Arch Linux

Lacksal

Member

Registered: 2023-11-06

Posts: 29

[SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

Hello Everyone!

I was performing system updates yesterday, and the next time I booted, my screen was just flashing on and off and I was unable to access try as it would simple flash off again. 

here is "journalctl -b" from chroot

https://pastebin.com/6vrcDu7u

There's a lot of odd warnings here, but I am really not sure what most of them mean unfortunately. 

I tried reinstalling graphics drivers (I use Nvidia proprietary drivers)

Not sure if this is part of the issue, but I do dual boot with Windows (I turned off secure boot, and fast boot/wakeup in windows and in bios)

I would appreciate any help, thanks!  And if there are any more logs you need, let me know.

Last edited by Lacksal (2024-05-03 14:42:49)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 52,291

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

here is "journalctl -b" from chroot

That doesn't work.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … al_to_view ("-b -1" instead of "-e")

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lacksal

Member

Registered: 2023-11-06

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

here is "journalctl -b" from chroot

That doesn't work.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … al_to_view ("-b -1" instead of "-e")

Double checking here: should I do

"journalctl -b -1"?

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 52,291

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

journalctl -D /mnt/var/log/journal -b -1

ANd don't chroot into the system for that

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lacksal

Member

Registered: 2023-11-06

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

Gotcha, here is the journal (without chrooting)

https://pastebin.com/4Pu9FFg5

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 52,291

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

May 02 17:55:12 archlinux kernel: [drm] Initialized simpledrm 1.0.0 20200625 for simple-framebuffer.0 on minor 0
May 02 17:55:12 archlinux kernel: simple-framebuffer simple-framebuffer.0: [drm] fb0: simpledrmdrmfb frame buffer device

Enable https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA … de_setting - use the "nvidia_drm.modeset=1" kernel parameter (modprobe.conf won't do!)

May 02 17:55:14 gurgi systemd-journald[325]: Time spent on flushing to /var/log/journal/0fa6ec1516d941868efd70d34a4a40fd is 6.476ms for 1075 entries.
EOF

Did you reboot w/ the power button?
Don't
Try to frenetically press ctrl+alt+del and in doubt use https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboa … el_(SysRq)

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lacksal

Member

Registered: 2023-11-06

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

So I don't have an nvidia_drm directory

(ls /mnt/sys/module)

https://pastebin.com/zTRL06C7

Last edited by Lacksal (2024-05-02 22:03:06)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 52,291

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

The module is probably blacklisted (the uvm module is) by optimus-manager or, but that's not relevant - the kernel parameter will implicitly block the simpledrm device.
And then we'll need a journal that covers the flicker/flashing on boot (ie. from a boot that wasn't terminated w/ the power button)

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lacksal

Member

Registered: 2023-11-06

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

Gotcha, here is the log after I used Ctrl+alt+del to reboot

https://pastebin.com/LW4qGQYR

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 52,291

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

May 02 21:33:16 gurgi lightdm[925]: Traceback (most recent call last):
May 02 21:33:16 gurgi lightdm[925]:   File "/sbin/prime-switch", line 5, in <module>
May 02 21:33:16 gurgi lightdm[925]:     from optimus_manager.hooks.pre_xorg_start import main
May 02 21:33:16 gurgi lightdm[925]: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'optimus_manager'
May 02 21:33:16 gurgi systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
May 02 21:33:16 gurgi systemd[1]: lightdm.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Remove the prime-switch invocation.

May 02 21:32:57 gurgi python3[509]: /usr/bin/python3: Error while finding module specification for 'optimus_manager.hooks.pre_daemon_start' (ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'optimus_manager')

and optimus manager.

There might be a residual /etc/X11/xorg.conf (generated by optimus manager) - move that away as well, you generally don't need a static xorg configuration.

Fyi, you've networkmanager, systemd-networkd and iwd enabled.
Assuming you want to use networkmanager, disable systemd-networkd and iwd, if you want to use iwd as NM backend, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … Fi_backend

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Lacksal

Member

Registered: 2023-11-06

Posts: 29

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

Removing optimus-manager and prime-switch worked!  I rebooted and everything is working fine. Thank you!  I'll mark it as solved rn.

P.S. What would you recommend I use for integrated/dedicated GPU switching? I would still like to have that ability if possible.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 52,291

Re: [SOLVED] Flashing screen on boot, unable to access tty

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME
You've an ampere chip and are most likely getting https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME# … Management by default

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc