CentOS - Nov 2011 - CentOS 5.7 gives me a blank screen after bootup

Hi all,

I have an odd problem, for which I couldn't find any suggestions on google.

A CentOS 5.7x64 gives me a blank screen on bootup, both to the 17" LCD
monitor connected to the VGA port, and to the KVMOVIP device
built-into the server,

I can see the GRUB boot loader, and everything booting up, upto the
point where it says "Waiting for driver initialization.", then it goes
blank - both on the LCD and the KVM.


Does anyone know how to fix this?

It does the same whether I boot into the CentOS, or XEN kernel, or in
single user mode.

First few lines of /etc/grub.conf:


#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/md0
default         0

timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5 dom0_mem=786M
        module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen ro root=/dev/LVM01/root nofb
        module /initrd-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen.img
title CentOS (2.6.18-274.7.1.el5)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5 ro root=/dev/LVM01/root nofb
        initrd /initrd-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5.img



root at zaxen02:[~]$ uname -a
Linux zaxen02 2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen #1 SMP Thu Oct 20 17:06:34 EDT
2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root at zaxen02:[~]$ cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS release 5.7 (Final)




-- 
Kind Regards
Rudi Ahlers
SoftDux

Website: http://www.SoftDux.com
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Cell: 082 554 7532

On Wed, Nov 02, 2011 at 08:14:17PM +0200, Rudi Ahlers
wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have an odd problem, for which I couldn't find any suggestions on
google.
> 
> A CentOS 5.7x64 gives me a blank screen on bootup, both to the 17" LCD
> monitor connected to the VGA port, and to the KVMOVIP device
> built-into the server,
This sometimes seems to happen when it goes into framebuffer.  

Sometimes, it's an NVidia card trying to use nouveau, sometimes, the fb
module is missing, but it's never something I've investigated that
thoroughly. 


I see from your menu that you're running a xen kernel. I'm afraid
I'm
not at all familiar with them.  However, you might try (no guarantee)
using nomodeset in the places where you have nofb.

I'll make the disclaimer that my solution may have nothing to do with
your problem, but I do know that what you're describing has happened to
me on older Fedora versions, and the problem was that when it went from
normal to framebuffer mode, something broke.

Leaving your grub for reference.
> 
> First few lines of /etc/grub.conf:
> 
> #          initrd /initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/md0
> default         0
> 
> timeout=5
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> hiddenmenu
> title CentOS (2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen)
>         root (hd0,0)
>         kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5 dom0_mem=786M
>         module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen ro root=/dev/LVM01/root nofb
>         module /initrd-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5xen.img
> title CentOS (2.6.18-274.7.1.el5)
>         root (hd0,0)
>         kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5 ro root=/dev/LVM01/root nofb
>         initrd /initrd-2.6.18-274.7.1.el5.img
> 
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