I have this happen on a few builds. I install Slackware then I reboot, as it boots into runlevel 3 the screen goes black. The usual fix is appending "acpi=off" to kernel cmdline at boot. Why does this happen?

Is it because my Nvidia graphics card doesn't get a long with the nouveau driver?

What do you guys normally do in this case?

The choice seems to be either nvidia or noveau. Running both at the same time is likely to cause problems.

According to the nvidia-kernel README, "extra/xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist is required."

This happens on my laptop and I doubt if it is a Slackware issue. Did you try simply adjusting the backlight on your laptop screen? I have to do this every time I boot. Use Fn+F2 or whatever key combination your system uses for backlight adjustment.

Or if you're not using a laptop ignore this post.

This is not on a laptop and I haven't installed the nvidia module yet. This was the reboot after I did a fresh install.

Nouveau's kernel module uses Modesetting to poll the graphics card when loaded. Usually this is a harmless after-effect that re-initializes your graphics card's framebuffer to it's maximum supported setting resolution in the console (Runlevel 3).

Nouveau supports a majority of video cards that use Pixel Shader formats using Galium3D as it's API. Most, if not all Nvidia cards that support some level of Pixel Shader technology should be fine with the Nouveau driver. There is also a special Nouveau driver nouveau_vieux that uses the older non-Gallium Mesa 3D driver for Nvidia cards that do not have Pixel Shader technology. In theory Nouveau should work with all known Nvidia cards without any issues.

Just to be safe, try booting without any additional kernel commands.

I get the blank screen when I boot with no additional kernel commands. What if I tell Lilo to force using a certain vga mode? That would be a good test.

If I use acpi=off then it boots fine but disables acpi which I would like to use.

Did you test vga=normal ?

You could try adding nomodeset to your kernel options. That should keep the kernel from switching to a higher resolution framebuffer display mode when booting.

I currently use 1024x768@16bpp as my VGA mode, but when nouveau starts the kernel module, it goes into modesetting and resets it up to 1280x1024@16bpp to match my framebuffer and monitor.