Cannot load intel driver(i915kms) without screen blanking out

[Polytropon]

On Tue, 12 May 2020 10:41:38 +0530 (IST), Ekalavya wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, 12 May 2020, Polytropon wrote:
> > definition, font selection, colors etc.), but any system
> > that runs X will also have to use vt. In addition to vt,
> > the correct DRM module usually has to be loaded, plus of
> > course the appropriate driver for X needs to be installed
> > (for example, xf86-video-intel).
> >
> > Only for systems that do _not_ run X, choosing sc is still
> > possible with
> >
> > 	kern.vty="sc"
> >
> > in /boot/loader.conf, changing the default setting from vt.
> 
> I don't think you are quite right about this. A system that runs X 
> doesn't have to run vt. If you read my initial post, you will notice 
> that I was using syscons _and_ running xorg.

Thanks for the hint - I just looked at the handbook, and it
must have been updated. So it probably is possible to use sc
again, and still be able to use X on the same system? That
would be really great!

The manual states at 5.4.1. no. 4:

	On some older versions of FreeBSD, the system console
	must be set to vt(4) before switching back to the
	text console will work properly. See Section 5.4.3,
	"Kernel Mode Setting (KMS)".

However, there is a KMS problem pointed out in 5.4.2:

	Older versions of FreeBSD use sc(4), which is not aware
	of the KMS system. The end result is that after closing
	X, the system console is blank, even though it is still
	working. The newer vt(4) console avoids this problem.

I think this is what you've been experiencing with the
"invisible console session". :-)

Sources:

https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/x-config.html

https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons



> Also the xf8-video-intel driver is optional, per the many docs/forum 
> posts I read online. But in my case I installed it because the 
> Xorg.0.log said that Xorg couldn't load the appropriate intel driver. 
> But the point to be noted is that X worked fine even without the 
> xf8-video-intel driver.

Maybe the thing with the appropriate driver is more important
when you need 3D acceleration, especially with ATI / AMD and
nVidia cards, whereas regular Intel cards or APUs seem to be
fine for the usual desktop, and therefore X uses the interface
to the kernel modules instead of its own driver.



There's a lot of change going on in FreeBSD and X related to
graphics, so what works today might break tomorrow. ;-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...