Ubuntu
initramfs-tools package

screen goes blank before showing password prompt (inteldrmfb, cryptsetup)

Bug #869119 reported by Felix Geyer on 2011-10-06

This bug affects 3 people

	Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)	Fix Released	Medium	Steve Langasek	Ubuntu oneiric-updates
Oneiric	Fix Released	Medium	Steve Langasek	Ubuntu oneiric-updates
Precise	Fix Released	Medium	Steve Langasek	Ubuntu precise-alpha-1

Bug Description

SRU justification: late-cycle regression that causes users who have encrypted root filesystems configured to be unable to see the password prompt with certain hardware, unless they switch VTs to toggle the video mode.

TEST CASE:
1) install a system with an encrypted root filesystem using the 11.10 alternate or server ISO.
2) verify that on affected, KMS-capable hardware, the passphrase prompt is not displayed at boot, but that it is displayed if you hit Alt+F6 followed by Alt+F7.
3) install initramfs-tools 0.99ubuntu8 from oneiric-proposed
4) reboot 10 times on the affected machine, and verify that the passphrase prompt is correctly shown in each case.
5) verify that with this version of initramfs-tools installed and cryptsetup and nvidia-current packages installed on nvidia-capable hardware, that there is no regression in the display of the plymouth splash screen at boot time vs. the previous version of initramfs-tools.

When booting the plymouth splash screen is shown for a second and then the screen goes blank.
I have an encrypted the root partition so this makes it a bit difficult to input the password.
Entering the password after some time when the screen is blank works fine though.

Switching the VT with ctrl+F6, ctrl+F7 shows the plymouth password promt again but it's very distorted.

Possibly a duplicate of bug #816267

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: plymouth 0.8.2-2ubuntu28
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.19-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Oct 6 14:14:21 2011
DefaultPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/kubuntu-logo/kubuntu-logo.plymouth
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100427)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Vostro 1320
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=/dev/mapper/root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcEnviron:
LC_TIME=de_DE.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=/dev/mapper/root ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: plymouth
TextPlymouth: /lib/plymouth/themes/kubuntu-text/kubuntu-text.plymouth
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-07-04 (93 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 03/05/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A08
dmi.board.name: 0T052J
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA08:bd03/05/2010:svnDellInc.:pnVostro1320:pvrNull:rvnDellInc.:rn0T052J:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Vostro 1320
dmi.product.version: Null
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

See original description

Tags:

Related branches

lp:ubuntu/oneiric/initramfs-tools

lp:ubuntu/oneiric-proposed/initramfs-tools

Revision history for this message

Felix Geyer (debfx) wrote on 2011-10-06:

BootDmesg.txt Edit (58.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
BootLog.gz Edit (317 bytes, application/x-gzip)
CurrentDmesg.txt Edit (1.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Dependencies.txt Edit (1.8 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
EtcDefaultGrub.txt Edit (1.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lspci.txt Edit (17.0 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
Lsusb.txt Edit (593 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
PlymouthDebug.txt Edit (56.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcCpuinfo.txt Edit (1.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcInterrupts.txt Edit (1.5 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
ProcModules.txt Edit (4.3 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevDb.txt Edit (119.2 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
UdevLog.txt Edit (257.6 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Revision history for this message

Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote on 2011-10-06:

Hi Felix,

A few things for you to try:

- does hitting 'esc' once instead of Alt+F6/Alt+F7 fix the issue?
- does hiting 'esc' *twice* fix the issue?
- does hitting Alt+F7 *without* hitting Alt+F6 fix the issue?
- what do you see if you boot without the 'quiet' option (but still with the 'splash' option)?

Finally, please add the options 'drm.debug=0x4' and 'plymouth:debug=file:/var/log/plymouth-debug.log' to your kernel commandline, and attach the resulting plymouth and kernel log files.

Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Incomplete

Steve Langasek (vorlon) on 2011-10-06

Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → Medium
summary:	- screen goes blank before showing password prompt + screen goes blank before showing password prompt (inteldrmfb, + cryptsetup)

Revision history for this message

Felix Geyer (debfx) wrote on 2011-10-07:

> - does hitting 'esc' once instead of Alt+F6/Alt+F7 fix the issue?

That shows a non-themed password promt without problems.

> - does hiting 'esc' *twice* fix the issue?

Sort of, that shows plymouth but the screen is very distorted.

> - does hitting Alt+F7 *without* hitting Alt+F6 fix the issue?

No, the screen remains black.

> - what do you see if you boot without the 'quiet' option (but still with the 'splash' option)?

That doesn't seem to change much but I can't read the text on the plymouth screen anyway.

Revision history for this message

Felix Geyer (debfx) wrote on 2011-10-07:

kern.log Edit (126.5 KiB, text/plain)

Revision history for this message

Felix Geyer (debfx) wrote on 2011-10-07:

plymouth-debug.log Edit (61.6 KiB, text/plain)

Changed in plymouth (Ubuntu):
status:	Incomplete → New

Revision history for this message

Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote on 2011-10-07:

Ah, from the log I see that vesafb is first being loaded and then unloaded.

