PS3: Immediate boot hang with blank screen

Using a newer version of ps3-kboot (from Geoff L's distro kit 20080609) doesn't improve the situation.

Every now and then the blank screen on boot is accompanied by a sustained high pitch tone. Ouch!

I believe the Xorg startup problems were caused by bug #281610 so we are probably just dealing with a usplash issue now.

Running usplash from the recovery shell (as root)

usplash -v -c > /root/usplash.log 2>&1

Screen goes blank, cannot switch VTs using Ctrl+Alt+F[1-8], machine doesn't respond to Magic SysRq keys. After a hard reset no log has been written to /root/usplash.log.

Investigation continues ...

This bug was fixed in the package kboot-installer - 0.0.1ubuntu8

---------------
kboot-installer (0.0.1ubuntu8) intrepid; urgency=low

  * Disable usplash, since it's currently broken (LP: #285218).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:15:55 +0100

Interesting thread in the upstream cbe-oss-dev list sort of shows something has changed in the ps3fb since the 2.50 firmware update. Apparently the ps3vram driver no longer works and hangs machine:

http://ozlabs.org/pipermail/cbe-oss-dev/2008-October/005735.html

So will not rule out the affects of this firmware upgrade on usplash, need to dig into the usplash code to try and see where the failure occurs.

I just atempted to load in hte live CD install 27 oct 2008 build. I have the latest firmware release ... I also get this... the no splash option also had same result.. screen goes black after a few lines of tect go by then does a hard lock... ctrl alt f1-8 does nothing. I have to use the reset option on the ps/3 by holding its power to reboot it.

Suggested text for the release notes:

"The graphical boot splash (usplash) is disabled for the PS3 as it mysteriously stopped working shortly before the Intrepid Release Candidate milestone and now hangs the system. PS3 users upgrading from Hardy *MUST* edit their /etc/kboot.conf and change all occurrences of the "splash" boot parameter to "nosplash", otherwise it will be much more difficult (but not impossible) getting it to boot post upgrade. Users doing a fresh install will not need to change anything."

I tried a fresh install from the image http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/daily-live/current/intrepid-desktop-powerpc.iso and am stuck with the same problem. I tried different install options with different video modes but it always it goes into a blank screen with no response. I always have to power off and then press the PS3 button for few seconds to get back into XMB mode.

Sorry.. correct link to installed image is http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/daily-live/current/intrepid-desktop-powerpc+ps3.iso

On Wed, 2008-10-29 at 16:48 +0000, Bipin wrote:
> Sorry.. correct link to installed image is
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/daily-live/current/intrepid-desktop-
> powerpc+ps3.iso
>

The daily live is broken. Only the 'alternate' installer works. The
'live' or 'desktop' flavour will not be published in the final release.
We're so close now, I'd recommend waiting and downloading the final disk
when it's released. Look out for the link on the front of psubuntu.com.

Cheers

Dan

Release notes text added:

== PlayStation 3 upgrade issues ==

The graphical boot splash must be turned off when upgrading Play``Station 3 systems from Ubuntu 8.04 ([[https://launchpad.net/bugs/285218|bug 285218]]). See the [[http://psubuntu.com/wiki/IntrepidReleaseNotes|PS3 release notes]] for more details.

this problem is for controlators . you have to seek if your sistem have all controlators ready.

yes, is problem of drivers

Retested on Jaunty (now with 2.6.28 based kernel), problem with usplash still occurs.

No progress with this problem yet. GDB is broken on powerpc at the moment ...

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-ps3-port/+bug/137312

... which hindered my last attempt. Will endeavor to get back onto this shortly.

Intrepid Ibex reached end-of-life on 30 April 2010 so I am closing the
report. The bug is still marked as "In Progress" in later versions of Ubuntu.

Jaunty reached end-of-life on 23 October 2010, so this bug will not be fixed in that version of Ubuntu. It has been fixed in newer versions.

The usplash package has been superseded by plymouth and has been removed from the Ubuntu archive. Closing all related bugs.