Arch Linux

Tamerz

Member

Registered: 2021-10-20

Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Black screen with SDDM on nvidia driver

Hello,

I'm using the nvidia driver and installed and enabled SDDM. When the computer boots, it just sits at a black screen. I saw this: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=239424 but I am not using Optimus. I tried it anyway but with no luck.

This is a desktop with a RTX2070 Super.

I believe everything is set up correctly but I may have missed something. I have installed the nvidia driver, ran the "nvidia-xconfig" and have a working desktop using KDE and startx.

I have also enabled DRM by adding "nvidia-drm.modeset=1" to grub and re-creating the config.

Thank you.

Last edited by Tamerz (2021-10-20 10:10:11)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,885

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen with SDDM on nvidia driver

Remove the config created by nvidia-xconfig as that never generates anything of use.

This can sometimes be an issue with fast SSDs that the system startup completes fast enough that xorg tries to start before the graphics device is fully initialized, to ensure that properly you need to also add the nvidia modules to the initramfs as explained in: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA#Early_loading

Additionally there's currently a bug in the nvidia drivers and their GSync integration, that can lead to a black screen with full screen GL/graphics contexts if you happen to have a Gsync/Freesync monitor you might want to try to turn that off for the time being (... nvidia-settings has an option for that otherwise check monitor settings)

Tamerz

Member

Registered: 2021-10-20

Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Black screen with SDDM on nvidia driver

Well what do you know, disabling G-Sync fixed it. I'd rather have G-Sync so I guess I'll just use startx for the time being.

Thanks for the help!