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In my Ubuntu, I can't switch to console through Ctrl+Alt+Fx using my own compiled kernel, and a black screen appears (I can switch back through Ctrl+Alt+F7).

How can I fix this? dmesg has no message about this.

PS: Using the default Ubuntu kernel, I can switch normally.

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Add both kernel versions and your graphic card and driver. Can you see the console during boot? – Banthar Feb 27 '12 at 12:26
kernel-2.6.34 ,nvidia Gforce 9300GS,and the graphic card driver seems has some problem(resolution is low),so I want to switch to console to install mannually. I Can login X successfully,and during boot console didn't displayed(just ubuntu's purple screen). Even can't get to console through recovery mode! when boot through recovery mode, it get stuck in a ubuntu purple screen with: Loading Linux-2.6.34... Loading initial ramdisk... – hello.wjx Feb 27 '12 at 14:39
Do you have your own kernel running under the same Ubuntu installation, or do you have your own configuration for the own kernel. – user unknown Apr 29 '12 at 20:18

migrated from stackoverflow.com Feb 27 '12 at 13:42

2 Answers

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Have you created and populated your /etc/inittab appropriately? In particular you'll want these:

# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty tty6
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There is no /etc/inittab by default in ubuntu,I added it following your advice,but it doesn't work, :-( there is no corresponding info in /var/log/messages – hello.wjx Mar 9 '12 at 2:49
@hello Hmm. IIRC, Ubuntu switched to upstart some time ago, perhaps that's the problem. I'll look into how to configure upstart. – Kevin Mar 9 '12 at 3:00
it's switched to upstart,but /etc/inittab should still works because /etc/init/rc-sysinit.conf will read that. It should be a kernel specific issue because ubuntu default kernel is ok on my machine.Maybe some module gets wrong? – hello.wjx Mar 10 '12 at 3:58
up vote 0 down vote

In Ubuntu, I find tty-configuration/commands in: 

/etc/default/console-setup:
    ACTIVE_CONSOLES="/dev/tty[1-6]"

/etc/event.d/tty1:
    # tty1 - getty
    # This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the point the system is
    exec /sbin/getty 38400 tty1

/etc/init/tty1.conf:
    # tty1 - getty
    # This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the point the system is
    exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1

I don't know how they depend on each other and what to do about them, but suspect, that the setup is managed there.

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