[Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

TarsolyGer · 2019-07-16 10:33:35

Hi all!

I have a working Arch install in VirtualBox with LightDM and the Budgie Desktop. I decided to move to the next level, and try to run Arch on bare metal, first by putting it on a USB stick. I have followed the instructions on the Wiki ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mo … al_machine, https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _a_USB_key ), and managed to copy all files, chroot in, reinstall grub, etc.
I took notes of everything I did, so here's the list of commands I used:

- Disk partitioning and formatting (3 partitions: an exFAT so the USB stick can be used to store data as a regular USB stick, an efi partition for /boot and root partition)

$ lsblk
$ sudo cgdisk /dev/sdb
(efi partition HEX code: ef00)
(linux partition HEX code: 8300)
(exfat partition HEX code: 0700)

$ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sdb1
$ sudo mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdb2
$ sudo mkfs.ext4 -O "^has_journal" /dev/sdb3

- Mount disk after forwarding USB to VM

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/boot
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/boot

- Install rsync and copy everything to the usb stick

$ sudo pacman -S rsync

$ sudo rsync -aAXv /* /mnt --exclude={/dev/*,/proc/*,/sys/*,/tmp/*,/run/*,/mnt/*,/media/*,/lost+found,/home/*/.gvfs}

- Chroot in and reinstall grub, graphical drivers (the machine to test the system has a GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, my other PC is a laptop with Intel graphics), and recreate the initial ramdisk images

$ sudo pacman -S arch-install-scripts
$ sudo arch-chroot /mnt
# pacman -S grub efibootmgr
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB --removable --recheck
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg:
# blkid
# vim /etc/fstab
(change the UUIDs to the ones from the blkid command)

# pacman -S xf86-video-vesa xf86-video-intel xf86-video-nouveau

# vim /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS=(base udev block keyboard autodetect modconf filesystems fsck)

# mkinitcpio -p linux
# mkinitcpio -p linux-lts

After this, I have shut down the VM and the computer, restarted and booted into the USB drive. GRUB loaded fine, the GRUB menu is visible, but after loading the initial ramdisk the screen got all screwed up, the LightDM greeter doesn't appear properly, if I switch to a tty, I can log in and type commands, but the characters are not appearing properly.

https://ibb.co/ygjxBHH
https://ibb.co/dK0Rqn1
https://ibb.co/L0ST9vM

I got back to the VM and chrooted in to get the journal entry, and it seems to me that the nouveau driver has a lot of problems, such as a MMIO read fault (09:25:43).

My logs form the boot: https://privatebin.net/?92d3031b6974732 … azcSmfiq3W

I tried to remove the nouveau driver from the chroot environment, it didn't seem to have any effect on the system, even after regenerating the initial ramdisks with mkinitcpio.

It feels like I'm missing something very obvious here.
Any help or nudge in the right direction is appreciated. Thank you.

Last edited by TarsolyGer (2019-08-19 15:12:47)

seth · 2019-07-16 12:29:32

XOrg crashes:

júl 16 09:25:49 nicemicro-pc systemd-coredump[506]: Process 470 (Xorg) of user 0 dumped core.
                                                     
                                                     Stack trace of thread 470:
                                                     #0  0x00007f10bef5d755 raise (libc.so.6)
                                                     #1  0x00007f10bef48851 abort (libc.so.6)
                                                     #2  0x000055b209339c5a OsAbort (Xorg)
                                                     #3  0x000055b20933d421 FatalError (Xorg)
                                                     #4  0x000055b209340c52 n/a (Xorg)
                                                     #5  0x00007f10bef5d7e0 __restore_rt (libc.so.6)
                                                     #6  0x00007f10bef5d755 raise (libc.so.6)
                                                     #7  0x00007f10bef48851 abort (libc.so.6)
                                                     #8  0x00007f10bef48727 __assert_fail_base.cold (libc.so.6)
                                                     #9  0x00007f10bef56026 __assert_fail (libc.so.6)
                                                     #10 0x000055b2093e9b19 dixRegisterPrivateKey (Xorg)
                                                     #11 0x00007f10b2837709 glamor_init (libglamoregl.so)
                                                     #12 0x00007f10bf0f98cd n/a (modesetting_drv.so)
                                                     #13 0x000055b20940a04e AddGPUScreen (Xorg)
                                                     #14 0x000055b20930cdd2 n/a (Xorg)
                                                     #15 0x000055b2092ee596 n/a (Xorg)
                                                     #16 0x000055b2092e151a n/a (Xorg)
                                                     #17 0x000055b2092e227b config_init (Xorg)
                                                     #18 0x000055b2093271f9 InitInput (Xorg)
                                                     #19 0x000055b2092cf80a n/a (Xorg)
                                                     #20 0x00007f10bef49ee3 __libc_start_main (libc.so.6)
                                                     #21 0x000055b2092d03be _start (Xorg)

