Original Question:

After I replaced my Ubuntu 10.10 with 11.04 all I get when I Strg+Alt+F1-6 into a tty is a black screen. Also when I boot there's a while of black screen after grub2 menu is displayed. Then until just before gnome starts it stays black.

I have an Nvida Geforce Quadro FX 770M on my HP EliteBook 8530w. How do I get my ttys (aka 'virtual terminals') to work again?

My effords in chronological order:

• So grub and gfx-payload seems to be the problem, I figured. I went along with this guide for higher tty resolution. Which led to the grub2 menu displaying in my native resolution rather than 800x600. The black screen problem remains.

• I googlehit some bugreports on other nvidia crads having that problem.

• I tried uninstalling the nvidia driver. No effect. Also tried different resolutions

• With an older version of the kernel it works. Though not perfectly. The ttys are usable, black screen between grub2 menu and gnome start remains. Not really a solution.

• Tried so much, that I lost track. Reinstalled grub2 and linux-image-2.6.38-8-generic. Then did this to my /etc/default/grub in accordance with the aforementioned guide (/etc/grub.d/00_header edited as well):

  GRUB_DEFAULT=0
  GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
  #GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
  GRUB_TIMEOUT=3
  GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
  #GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
  GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050x32
  

  To my surprise I can now use my ttys in native resolution. Black screen between grub2 menu and gnome login screen is still there though. That is annoying since I also use an encrypted disk thus having to enter my passphrase in total dark... Still looking for a solution but urgency is low.

• Downloaded and installed a later version of nvidia driver. No difference to last edit.

• Tried GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="vga="-parameter. No effect.

• nomodeset has no effect. not even in combination with vga=...

• Tried echo FRAMEBUFFER=y > /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash no effect (see comment)

• On the verge of resignation...

• Bounty period soon to end.