[OpenIndiana-discuss] resolved - sort of, now a reproduce-able bug was Re: A KVM switch broke my server?! Lightdm is panic'ing the kernel

[Toomas Soome]

> On 4. Sep 2021, at 10:15, Carl Brewer <carl at bl.echidna.id.au> wrote:
> 
> Ok, the trigger for the fault, reproduce able, is to boot the box without anything plugged into the HDMI port on the GFX card. That seems to break something in the BIOS, then the only way to get it to start X11 without a kernel panic is to restore the BIOS from a previous saved version.
> 
> Tried without KBD & mouse, and HDMI monitor plugged in, and despite the O/S not being smart enough to notice and then use the kbd or mouse after re-connecting, which while annoying, isn't a show stopper. But if nothing's plugged into the HDMI port, it does something weird to the BIOS and we're busted. The only way to get X11 working again is to revert the BIOS.
> 
> It will run ok if you disable X11 (disable lightdm), but if you try to start X11, you get a kernel panic. The only way I've found to 'fix' it is to revert the BIOS.
> 
> Is there something in the NVidia driver that could muck with the BIOS?
> 
> This is odd.  Very odd.
> 
> Carl

The nvidia driver is closed source binary blob, built for Oracle Solaris, and only accidentally is able to run with illumos.

rgds,
toomas