ubuntu loading screen (usplash) does not display on Nvidia 8600gts

Thank you for your bug report.

Andy:
Alas your card is not supported by the NVIDIA binary driver supplied with Feisty because it is too new. At the time of Feisty's release there was no binary driver that supported your card (see http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-9755/README/appendix-a.html for the list of newest cards supported by nvidia-glx-new in Feisty ).

You do not say if the opensource nv driver also has problems. If so this sounds like Bug #107831 . The usplash screen issue seems to be symptomatic of new NVIDIA cards. Does booting with the grub option vga=795 make any difference? If not does removing the splash option from grub make any difference?

I haven't tried the nv driver, I will give it a go.

I tried booting with the vga=795 option and it made no difference.
I also tried removed the splash option and that worked, I can see it booting, although not very nice looking (it's all text). But that gets around the usplash problem temporarily.

Will report later on the open-source nv driver.

Tried the nv driver. X works, but anything that requires Open GL does not work.
Anything interesting like Google Earth of Nexuiz doesn't work.
What is the advantage of using the nv driver over the vesa one? I can't see any difference....

Andy:
Believe it or not it does accelerate certain 2D functions like xv (but as you have found, there's no 3D).

Now we are in danger of this bug being about two issues which will lead to it being closed as unfocussed. Can you clarify what you want this bug to focus on? The title suggests that the problem is the lack of a (usplash) loading screen. This is a separate issue from lack of binary only drivers...

(might be related to Bug #116103 )

Ok, I think this bug should probably concentrate on the splash screen. It is a bit unnerving to see a blank screen when ubuntu starts. Especially when fsck kicks in and forces a disk check. New users switching from Windows will have a very bad impression if they see this.

What I don't understand is why does X work, but not usplash? Surely these two components should switch to graphics mode in the same way and use the same config files (xorg.conf) ??

Shall I raise a seperate bug to deal with the seperate issue of no accelerated drivers for the 8600gts?

Andy:

Why it happens on one and not another has to do with how the screen resolution is selected (usplash uses the in kernel framebuffer driver that depends on the video bios to get it right and seemingly new NVIDIA cards seem to do something a little strange in this regard). X can do things like choose a different refresh rate etc which the vesa framebuffer drivers generally can't. X and the vesa framebuffer do not drive the hardware the same way and most certainly do not share the same configuration file. Only X use xorg.conf.

I don't know if it's worth filing a bug about the lack of binary drivers for your card however it will act as a focal point for other users so don't let me stop you.

Does booting with the grub option vga=795 make any difference to usplash?

Booting with vga=795 does not make any difference.

Andy:
After backing it up, does changing /etc/usplash.conf to 640x480 make any difference?

Nope. Changed it to that and I still don't get any signal to my monitor. :-(

Andy:
What about 600x400 (just out of interest what were the original values in /etc/usplash.conf )?

Have tried 600x400 and it does not make any difference. I think the original values were 1024x768

Oops, have just noticed that you said 600, rather than 640. Is this a typo?

Andy:
OK can you set usplash.conf back to 1024x768 and boot with the vga=792 parameter (by the way, how are you adding the vga= parameter)?

I altered the menu.lst file
I have the followed in that file:

defoptions=vga=792

P.S.

Those changes still made no difference to the splash screen

Andy:
defoptions only comes into play when update-grub is run - are you doing that too? If not can you try adding it directly to the end of the
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic
line or use similar instructions to those described on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.20/+bug/115700/comments/5 ?

Ok,

Doing what you suggested now shows the splash screen. Both vga=792 and vga=795 both work, although 792 looks better and is centered.

Sorry about that. I'm an ubuntu user rather than an ubuntu hacker.

:-)

Andy:
Heh, I'm hardly a hacker - I'm just another user like you which is why I asked how you enabled the option in grub (it occurred to me you might be using a different method ; )

Your latest comment makes this sound like a definite duplicate of Bug #116103 and a possible duplicate of Bug #86666 ...

Thinking about it, I'm going to close this bug and mark it as a duplicate of #116103 for now. It can moved again later if an better earlier target is found.

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug #116103 and is being marked as such. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.