing has been changed in the keyboard setting. No additional keyboard layout, nothing. Also the desktop machine used an Intel chip, while the Laptop is using an AMD chip.

Now another issues I noticed lately is, that when I attempt to put the laptop asleep, ie close the lid, the screen does not turn on again. Instead I get just a black screen, with not even the mouse cursor visible, even though I do hear the wake up sound, etc. playing. I had this issue with Kubuntu 14.04 but in Kubuntu 16.04 it was gone. I am not 100% sure, but I think I remember, that with openSUSE this worked at first as well. Not sure if this is a graphics issues, though I am fairly sure about it.

I run an HP Pavillion with an AMD on board chip, with openSUSE 42.1, KDE Desktop and all current actualizations. I have the AMD repository activated, though I am not sure if it automatically downloaded any drivers from there (I have not downloaded anything myself). I am still somewhat new to openSUSE, using it just about a month, so I would be curious about any ideas on how to fix this. Do I need proprietary drivers? Which package do I need to install the open-source drivers? And finally, is there a way to change controllers or drivers? In Kubuntu there was an option to change drivers in the System Settings, but however, openSUSE does not have said option.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,

Ben

Hi bbuske

Perhaps start by sharing details concerning your graphics card(s). Open a terminal and run

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcrd

or

/sbin/lspci -nnk |grep '\03' -A3
  • Class 03 devices relate to graphics chipsets

Other questions may follow.

Sorry, typo with the hwinfo command…that should have been

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard

Hello,

thanks for the relpy. Here is the output:

08: PCI 01.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
[Created at pci.366]
Unique ID: vSkL.FXM+VRDPF2C
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:00:01.0
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: “ATI Mullins [Radeon R2 Graphics]”
Vendor: pci 0x1002 “ATI Technologies Inc”
Device: pci 0x9853 “Mullins [Radeon R2 Graphics]”
SubVendor: pci 0x103c “Hewlett-Packard Company”
SubDevice: pci 0x22cd
Driver: “radeon”
Driver Modules: “drm”
Memory Range: 0xe0000000-0xefffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xf0000000-0xf07fffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
I/O Ports: 0x3000-0x30ff (rw)
Memory Range: 0xf0e00000-0xf0e3ffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xf0e80000-0xf0e9ffff (ro,non-prefetchable,disabled)
IRQ: 34 (924310 events)
Module Alias: “pci:v00001002d00009853sv0000103Csd000022CDbc03sc00i00”
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: radeon is active
Driver Activation Cmd: “modprobe radeon”
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Primary display adapter: #8

Thanks for the graphics hardware info. That may help others to advise further.

  1. Is your system up-to-date?
  2. Which display manager are you using?
sudo systemctl status display-manager

display-manager.service - X Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/display-manager.service; disabled)
Active: active (running) since lun 2016-08-15 21:32:01 VET; 2h 6min ago
Process: 1141 ExecStart=/usr/lib/X11/display-manager start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 1328 (sddm)
CGroup: /system.slice/display-manager.service
├─1328 /usr/bin/sddm
└─1337 /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{b8f1af52-4d31-4ee5-b5dc-…

ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Starting…
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Authenticating…
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Preparing to converse…
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] returning.
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Authenticated successfully
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: pam_unix(sddm:session): session open…)
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Greeter stopped.
ago 15 21:32:27 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Session started
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

Okay, so you’re using SDDM… and your system is fully updated?

zypper clean
zypper up

What is reported by the following?

sudo journalctl -b |grep sddm

Hello,

thanks for all the help.
The system is fully updated.
Here is the output of the systemctl:

