"Green screen of death" upon new install

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-26 14:14:55

Hullo mates. After installing Arch, my machine will usually give me one good boot (sometimes two) before it begins freezing during booting with a brilliant multi-coloured screen. The screen begins green before moving to white and then purple--not exactly what I hoped to see!

On a previous attempt to install Arch, I had thought that perhaps Xorg was to blame, so I've started fresh. This time, all I've done is install Arch and rebooted twice (haven't added a graphics driver, haven't installed X...). There's nothing out of the ordinary I've done to the install either.

My system specs (from LMDE Betsy, but the hardware's the same):

fred@aussie ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: aussie Kernel: 4.4.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.9.2) 
           Desktop: MATE 1.12.0 (Gtk 3.14.5+4) Distro: LinuxMint 2 betsy 
Machine:   System: Gateway product: T-1625 v: 90.02
           Mobo: GATEWAY model: N/A v: Rev1.90.02 Bios: Gateway v: 90.02 date: 08/02/2007
CPU:       Dual core AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-60 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 svm) bmips: 6400 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1600 MHz 2: 1600 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS690M [Radeon Xpress 1200/1250/1270] bus-ID: 01:05.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RS690 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS690 HDMI Audio [Radeon Xpress 1200 Series] 
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:05.2 
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: a000 bus-ID: 08:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8187B Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Adapter usb-ID: 001-003
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (10.5% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54252 size: 250.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 24G used: 9.0G (40%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-2: /home size: 84G used: 11G (14%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 5.24GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 170 Uptime: 13 min Memory: 546.9/3577.1MB Init: SysVinit runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.9.2 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301) inxi: 2.1.28

This is what I see (transitioning from green to white). Apparently I'm pretty bad at thumbnails so I've just posted a link.
http://i.imgur.com/VD0I197.jpg

I'd appreciate any and all help! I really want to get Arch running on this computer.
Thanks!

Trilby · 2016-04-26 14:56:48

What is the text in the image? I can't make it out except for "buffer io error".

It looks like it is booting, but there may just be a video issue. Can you shell in? Can you use an external monitor? Have you tried nomodeset on the kernel line?

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-26 17:33:18

The text in the image is from a DVD I had in sr0 (oops, forgot it was in there) letting me know there was an I/O error.
With the disc removed, the last lines that appear before the freeze/green screen are

/dev/sda2 clean, 41008/XYZ files, ABC/DEF blocks

I can shell in if and only if I use nomodeset. I'll have to check if I can get to an external monitor but this may be all I have to work with for the time being.
Thanks!

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-28 04:59:10

I have found that if I remove "quiet" from the boot parameters I can see the following message shortly before the system freezes and I'm left with Joseph's Amazing Technicolour Dream Screen

[     8.159467] [drm:radeon_init [radeon]] *ERROR* No UMS support in radeon module!

Looks slightly fishy to me.
Again, I haven't installed X or a graphics driver... this is a stock install with very little changed (new user added, passwords set, and that's about it.)

Last edited by Fred Barclay (2016-04-28 04:59:29)

Lone_Wolf · 2016-04-28 14:00:33

That suggest something is wrong with the radeon kernel module.

There have been some reports about trouble booting radeon systems with kernel 4.5 .
Try chrooting into the install and switching to linux-lts (at version 4.4.x ).

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-28 14:54:43

How would I switch? The chrooting of course I can handle, but I'm not sure about switching kernels in Arch.
Thanks!

Scimmia · 2016-04-28 14:56:31

Install it then add it to your bootloader.

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-28 15:03:37

No, I understand that. I don't understand how to install it. What's the package name? Do I use pacman? Is it a simple

mkinitcpio -P linux
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

afterwards?
Or do I have to compile it?

Sorry, but I've never switched kernels in Arch before so I've got no idea what to do!

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-28 15:11:35

UPATE: Just did some reading. Is it as simple as

pacman -S linux-lts
mkinitcpio -P linux
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

and then choosing the correct kernel (4.4) from Grub when booting?

BTW: I am able to run kernel "4.5.0-0.bpo.1-amd64" from the Debian Jessie backports on this machine on my main distro (LMDE Betsy).

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-28 16:10:19

Alright, so this is what I've tried:

pacman -S linux-lts
mkinitcpio -p linux-lts
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

I still get the same green screen when using linux-lts (I made sure that was the kernel I booted with).

