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System is Intel® Core™ i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz × 8 with Intel® HD Graphics 630 (Kaby Lake GT2). Motherboard is ASUS PRIME B250M-A

Updated to 19.10 yesterday and the VGA display port no longer works. I was running a three monitor display setup in 19.04 utilizing the HDMI, DVI, and VGA outputs.

After upgrading to 19.10, I can no longer get to the login screen when the VGA port is connected. It will boot up, but once it gets to trying to enable the login display manager, it flashes a red screen, then goes black, then flashes, and so on. This occurs even if I disconnect all other displays and use just the VGA port.

At one point during testing, I was able to press Ctrl+Alt +F4, wasn't able to get a login prompt, but did see some messages similar to this:

drm intel_dp_start_link_timeout

I don't have the exact error unfortunately, and could not find it in the logs anywhere. This would print out every few seconds, and seemed to align with the red flashes.

Eliah Kagan
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Derek Carlson
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  • Since I don't have enough reputation to answer, here's a link from Medium of a work-around. It's apparently an issue with the 5.3 kernel: https://medium.com/@leonlyxl/vga-not-working-after-ubuntu-19-10-upgrade-fret-not-e409ca6aba – Derek Carlson Dec 03 '19 at 19:56
  • Additional update, looks like this same bug (from October) has a fix, but hasn't been published yet: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=111966 – Derek Carlson Jan 04 '20 at 00:20

2 Answers2

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I had the same problem after upgrading from 19.04 to 19.10:

VGA, no signal

I have no idea where the signal went since VGA was working fine in 19.04!
Fortunately, I used the grub menu at boot, and it displays three choices:

  • Select the "Advanced Options" choice. The next screen will display four choices:
  • Scroll to the last option and select, "Ubuntu...recovery mode" (there are two "recovery mode" selections, but the last one works the best for me). A lot of code will scroll down the screen including code for 19.10, after which you will be prompted with two final screens:
  • just hit the Enter key for both screens.
  • Lastly, you will get to stare at a blank screen with the cursor blinking in the upper left hand corner for a minute or two, and then Upgrade 19.10 will appear on your screen (or at least it appeared on my screen. Hopefully you will have the same experience).
  • BTW, in case you don't use the Grub menu at boot, click this link for help with the Grub menu.

Hope this helps.

terdon
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Ubuntu 19.10_Guest_Helper
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  • Appreciate the response. This did not work for me. I was able to at least get the login screen after a few minutes following this method. But it still did not appear on my third monitor attached to the VGA port, and the two working displays were stuck in 1024x768 and mirrored. Looks like it loaded some fallback display driver. I'll keep looking. – Derek Carlson Nov 01 '19 at 17:42
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You're not alone in that problem - it seems that Intel VGA ports are not working properly. I tried to do a lot of stuff to fix the problem, but it seems that the problem is with the display driver. My system wouldn't start with the VGA monitor connected. Only safe mode helped to start (and yes, it makes the VGA monitor work, but it only duplicates the main monitor).

The solution for my PC was to update BIOS to the latest firmware and also choose the 5.0.0 kernel in GRUB. Now my second display is working fine! The issue, however, still exists for the 5.3.0 kernel.

BeastOfCaerbannog
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Dante Blank
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  • Well, I found the solution for my PC. I updated BIOS to the last firmware and also chose 5.0.0 kernel in grub. So now my second display is working fine for me! :) The issue still exists for 5.3.0 kernel. – Dante Blank Nov 05 '19 at 11:53
  • It's great that you solved your problem! I edited your answer to include your comment, which is a proper answer to the OP's question. As it was stated before, your answer could be removed for not qualifying as an answer. See this for more. – BeastOfCaerbannog Nov 05 '19 at 17:12