ago 15 21:32:01 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Initializing…
ago 15 21:32:01 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Starting…
ago 15 21:32:01 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Adding new display on vt 7 …
ago 15 21:32:01 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Display server starting…
ago 15 21:32:01 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Running: /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -auth /run/sddm/{b8f1af52-4d31-4ee5-b5dc-30b623e0bd30} -background none -noreset -displayfd 17 vt7
ago 15 21:32:01 benbu.bmsti display-manager[1141]: Starting service sddm…done
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Running display setup script “/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup”
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Display server started.
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Socket server starting…
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Socket server started.
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Greeter starting…
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Adding cookie to “/run/sddm/{b8f1af52-4d31-4ee5-b5dc-30b623e0bd30}”
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1415]: [PAM] Starting…
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1415]: [PAM] Authenticating…
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1415]: [PAM] returning.
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1415]: pam_unix(sddm-greeter:session): session opened for user sddm by (uid=0)
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti systemd[1]: Starting Session 1 of user sddm.
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti systemd[1]: Started Session 1 of user sddm.
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti systemd-logind[909]: New session 1 of user sddm.
ago 15 21:32:07 benbu.bmsti systemd[1417]: pam_unix(systemd-user:session): session opened for user sddm by (uid=0)
ago 15 21:32:08 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Greeter session started successfully
ago 15 21:32:08 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/icewm.desktop”
ago 15 21:32:08 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/kde-plasma.desktop”
ago 15 21:32:08 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop”
ago 15 21:32:08 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Connected to the daemon.
ago 15 21:32:08 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Message received from greeter: Connect
ago 15 21:32:11 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Adding view for “LVDS” QRect(0,0 1366x768)
ago 15 21:32:11 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Message received from daemon: Capabilities
ago 15 21:32:11 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Message received from daemon: HostName
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop”
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Message received from greeter: Login
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Reading from “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop”
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Session “/usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop” selected, command: “/usr/bin/startkde”
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Starting…
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Authenticating…
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Preparing to converse…
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] Conversation with 1 messages
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: [PAM] returning.
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Authenticated successfully
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-greeter[1419]: Message received from daemon: LoginSucceeded
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: pam_unix(sddm:session): session opened for user bbuske by (uid=0)
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1415]: [PAM] Ended.
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Auth: sddm-helper exited successfully
ago 15 21:32:26 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Greeter stopped.
ago 15 21:32:27 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1431]: Starting: “/etc/X11/xdm/Xsession” “/usr/bin/startkde”
ago 15 21:32:27 benbu.bmsti sddm-helper[1435]: Adding cookie to “/home/bbuske/.Xauthority”
ago 15 21:32:27 benbu.bmsti sddm[1328]: Session started

That checks out as expected. I guess the radeon graphics driver could be impacting somehow. You could try booting with ‘nomodeset’ parameter so that the radeon driver is not loaded perhaps. Does the VT switching problem still exist then? A bug report may be needed for this.

You might also consider trying the proprietary AMD driver. Instructions here:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:AMD_fglrx

Hello,

thanks for all the help. With your last instructions, I was able to solve this.

I did first check for the proprietary drivers, as you have mentioned. However, these have been already installed on my system. Hence I did try to uninstall and boot up with the Linux drivers. While the system booted up just fine, the issue remained the same.

In a next step, I booted up with “nomodeset”, as you have recommended. I have thought in trying that as well, but I wanted to check on other options first. This made the system booting up with an AMD UMS Support not found error, but the system worked fine and even the TTY as well as the Sleep Mode. However I was not able to change display resolution or brightness and some programs ran very slow due to missing driver support.

Since I could not leave the system like that, I decided to reinstall the fglrx drivers again. After all, not being able to use the terminals is somewhat an issue, but having my programs work properly is more important obviously. However, reinstalling fglx, I rebooted my system and the terminals work fine so far. I have not yet tested if putting the computer asleep works, as I am currently downloading a bigger file. Once the download is complete, I will check on that, but I am sure that sleep works as well.

This said, I suppose this is an issue with the openSUSE AMD driver, since with that it does not work. I am not sure if the issue was in fact with the installation of the proprietary drivers being erroneous or - which I tend to believe - the system for some reason kept using the open-source ones and hence no change occurred, when I uninstalled the flgrx drivers.

So, would I send a bug report for this then?

Add-on:

As suspected, putting the laptop to sleep does work as well. The wake-up is fast and without any issues, as it used to be.
So this seems to confirm the issue with the default drivers.

Thanks again for your help.

Glad to have been of help. It’s good to know that the proprietary drivers are working for you. Ideally, a bug report is needed concerning the open source radeon driver behaviour though.

A bug report has been filed.

In case someone else stumbles upon this, here is the link to the respective bug:

https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=994206

Cheers and thanks again,

Ben

Thanks for the update. Just a couple of points though…

  1. The suggestion to use ‘nomodeset’ was only for diagnostic purposes, and the finding essentially proved it was related to the open source driver. It wasn’t intended as a workaround as it caused the X-server to load a basic frame-buffer driver. That is why resolution and display brightness couldn’t be adjusted.

  2. You’ve selected ‘X11 3rd party driver’ as a component in the bug report. That’s not correct. The open source radeon driver (which was giving you problems) is part of ‘X.Org’.

Thanks for the notes.
I was aware of the fact, that nomodeset is merely a test and not really useful as a workaround. Still it worked and did as intended, proving the issue was somewhat driver related.
In regards of the wrong category, I have changed that. Thanks for the note.

Cheers