However, I've found that using "nomodeset=radeon" in my boot args, regardless of kernel, gets the machine up and running. I still get the "*ERROR* No UMS Support" message, but the system does boot.
I'd go ahead and install X and a video drive and see what happens, but won't "nomodeset=radeon" prevent me from being able to use the driver (and therefore, X and later MATE)?

I grabbed the dmesg from the last boot (using nomodeset=radeon); should I post it?

Lone_Wolf · 2016-04-29 12:50:11

Glad to see you figured out how to use the lts kernel.

I'd go ahead and install X and a video drive and see what happens, but won't "nomodeset=radeon" prevent me from being able to use the driver (and therefore, X and later MATE)?

without KMS, Xorg will have to fallback on fbdev or vesa. That usually means you won't have any kind of HW Acceleration.

I've re-read this thread and realised you are using a Radeon Xpress card with a RS690M chipset.
If my memory is correct, that specific chipset has a problem with KMS enabling .

Try the following :

boot with nomodeset to console (systemd calls it multi-user.target )
login as root

# rmmod radeon

# modprobe radeon modeset=1

post dmesg.

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-29 14:17:16

Thank you Lone_Wolf. I want to make sure I understand the steps correctly:
1. Boot with nomodeset to console/multi-user.target
2. Log in as root (I'll have to re-enable root--no big deal).
3. Run the two commands posted.
4. Post the dmesg from this boot? Or should I reboot, not use nomodeset, and try and get dmesg?

Do I need to mkinitcpio or grub-mkconfig?

Last edited by Fred Barclay (2016-04-29 15:31:29)

Lone_Wolf · 2016-04-30 11:59:43

Do I need to mkinitcpio or grub-mkconfig?

Not needed, this approach tries to change the behaviour of the running kernel.

4. Post the dmesg from this boot? Or should I reboot, not use nomodeset, and try and get dmesg?

It's the boot where you run those 2 commands that we need the log from.
If you have the problem i'm thinking of, doing things this way should solve the GSoD issue .

Incase it doesn't work, you'll have to try shelling in again to get dmesg.
Should that also fail, boot with nomodeset and try to get logs from previous boot using journalctrl -b option.

Fred Barclay · 2016-04-30 15:35:09

Alright, here's what I got:

rmmod radeon
rmmod: ERROR: Module radeon is not currently loaded

I had booted with nomodeset, of course.

modprobe radeon modeset=1

The screen immediately froze and started the GSoD again. I had to do a hard shutdown.

Since I had no way of getting dmesg after running the second command, here's the output of journactl -b:
https://gist.github.com/Fred-Barclay/a9 … be45200103

Thanks!

Lone_Wolf · 2016-05-01 17:19:03

May 01 01:14:46 echidna kernel: sp5100_tco: SP5100/SB800 TCO WatchDog Timer Driver v0.05
May 01 01:14:46 echidna kernel: sp5100_tco: PCI Vendor ID: 0x1002, Device ID: 0x4385, Revision ID: 0x14
May 01 01:14:46 echidna kernel: sp5100_tco: failed to find MMIO address, giving up.

Not what i expected to see , but there's a bug with SP5100_TCO and recent kernels, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=211365

blacklist the sp5100_tco kernel module, boot without nomodeset and test.

Fred Barclay · 2016-05-02 04:01:26

Well, that's interesting. With the module blacklisted, I get the same green screen. However, if I blacklist it and remove "quiet" from the boot arguments, I can fully boot about 60% of the time.

Fred Barclay · 2016-05-08 18:28:41

Bump?

bstaletic · 2016-05-08 19:33:33

An interesting problem, unfortunately I've got no idea how to help unfortunately. To me this seems like a bad kernel config. The only thing I can think of is a custom kernel tailored specifically for your needs. It takes time and will probably take some trial and error, but if you want to try it I can help.

Off topic: This whole post may just be a side effect of using Gentoo.

Fred Barclay · 2016-05-09 14:12:01

That sounds like something that a Gentoo user would post.
No worries, mate. And sure, I'd like to give customising a kernel a go. I've never done it before, though, so you'll have to excuse my ignorance.
The thing is, I know that Linux can run on this machine (LMDE Betsy does just fine) so there ought to be some way to run Arch as well.

