Arch Linux

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 63,909

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

The hardware/driver are irrelevant, it's only purpose here is to block the simpledrm device
vml only makes sense when also selecting a gpu: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Vulkan … en_devices

---

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

rdkehn13

Member

Registered: 2025-05-09

Posts: 5

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I had the same issue after updating, also on vmware. I found downgrading xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-4-x86_64 -> xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-3-x86_64 fixed the problem.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages

Thanks for the suggestion. Downgrading xf86-video-vmware did resolve the segmentation fault; but, resulted in a "black screen" after executing startxfce4. I also had to downgrade mesa (mesa-1:25.1.1-1-x86_64 -> mesa-1:25.0.5-1) to fix the problem.

SebCav

Member

Registered: 2020-03-24

Posts: 3

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I have the same issue on two different vmware arch guests, one running in vmware player and the other in vmware workstation (both 16.x versions).
After updating the system yesterday, when starting X a white text cursor was shown and nothing else happened, the CTRL+Fx keys were not working, but I could connect to the vm via ssh. In yesterday's update I still had the  xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-3-x86_64 package, and the only way I found to make X work again was enabling "3D hardware acceleration" in VM settings.
Updating to xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-4-x86_64 resulted (in both systems) in X not working anymore, even with 3D hardware acceleration enabled.

Last edited by SebCav (2025-05-23 21:01:47)

Evitca

Member

Registered: 2021-11-19

Posts: 3

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

nothing but a black screen...

On the Plasma virtual machine, the package that caused the same thing for me was mesa 1:25.1.1-1

When I installed

vulkan-virtio

the vm starts normally (without black screen) with mesa 1:25.1.1-1

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … an-virtio/

biernie

Member

Registered: 2025-05-24

Posts: 2

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I had the same issue after updating, also on vmware. I found downgrading xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-4-x86_64 -> xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-3-x86_64 fixed the problem.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages

Thanks for the suggestion. Downgrading xf86-video-vmware did resolve the segmentation fault; but, resulted in a "black screen" after executing startxfce4. I also had to downgrade mesa (mesa-1:25.1.1-1-x86_64 -> mesa-1:25.0.5-1) to fix the problem.

I had the issue with a virtual box guest.
Downgrading both packages (xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-4-x86_64 -> xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-3-x86_64 AND mesa-1:25.1.1-1-x86_64 -> mesa-1:25.0.5-1) fixed the issue for the moment.
I also tried only installing "vulkan-virtio" but this didn't fix it on virtual box.

Thanks for sharing!

Last edited by biernie (2025-05-24 05:40:34)

tckosvic

Member

Registered: 2022-05-10

Posts: 5

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I too have blackscreen after pacman system update this morning.  Only a cursor on a blackscreen.  I am on a libvirt vm so nvidia not involved.

I need instructions on how to undo the update (looks like mesa is key)  when starting from grub using edit or commandline.  Everyone just says they reverted back to previous versions without saying how it was done.

thanks,     tom kosvic

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 63,909

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages

---

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

tckosvic

Member

Registered: 2022-05-10

Posts: 5

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

But, how do you get from grub opening screen to a terminal where you can input a command.  The grub commandline gives you nothing.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,699

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

You need to edit the grub bootline.
Check the 2nd link 'how to boot without gui' in seth signature.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

lama_noob

Member

Registered: 2019-05-19

Posts: 9

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

Hello,
I had the same problem (using Gnome/GDM for sure & Wayland I think): updated the system two days ago, black screen after booting. Downgrading mesa solved the problem. I spent more than three hours trying to see if I had broken anything... then did a search for last week and saw this post on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comm … lems_with/ ; felt like I wasted my day. XD
I have no idea why the mesa upgrade broke things. Sorry, I don't understand everything that has been posted in this thread, apparently this has to do with nvidia? Should I start a new thread to explore how to move forward? (I would like to be able to do "simple" updates)
Cheers,

metzengerstein

Member

Registered: 2010-06-04

Posts: 61

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

When I installed

vulkan-virtio

the vm starts normally (without black screen) with mesa 1:25.1.1-1

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … an-virtio/

Thanks. I had the same problem with qemu using virtio gpu. Installing vulkan-virtio in the guest fixed it.

tckosvic

Member

Registered: 2022-05-10

Posts: 5

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I don't have any other way but to keep asking the same question:  How do I get from the grub login to a terminal to be able to type a command such as systemctl that is referenced in How to boot w/o gui?????

thanks,     tom kosvic

biernie

Member

Registered: 2025-05-24

Posts: 2

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

CTRL+F2 or CTRL+ALT+F2 for tty 2

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 63,909

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

The framebuffer might be left unusable.
@tkosvic,

You need to edit the grub bootline.

Actuall *read* the wiki - blindly copypasting blue boxes will sooner or later get you into actual trouble,

---

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

tckosvic

Member

Registered: 2022-05-10

Posts: 5

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I am running arch in a libvirt vm.  Hitting CTRL+F2 or CTRL+ALT+F2 moves to a different tty on the host.  In virtmanager that runs libvirt,  one can send different predefined key stroke patterns such as CTRL+ALT+F1......F12.  Sending these key strokes, however, does nothing to open another tty for the locked up arch vm.

