Arch Linux

james-h-arch

Member

Registered: 2022-04-13

Posts: 29

Unwanted blank screen during boot with systemd-boot

I'm new to Arch and trying to get a smooth, flicker-free boot experience. Ideally, with UEFI vendor logo appearing, then smoothly transitioning into Plymouth BGRT spinner and ending with SDDM login manager.

(Here's a tantalising video, showing it's a possibility: Fedora video)

I've had a good rummage through various permutations of grub, systemd-boot and linux kernel settings. I've got the basics working okay.

My problem is: I'm unable to get rid of an unwanted blank screen. It appears for several seconds between Vendor logo and Plymouth splash screen:

• Power on > blank screen > Vendor logo > unwanted blank > Plymouth splash > mouse pointer > SDDM login

How can I remove the unwanted blank screen?

===

Further details on my configuration:

Plymouth installed and configured using Arch wiki. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/plymouth

systemd-boot bootloader installed and configured using Arch wiki. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/systemd-boot

Plymouth theme setup with:

plymouth-set-default-theme bgrt

systemd-boot loader.conf:

default      @saved
timeout      0
console-mode keep 
editor       yes

systemd-boot arch.conf:

title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=UUID=c420c51f-59bf-4901-a335-4024476bacbb rw quiet splash 

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf:

MODULES=( i915 )
HOOKS=( base systemd sd-plymouth autodetect modconf block filesystems keyboard fsck)

initrd rebuilt and pushed to where systemd-boot sees it, at root of EFI partition.

Graphics (on a Dell laptop):

• iGPU: Intel HD Graphics 630

• dGPU: Nvidia Quadro M1200 (inactive)

• Drivers: i915, nouveau (via the mesa package)

I've tried various permutations of kernel command line settings without useful improvement, including:

• i915.fastboot=1 (understood to be redundant now; tried it anyway)

• fbcon=nodefer

I've checked the machine's BIOS settings and there's nothing available for graphics configuration.

There's a related BB post, which looks like a similar pattern of behaviour. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=269408

Eighty8

Member

Registered: 2024-10-01

Posts: 1

Re: Unwanted blank screen during boot with systemd-boot

Sorry for the necro, but curious if you ever got this resolved. I'm having the same issue and am having trouble resolving it.

I've made sure I have KMS in my hooks and have the correct video driver(amdgpu) in modules. I also added plymouth.use-simpledrm to my kernel parameters as well. No change.

If I add nomodeset to my kernel parameters, the transition from UEFI to splash is seamless, but that creates other issues of course.

james-h-arch

Member

Registered: 2022-04-13

Posts: 29

Re: Unwanted blank screen during boot with systemd-boot

Alas - it remains unresolved. There's still about 5 - 10 seconds of blank screen as before. Ah well.