Trilby · 2016-05-09 14:28:04

I have no idea if building a kernel would help, but the fact that LMDE works is not evidence against it. LMDE builds their kernel with different configs than the arch kernel. So if bstaletic is right, then that's actually good news as you can just diff the LMDE kernel config and the arch kernel config to see what's different so you'll have a much much shorter list of trial-and-error candidates. That list could likely be shortened much more by investigating what each of the differences do: are some of them display/graphics related.

To see the config options in either system just `zcat /proc/config.gz`. Ideally, you'd want to direct that output to a file on a shared partition or flash drive:

zcat /proc/config.gz > /mnt/somedrive/config1

Then do the same for the other distro to config2, then just `diff config1 config2` to find your candidates.

bstaletic · 2016-05-09 14:48:57

Posting diff here won't be a bad idea. You can try another thing before diving into kernel configs. Copy the LMDE kernel, initramfs and krenel modules over to Arch, but don't overwrite anything. Add a new boot entry in the bootloader for the LMDE kernel that you will have copied over and try to boot that. If that works it's the kernel config and you'll just have to find what specifically is causing you troubles - so feel free to dive into kernel config at that point. Otherwise there's no reason to build a custom kernel.

Fred Barclay · 2016-05-13 15:30:07

Sorry for the late reply, mates. I had a few unexpected things crop up that took all my spare time.

Trilby:

fred@aussie ~ $ zcat /proc/config.gz
gzip: /proc/config.gz: No such file or directory

What exactly does this command do? I'll try to adapt it to my system.

bstaletic: that's a good idea. Let me look into copying the kernel over.
By chance, would you happen to know of a good guide for doing that, or some key words I could google? This is all Greek to me so I'm not really sure how to research it, and I don't want to follow some horrible guide since I won't know that it's rubbish!

Cheers, and thanks!
Fred

dcdriving · 2016-05-13 16:50:23

Hi, I have been reading the post and learning about this as I have a similar problem where Fedora will see the battery on my 2 in 1 tablet but arch wont. The fedora kernel config is in /boot however and Debian do the same so if you ran that on the LMDE install it wont find it. Have a read of this https://wiki.debian.org/KernelFAQ#Troub … FDebugging
If you ran that on Arch I have no idea why its not there!

Fred Barclay · 2016-05-13 17:38:45

Indeed I did run it on LMDE> Thanks for the link--I'm reading in right now.

I should have mentioned, that the kernel I'm using in LMDE Betsy is the stock Debian Jessie kernel, 4.5.0-0.bpo.1-amd64.

bstaletic · 2016-05-13 18:18:05

/proc/config.gz was not found because it's present in the /boot dir. Moreinfo on that is on the linked page.

I'll assume you're familiar with the cp and mount commands. The actual kernel is named vmlinuz and may have any kind of sufix afterwards usually denoting the kernel version. It is placed in /boot. It's modules are located in /lib/modules/$kernelVersion. The other necessary thing from boot is the initramfs image usually named either initrd or initramfs and has the same suffix as the kernel. So what you need to do is to copy the two images (vmlinuz and initrd) from mint's /boot to arch'. After that copy the whole corresponding modules dir from mint to arch. Reconfigure arch' boot loader (if it is grub run the grub-mkconfig command) and try to boot mint kernel on the arch instalation. As you can see moving a kernel around boils down to copying files. Any more questions?

Arch Linux

#1 2016-04-26 14:14:55

"Green screen of death" upon new install

#2 2016-04-26 14:56:48

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#3 2016-04-26 17:33:18

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#4 2016-04-28 04:59:10

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#5 2016-04-28 14:00:33

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#6 2016-04-28 14:54:43

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#7 2016-04-28 14:56:31

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#8 2016-04-28 15:03:37

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#9 2016-04-28 15:11:35

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#10 2016-04-28 16:10:19

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#11 2016-04-29 12:50:11

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#12 2016-04-29 14:17:16

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#13 2016-04-30 11:59:43

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#14 2016-04-30 15:35:09

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#15 2016-05-01 17:19:03

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#16 2016-05-02 04:01:26

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#17 2016-05-08 18:28:41

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#18 2016-05-08 19:33:33

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#19 2016-05-09 14:12:01

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#20 2016-05-09 14:28:04

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#21 2016-05-09 14:48:57

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#22 2016-05-13 15:30:07

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#23 2016-05-13 16:50:23

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#24 2016-05-13 17:38:45

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

#25 2016-05-13 18:18:05

Re: "Green screen of death" upon new install

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