I have made a breakthrough though.  Someone noted that ssh will connect a locked arch system.  I would never have thought that ssh would be functioning.  I am connected to locked arch by ssh now and will see what I can do with that.  I guess, i will try to downgrade "mesa" recent update.   Seems to be the consensus.

thanks,      tom kosvic

tckosvic

Member

Registered: 2022-05-10

Posts: 5

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

Installing "vulkan-virtio" using pacman through ssh as suggested by @metzengerstein has solved the problem.  Installed the vpackage and did a reboot and was back into successful graphical login.
Problem solved for me.

thanks,    tom kosvic

lama_noob

Member

Registered: 2019-05-19

Posts: 9

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

Hello,
Just to give a bit of information following my previous message (#35), affecting my work computer.

I am using Gnome.
Had the same issue, used arch-chroot to reinstall things, ended up finding the mesa downgrade solution, but didn't downgrade anything else (and even kept updating other packages). I can now login after boot. Since this morning, mouse/graphical controls are kinda broken (not possible to move windows to other screens, drag&drop literally doesn't work, double-click often doesn't work, cannot click on "previous" or close a tab with the mouse on firefox). I will try to reboot and see if things work better (I'll edit this post in a bit).
EDIT: Rebooting fixed the issue of mouse/graphical control (the computer was on sleep since post#35, problems appeared after waking up). Still annoying, but tolerable on work computer. Hopefully when mesa can be updated this problem disappears.
SECOND EDIT: Actually, mouse/graphical control problems came back. Not sure what I did that caused them again. :s (although only some of them, like drag&drop and using several screens)

Here is my lspci:

lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 0c41
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915, xe
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation AD107GLM [RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Dell Device 0c41
	Kernel driver in use: nouveau
	Kernel modules: nouveau

inxi -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-S UHD Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD107GLM [RTX 1000 Ada Generation Laptop GPU]
    driver: nouveau v: kernel
  ...
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: gnome-shell v: 48.1 driver: X: loaded: modesetting gpu: i915
    resolution: no compositor data resolution: 1920x1200

I saw somewhere else that RTX cards were affected? My home computer (also Arch+Gnome) doesn't have the problem (I think it doesn't have a GPU).

If more information can be useful, please ask.

Last edited by lama_noob (2025-05-26 12:48:06)

wildw1ng

Member

Registered: 2020-03-17

Posts: 12

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I had the same issue after updating, also on vmware. I found downgrading xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-4-x86_64 -> xf86-video-vmware-13.4.0-3-x86_64 fixed the problem.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgrading_packages

Thanks for the suggestion. Downgrading xf86-video-vmware did resolve the segmentation fault; but, resulted in a "black screen" after executing startxfce4. I also had to downgrade mesa (mesa-1:25.1.1-1-x86_64 -> mesa-1:25.0.5-1) to fix the problem.

Thank you, downgrading xf86-video-vmware and mesa fixed my black screen too.

word-sys

Member

Registered: 2025-03-13

Posts: 14

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

when will be this problem fixed, i mean it affected arch installation too, after installation i have to go in chroot and install nvidia-utils and lib32-nvidia-utils instead of just rebooting, you gonna say "are you using archinstall?" yes im using because i dont have time to make manual setup, its a forgetteble thing you need to install Vulkan drivers after installation completed, going into chroot installing and rebooting but thats forgettble so when its going to fixed or what is going to happen after this?

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 63,909

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … ote_272975

---

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

word-sys

Member

Registered: 2025-03-13

Posts: 14

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

when it will be on Arch repositorys, because i just freshly installed arch linux with archinstall, still having same problem, stuck at black screen white cursor top left

cgm999

Member

Registered: 2013-07-18

Posts: 29

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

I have 1 laptop that have the issue from this thread( I can not startx after updating mesa pkg , is basically going to be stuck and not show the graphical interface )
I only have Intel VGA card , no Nvidia and no VM:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (rev 07)

I do not have nomodset on kernel command line.

For right now my solution was to install mesa-amber (which replaces the mesa)

Anything else I need to provide that maybe will help this? A strace?

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 63,909

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

"It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future." --- misattributed to Mark Twain
It will hit the repo once the package maintainer has decided to pick up the patch and apply it and it does not affect the install iso (the mesa update was later), but of course you'll get this once you run pacman -Syu

@cgm999,

lspci -k[

This would be the first one, do you maybe  have "xf86-video-intel" installed?

---

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

cgm999

Member

Registered: 2013-07-18

Posts: 29

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

#lspci -k:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 08)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: skl_uncore
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (rev 07)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 08)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: proc_thermal
        Kernel modules: processor_thermal_device_pci_legacy
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th/8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: intel_pch_thermal
        Kernel modules: intel_pch_thermal
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
        Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
        Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: mei_me
        Kernel modules: mei_me
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point LPC/eSPI Controller (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_avs
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
        Subsystem: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Device 3e05
        Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
        Kernel modules: i2c_i801
01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 (rev 78)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 1014
        Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
        Kernel modules: iwlwifi

# pacman -Q|grep xf86-vide
xf86-video-intel 1:2.99.917+939+g4a64400e-1

lama_noob

Member

Registered: 2019-05-19

Posts: 9

Re: Black screen on startup and extracting files

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … ote_272975

Thanks for the update! The issue on the link was initially about vms, but if I understand correctly the patch should work for the general problem? (Sorry if the question is very naive, I'm not an expert user)