When I previously posted about my new server, I mentioned an annoying
issue that I experienced with the console, namely that it wouldn't work unless I used the nomodeset kernel
parameter not to enable KMS and use the VESA driver. That worked for me in 14.04, but yesterday when I upgraded 14.10 it stopped
working, for no obvious reason.
After playing with some settings, I was able to get the console to work with the following GRUB setting: GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text. This setting should be entered into /etc/default/grub and then update-grub should be run. This forces the kernel to boot into text mode, which seems to work great. I noticed in the kernel logs that DRM was enabled from VESA/VGA mode which is exactly what I want; after all this is a server with no GUI or anything of the sort.
Oct 23 21:23:44 Lynx kernel: [ 2.888960] fb: switching to astdrmfb from VESA VGA
(note that the video chipset is an AST 2300, so astdrmfb refers to the AST DRM Frame Buffer)
Since previously, these same things were happening in the kernel, I can only assume that something has changed between releases that has affected the console rendering. Letting it default to VESA mode with a high res console no longer works (like it did in 14.04), but forcing VGA text mode does.
So if you're using the C2750D4I and experiencing this same issues hopefully this will fix the issue for you like it has for me.
After playing with some settings, I was able to get the console to work with the following GRUB setting: GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text. This setting should be entered into /etc/default/grub and then update-grub should be run. This forces the kernel to boot into text mode, which seems to work great. I noticed in the kernel logs that DRM was enabled from VESA/VGA mode which is exactly what I want; after all this is a server with no GUI or anything of the sort.
Oct 23 21:23:44 Lynx kernel: [ 2.888960] fb: switching to astdrmfb from VESA VGA
(note that the video chipset is an AST 2300, so astdrmfb refers to the AST DRM Frame Buffer)
Since previously, these same things were happening in the kernel, I can only assume that something has changed between releases that has affected the console rendering. Letting it default to VESA mode with a high res console no longer works (like it did in 14.04), but forcing VGA text mode does.
So if you're using the C2750D4I and experiencing this same issues hopefully this will fix the issue for you like it has for me.
Server
Linux