Please post the output of "lspci" and the Xorg log (if any) - if you added a static xorg.conf, remove that.
You should not need any of xf86-video-vesa, xf86-video-intel and xf86-video-nouveau (esp. not the former two) and my best guess would be to install the nvidia blob.

TarsolyGer · 2019-08-09 17:44:40

Hi!
I just came back from my 3 week trip to my hometown, and I have got to get back to my Arch bootable USB issue.

My output for the lspci is:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 31)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 31)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Q170/Q150/B150/H170/H110/Z170/CM236 Chipset SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] (rev 31)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #7 (rev f1)
00:1c.7 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #8 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation H110 Chipset LPC/eSPI Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family Power Management Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller (rev 31)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation 100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family SMBus (rev 31)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GP107GL High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 04)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

I don't have a static xorg.conf.

The last thing before running to catch a plane was to uninstall nouveau, if my memory serves I did that from a chroot from a virtual machine, if that matters, generated the initramfs, and tried to boot my machine again via the USB stick, but my xorg still crushed, and I still had nouveau in my journal entries.

During my holidays, I managed to boot two laptops with my USB stick, my mom's and my old machine, with

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Park [Mobility Radeon HD 5430/5450/5470]

and

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

As I had some success with the laptops, I also tried removing the Intel driver (I still have vesa on, as my understanding that's a minimal but universal driver, and I'd like to be able to use my USB stick in different PCs, not just my desktop). At that point I also got an update to my Linux kernel, so the initramfs was generated automatically.
I still haven't installed the nvidia blob, as the wiki on Arch on a USB stick advises agains proprietary drivers, so I was trying to figure out a working solution without that, for the time being.
After getting home and trying to boot my desktop again, first it didn't work, I saved the xorg log for myself, and then booted up the laptop with the USB key to get the journal, and then I just tried to boot my desktop again for a second trial, but this time I got to the LightDM greeter, and logged in to the Budgie desktop no problem. So I saved the journal and the xorg log again, and rebooted, which again, greeted me to a crashed XOrg. Then I tried some more combinations of booting the laptop and the pc with the USB stick after one another, but since then, I could always reach the Budgie DE.

XOrg log for the crashed XOrg
journal for the crashed XOrg
XOrg log for the working XOrg
journal for the working XOrg

The difference in the XOrg logs start at the line 413, but honestly I'm a little lost in all this data. Any help in figuring out what's going on with my install is appreciated.
A million thanks!

seth · 2019-08-09 21:15:14

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li … TTY_output ?

TarsolyGer · 2019-08-17 07:50:43

seth wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li … TTY_output ?

This doesn't seem to be it.
No matter if I set

[LightDM]
logind-check-graphical=true

or not, it doesn't seem to matter. When I was experimenting with this setting on Tuesday, I got to the LightDM and the Budgie DE, today I was going to use the system again, but this time I got the muddled screen again on my desktop PC. My ancient laptop boots to graphical interface no matter what.

My next step will be just installing the proprietary nVidia drivers as soon as I'll have some more extra time to experiment, and see how that plays out.

TarsolyGer · 2019-08-19 15:11:56

I have installed the nvidia and the nvidia-lts packages, added the pacman hooks suggested by the Wiki, and now I can boot into the graphical environment on both my main desktop PC and my laptop with the Intel graphics, too, with no problem. I guess I'll test it tomorrow on my office PC with an older nVidia card in it, just to see how portable the system is with the proprietary drivers.
But the main issue I opened this thread for is solved.

Thank you for your kind help!

Arch Linux

#1 2019-07-16 10:33:35

[Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

#2 2019-07-16 12:29:32

Re: [Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

#3 2019-08-09 17:44:40

Re: [Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

#4 2019-08-09 21:15:14

Re: [Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

#5 2019-08-17 07:50:43

Re: [Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

#6 2019-08-19 15:11:56

Re: [Solved] Moving Arch install from VM to USB drive, screen got muddled

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