Getting Black Screen on First Boot

I_Go_By_M · 2022-08-31 12:46:14

Hey all, reposting from reddit because I still need some help.
I'm trying to install arch on an old HP T620. I'm able to boot into the live USB, where archinstall works without a hitch, dropping me into chroot no problem. However, upon rebooting and entering Linux from the bootloader I'm left with a black screen. Here's some of the things I've tried:

Installing a graphics driver (it was originally my intention to ssh into it). But shouldn't I get a command line regardless?
Played around with modesetting. Tried disabling it through kernel parameters, but the wiki says it's needed for my graphics driver. Also tried adding my driver to mkinitcpio.conf to no avail.
Ensured secure boot is disabled. Cleared the keys too for good measure. Ensured I was booting Into UEFI.
Tried adding loglevel=7 as a kernel parameter, but it made no discernable difference.

Here's var/log/archinstall/install.log where you can see I'm not using GRUB, but rather systemd.

And I don't know if this is helpful, but here's my system.journal

Any and all help appreciated! Thanks

Last edited by I_Go_By_M (2022-08-31 13:09:00)

V1del · 2022-08-31 13:11:42

archinstall configures and enables a display manager, if that fails to start you are indeed getting black screens. Test whether you can switch to an actual terminal with e.g. Ctrl+Alt+F2,F3 and so on.

Assuming this is the ususal possible fallout with early KMS failing. but you mentioned you checked that by adjusting mkinitcpio.conf (common pitfall here, just adding the driver (which? from the designation that should be radeon) will not do anything, did you regenerate the image with mkinitcpio -P ?)

From the journal you gave, which is quite incomplete unfortunately it does indeed read like some issue starting lightdm.

If you manage to get to a terminal, post

sudo journalctl -b

if you do not get to a terminal boot the live disk, chroot into your actual system, and post that same command from there. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_o … n_services

Mod note moving to the Archinstaller section.

Last edited by V1del (2022-08-31 13:18:18)

I_Go_By_M · 2022-08-31 14:03:48

tty is unresponsive.

I thought amdgpu would be the right driver, but I changed it to radeon. Also I didn't know the image had to be regenerated after editing mkinitcpio.conf...

So mkinitcpio -P is throwing an error that it can't find a kernel. And upon looking in /boot, the folder is empty‽ Anyways I got linux-lts from pacman again, which just reinstalled it and now I'm able to regenerate the image no problem. Weird.

journalctl -b returns no entries.

Last edited by I_Go_By_M (2022-08-31 14:04:34)

seth · 2022-08-31 14:44:12

And upon looking in /boot, the folder is empty

/boot partition not mounted?

journalctl -b returns no entries.

This being from the install iso?
Either chroot or see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … al_to_view

grep -ri Storage /{usr/lib,etc,run}/systemd/journald.conf*

I_Go_By_M · 2022-08-31 15:00:05

I don't think /boot had a mounting issue. After reinstalling the kernel, the folder shows as populated

Thanks for that wiki entry Here is journalctl -b

The output of the last command found it was stored in /etc, and that Storage was set to auto

Last edited by I_Go_By_M (2022-08-31 15:24:37)

seth · 2022-08-31 15:22:38

Did you somehow edit/filter that?
Try again but w/ "sudo journalctl -b"

I_Go_By_M · 2022-08-31 15:27:24

I'm doing this from the live USB, so everything is being run by root. Prepending sudo gave me the same output (same line count, 0x0.st gave same URL)

Last edited by I_Go_By_M (2022-08-31 15:30:45)

seth · 2022-08-31 16:10:32

Did you somehow edit/filter that?

There're no kernel messages in that journal at all, basically only systemd stuff.
Also the system seems to have shut down within 2 seconds. lightdm fails to start because it tries to connect to the system bus after that's been taken down due to the shutdown.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-08-31 12:46:14

Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#2 2022-08-31 13:11:42

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#3 2022-08-31 14:03:48

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#4 2022-08-31 14:44:12

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#5 2022-08-31 15:00:05

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#6 2022-08-31 15:22:38

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#7 2022-08-31 15:27:24

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

#8 2022-08-31 16:10:32

Re: Getting Black Screen on First Boot

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