Arch Linux

switchnode

Member

Registered: 2015-07-29

Posts: 4

Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

I followed the Beginners' Guide up to 'Unmount the partitions and reboot'. However, when I try rebooting into the Arch install, the debug messages stop at

fb: switching to nouveaufb from EFI VGA

and boot hangs. The screen does not go blank or change resolution or font size; nothing happens. (I don't know whether I can SSH in; I have not set up the wireless credentials and I don't have a spare Ethernet cable at the moment.)

The last screen of messages (at ignore_loglevel) are here. The ACPI warning seems relevant:

[   18.664490] ACPI Warning: \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20150204/nsarguments-95)
[   18.665288] ACPI: \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP: failed to evaluate _DSM

I have tried adding "nouveau.config=NvBios=PRAMIN" to arch.conf, as suggested by the Nouveau wiki article, without success. Adding and removing "nomodeset" (as per this thread) also did not help.

My graphics card is a Geforce GTX 980M. I have not installed the proprietary NVIDIA driver.

The Arch installation is on one of two SSDs in the same laptop. (The other drive is for Windows.) I am using UEFI boot; secure boot is disabled. I can edit the UEFI system partition (from Windows) and change the kernel parameters, but cannot currently write to anything on the root partition (due to apparently unrelated errors with the VM I used to do the installation).

Thanks very much for your time.

Last edited by switchnode (2015-07-29 10:46:43)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,789

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

I'd strongly suggest you install the binary drivers, that card is too new to have any sensible support by nouveau at this stage (they don't get documentation and usually lag behind with implementing stuff

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,744

Website

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

Adding and removing "nomodeset" (as per this thread) also did not help.

How about:

nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … odesetting

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?

switchnode

Member

Registered: 2015-07-29

Posts: 4

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

Head_on_a_Stick: No luck; same symptoms.

V1del: That's a good idea. I'd like to try installing the NVIDIA driver, but as I mentioned, I can't write to the root partition to do it.

Is there a way I can disable the graphics card and force integrated graphics, at least long enough to get into Arch?

I checked the UEFI loader, but it doesn't seem to have an option to do that, and all I can use are kernel parameters and the EFI shell. (I don't think I can use the shell to edit modprobe.d, since my root filesystem is ext4 and EFI can only mount and read FAT.)

xabit

Member

Registered: 2013-12-31

Posts: 23

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

hi switchnode!
maybe it could help if you access your system with the Arch Linux CD, download the driver with wget and install it with sh.
btw. dont forget to install the linux-headers package.
greez x

switchnode

Member

Registered: 2015-07-29

Posts: 4

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

xabit, I'm afraid that the reason I installed from a VM in the first place is that the live USB I imaged wouldn't boot. (It displayed just one message, that it didn't recognize the SD card reader, and hung; I blacklisted the reader when I installed from the VM.) I could burn a live CD, but even if I had a CD drive I suspect the same thing would happen.

I have also tried blacklisting nouveau from the kernel parameters, as described here. No change; same symptoms. Honestly I'm not sure why. At this point the only idea I can think of is to try physically removing the card.

switchnode

Member

Registered: 2015-07-29

Posts: 4

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

I have tried booting the machine with the graphics card removed, which resulted in a completely black screen and a blink code indicating a 'faulty system board component'; apparently the system as is just isn't set up for integrated graphics.

Can anyone think of a way I can get this thing booting? I don't care how convoluted or awkward it is, I'd really like to make one last serious effort before I give up and try another distro.

James Barrett

Member

Registered: 2015-08-06

Posts: 7

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

Hi

I'm not sure if you have sorted the problem but i get the same issue on my hardware.

On the boot menu press "e" on the option you want, usually the top one and you have to add "modprobe.blacklist=nouveau" without the quotes at the end of the line that begins with "lmlinuz-linux" and ends with "quiet" usually.

Thats from memory so forgive me if its slightly wrong, i also add need to add ",acer_wmi" after nouveau to get my wifi to work after a clean install

EDIT

sorry missed your post where you said you already tried, my mistake

Last edited by James Barrett (2015-08-06 21:50:42)

cafe

Member

Registered: 2014-03-20

Posts: 156

Re: Fresh install hangs on boot while switching to nouveau

What a tricky situation... You can try to borrow a friend's older card and use it to boot your system. When you get to the terminal, install the nvidia driver. I can imagine that your system boots with the nouveau driver blacklisted, but you can't see anything, because the screen is black. You could also try a remote connection if you have ssh daemon enabled.