Since you're using cryptsetup, this all happens in the initramfs. So I think there's something wrong with the recently-added vesafb fallback in initramfs-tools - we should never be loading vesafb here.

affects:	plymouth (Ubuntu) → initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Triaged
assignee:	nobody → Steve Langasek (vorlon)

Kate Stewart (kate.stewart) on 2011-10-07

tags:

added: rls-mgr-o-tracking

Colin Watson (cjwatson) on 2011-10-07

tags:

added: regression-release

Revision history for this message

Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote on 2011-10-10:

Felix, could you try adding a 'sleep 1' at line 90 of /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/framebuffer and rerun update-initramfs -u, to check if this addresses the issue for you?

Revision history for this message

Felix Geyer (debfx) wrote on 2011-10-10:

Yes, that seems to fix the problem.
I've booted the machine multiple times and plymouth always shows up fine.

Steve Langasek (vorlon) on 2011-10-11

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Oneiric):
milestone:	none → oneiric-updates

Steve Langasek (vorlon) on 2011-10-11

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status:	Triaged → In Progress
Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Precise):
status:	New → In Progress
importance:	Undecided → Medium
assignee:	nobody → Steve Langasek (vorlon)
milestone:	none → precise-alpha-1
description:	updated

Steve Langasek (vorlon) on 2011-10-11

description:	updated
description:	updated

Revision history for this message

Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote on 2011-10-11: Please test proposed package

Hello Felix, or anyone else affected,

Accepted initramfs-tools into oneiric-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status:	In Progress → Fix Committed
tags:	added: verification-needed

Revision history for this message

Felix Geyer (debfx) wrote on 2011-10-11:

#10

The updated package works fine.

tags:

added: verification-done
removed: verification-needed

Revision history for this message

Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote on 2011-10-11:

#11

As noted in the test case in the description, we also need to check that this doesn't regress for users on systems where vesafb is needed.

tags:

added: verification-needed
removed: verification-done

Revision history for this message

Steve Langasek (vorlon) wrote on 2011-10-23:

#12

I can confirm that this doesn't regress for the vesafb case on my test hardware.

tags:

added: verification-done
removed: verification-needed

Revision history for this message

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote on 2011-10-23:

#13

This bug was fixed in the package initramfs-tools - 0.99ubuntu8

---------------
initramfs-tools (0.99ubuntu8) oneiric-proposed; urgency=low

  * Too optimistic in thinking that the DRM driver will always be loaded
    in time for scripts/init-top/framebuffer to load; some users find that
    vesafb gets loaded first anyway, scrambling their console state in the
    initramfs. Add a one-second sleep before checking if we should fall back
    to vesafb, which seems to be long enough to work around this.
    LP: #869119.
-- Steve Langasek <email address hidden> Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:28:38 -0700

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Precise):
status:	In Progress → Fix Released

Launchpad Janitor (janitor) on 2011-10-24

Changed in initramfs-tools (Ubuntu Oneiric):
status:	Fix Committed → Fix Released

Revision history for this message

shclim (shclim) wrote on 2012-11-30:

#15

This is happening to me on my 12.10 install. i.e., after boot I get a blank purple screen then followed by a blank black screen before the monitor goes into stand-by. If I switch the VT from F2 back to F7 the plymouth screen then appears fine and I can see the password box.

Revision history for this message

private_lock (private-lock) wrote on 2013-02-02:

#16

plymouth-debug.log Edit (60.9 KiB, text/plain)

- does hitting 'esc' once instead of Alt+F6/Alt+F7 fix the issue?
Yes - I get a text-only password prompt

- does hiting 'esc' *twice* fix the issue?
Yes - I see the graphical password prompt (= GPP)

- does hitting Alt+F7 *without* hitting Alt+F6 fix the issue?
No - screen switches to powersave (no backlight) but accepts password typed blindly

- what do you see if you boot without the 'quiet' option (but still with the 'splash' option)?
Depends on how, I remove the quiet:
a) If I trigger the grub boot menu, I always correctly get the GPP invariant of quiet or not quiet
b) Removing quiet from /etc/default/grub and running update-grub still leaves me with the screen in powersave

This machine is a notebook, originally installed with either oneric or natty alternate CD and updated up to quantal without reformating the hard-disk since.

Revision history for this message

private_lock (private-lock) wrote on 2013-02-02:

#17

kern.log Edit (185.4 KiB, text/plain)

Comment 7 'sleep 1' does *not* fix the blank screen for me.

I assume, that the released fix from October 2011 already made it into quantal, so I haven't tried anything else so far.

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Ubuntuinitramfs-tools package

screen goes blank before showing password prompt (inteldrmfb, cryptsetup)

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Ubuntu
initramfs-tools package