Can't get into Shell/Command line XBMC Live Dharma
#1
Question 
I was told to make another topic about this as not to clutter my other topic with unrelated issues, plus this would also be helpful for anyone else who has encountered this problem.

I am running XBMC Live Dharma Beta on my Acer Revo 3610, before when I used 9.11 I either exited from XBMC or CTRL+ALT+F1 to go into command line/shell mode, now with dharma all I get is a blank black screen, and in some cases it would freeze, but in most cases I would be able to go back into XBMC with CTRL+ALT+F8. Anyways here is the debug log for when switched using CTRL+ALT+F1 and switched back using CTRL+ALT+F8.

http://pastebin.com/P8waeUFt

As far as I know this and the other issue are the only two problems I have been having with the beta, other than that this has been great and I would like to personally thank the XBMC dev team for all their hard work, I honestly don't know what I would do without XBMC :p

Anyways, any ideas guys?
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#2
mobious Wrote:I was told to make another topic about this as not to clutter my other topic with unrelated issues, plus this would also be helpful for anyone else who has encountered this problem.

I am running XBMC Live Dharma Beta on my Acer Revo 3610, before when I used 9.11 I either exited from XBMC or CTRL+ALT+F1 to go into command line/shell mode, now with dharma all I get is a blank black screen, and in some cases it would freeze, but in most cases I would be able to go back into XBMC with CTRL+ALT+F8. Anyways here is the debug log for when switched using CTRL+ALT+F1 and switched back using CTRL+ALT+F8.

http://pastebin.com/P8waeUFt

As far as I know this and the other issue are the only two problems I have been having with the beta, other than that this has been great and I would like to personally thank the XBMC dev team for all their hard work, I honestly don't know what I would do without XBMC :p

Anyways, any ideas guys?

I believe it is F2 not F1, and F7 to go back in, although mine crashes on going back in.
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#3
That is weird, I am not sure which one is for the shell but I have tried all of them, and with me for some odd reason, the only way I can get back into XBMC is with F8 not F7, unless somehow XBMC is reading my key presses wrong which I highly doubt it. Hopefully someone can help us with the solution to this, as only with this enabled will I be able to upgrade to a new build I think.
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#4
It depends how you configured/set it up in the first place. By default F[1-6] are for six virtual consoles and F7 for Xwindows system. If you did the minimal installation without any Xwindows system and XBMC auto start, then XBMC will run in F1 and you should have the text console starting from F2. Cheers!!
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#5
well...he is using live...so perhaps we should focus on that setup?
Probably your issue is related to the grub resolution. I havent look into the details since it worked out of box on the living room tv. Search for issues with dharma and test the proposed solution.
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#6
mobious Wrote:I am running XBMC Live Dharma Beta on my Acer Revo 3610, before when I used 9.11 I either exited from XBMC or CTRL+ALT+F1 to go into command line/shell mode, now with dharma all I get is a blank black screen, and in some cases it would freeze, but in most cases I would be able to go back into XBMC with CTRL+ALT+F8. Anyways here is the debug log for when switched using CTRL+ALT+F1 and switched back using CTRL+ALT+F8.

http://pastebin.com/P8waeUFt

Anyways, any ideas guys?

I have an Asrock ION and having the same issue.

Terminal works only if i go editing the grub line, put instead of editing anything simply press ctrl+x to continue booting.

It might the amp connected between pc and tv. Or not.
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#7
So what should I hit ctrl+x during bootup to enter terminal or what? I also did a quick google search and found nothing regarding this issue. Also my setup is connected directly to the tv, no amp involved.

Edit: I seem to have found a fix, grub was running in resolutions not supported by my TV, I need to edit the grub file like you said but I need root access which I don't have...hence why I also wanted terminal, with live all I get access to is my user name and password, without root access I cannot edit the main files. I have no idea what the default root password is.

EditEdit: Alright I managed to get root access using putty, I edited the grub file and removed all the resolutions and added 1920x1080 and still no luck. Now I think I am close to giving up on this one but that depends on one thing, i noticed putty was giving me pretty much the same interface as the terminal on XBMC does. Would I be able to update XBMC through putty? using commands such as sudo update etc? Or would that HAVE to be done on XBMC itself?
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#8
There isn't a password set for root, but user xbmc has been pre-added to sudoers.

Use sudo your_command, default password is `xbmc`

Or you can do sudo passwd root to set root's password permanently, and just use su normally.
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#9
Yeah I just finished doing that Kurai, thanks though, what do you think about my last edit? is it possible to update XBMC through PuTTy?
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#10
It will be fine with putty. You will be getting the same login shell level access - it's just as a remote `terminal` instead of local `console`.


I was having similar local console display issues with the XBMCfreak Ion optimised build of the Dharma Beta LiveCD. Something funky was happening with Grub bootloader,usplash/plymouth splash screen & X11/XBMC video modes. Whenever I used CTRL+ALT+F1/2/3... or exited from XBMC, to get to console I was just getting black screen.

The console was there, and working (I could type blind and log in and run commands) but it just wasn't displaying on TV.

To fix it I edited /etc/default/grub with :-

GRUB_GFXMODE=1600x1200@16 to give right resolution for grub & the splash screen, and :-
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1024x768@16 to give a proper text mode console resolution.

Then run update-grub to write the changes to the bootloader and see how things are after a reboot.

Not sure what settings the vanilla XBMC.org Dharma beta LiveCD gives, but maybe that might help.
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#11
Ah in that case I can live with that. Thanks for all the info guys. Guess in my case I will have to resort to putty for all my terminal needs for now.
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#12
Quote:Would I be able to update XBMC through putty? using commands such as sudo update etc?
of course, you only need the console when the network is down.
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#13
mobious Wrote:Ah Guess in my case I will have to resort to putty for all my terminal needs for now.
See my edit at http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=598...stcount=10

Maybe that would help.
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#14
I have the same blank screen problem after installing dharma. I understand that i can use putty to fit it - but i reinstalled dharma fresh from usb stick and therefore have overwritten my wirleless settings (the reason why i need access to the console).

Can i connect through Putty using an ethernet cable between my laptop and my revo r3610? It is a bit to tricky for me to get the wifi setup as it is never mind when i cant see what i am doing!!

Any advice much appreciated.

----------------

After moving router etc through to living room, i got putty working but when trying the /etc/default/grub command it said something about access denied. I then tried using sudo /etc/default/grub and it said it couldnt find the grub. Any ideas? I am now thinking of going back to v9.11
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#15
kurai Wrote:To fix it I edited /etc/default/grub with :-

GRUB_GFXMODE=1600x1200@16 to give right resolution for grub & the splash screen, and :-
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1024x768@16 to give a proper text mode console resolution.

Then run update-grub to write the changes to the bootloader and see how things are after a reboot.

Not sure what settings the vanilla XBMC.org Dharma beta LiveCD gives, but maybe that might help.

Thanks, got it working.

I knew that GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep matches the console resolution to the grub resolution. But i didn't pay enough attention to the fact that while in my case both grub and console support 1280x720, grub supports color depths up to 32bit while console only to 24bit.
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Can't get into Shell/Command line XBMC Live Dharma0