[SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

Higlav · 2019-10-29 23:22:40

Hello dear community,

Here I am again. I'm having further trouble with my Lenovo (Legion Y540-15IRH) laptop. This time I can't get the display manager to be displayed on screen (I tried both lightdm and gdm).
It is virtually the same problem as in this thread, but there the bug hunting seems to derail a bit and it is not clear to me whether the issue could be resolved in the end or not or whether this is even applicable in my case.
In my case I installed the nvidia packages. I tried getting the display to work both with and without said packages. For now I'm sticking with gdm and the nvidia packages.

journalctl -b -1

output

lspci -k

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 8th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)
	Subsystem: Lenovo 8th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers
	Kernel driver in use: skl_uncore
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 07)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem
	Kernel driver in use: proc_thermal
	Kernel modules: processor_thermal_device
00:08.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
	Subsystem: Lenovo Xeon E3-1200 v5/v6 / E3-1500 v5 / 6th/7th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model
00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH Thermal Controller (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH Thermal Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel_pch_thermal
	Kernel modules: intel_pch_thermal
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: xhci_pci
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH Shared SRAM (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH Shared SRAM
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless-AC 9560 [Jefferson Peak] (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wireless-AC 9560 [Jefferson Peak]
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
	Kernel modules: iwlwifi
00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:15.1 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH Serial IO I2C Controller
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH HECI Controller (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH HECI Controller
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake Mobile PCH SATA AHCI Controller (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake Mobile PCH SATA AHCI Controller
	Kernel driver in use: ahci
	Kernel modules: ahci
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1d.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #14 (rev f0)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
00:1e.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device a328 (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3813
	Kernel driver in use: intel-lpss
	Kernel modules: intel_lpss_pci
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device a30d (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 380e
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH cAVS (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH cAVS
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl, sof_pci_dev
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SMBus Controller (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH SMBus Controller
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SPI Controller (rev 10)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Cannon Lake PCH SPI Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU116M [GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile] (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Lenovo TU116M [GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile]
	Kernel modules: nouveau
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1aeb (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3ffc
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
01:00.2 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1aec (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3ffc
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: xhci_pci
01:00.3 Serial bus controller [0c80]: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1aed (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3ffc
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia-gpu
	Kernel modules: i2c_nvidia_gpu
06:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: SK hynix Device 1627
	Subsystem: SK hynix Device 1627
	Kernel driver in use: nvme
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
	Subsystem: Lenovo RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169

Xorg

X.Org X Server 1.20.5
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Arch Linux
Current Operating System: Linux teegardenb 5.3.7.b-2-hardened #1 SMP PREEMPT @1572016775 x86_64
Kernel command line: pti=on page_alloc.shuffle=1 BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux-hardened root=UUID=e646363d-2a3c-4299-9217-91e93615b841 rw loglevel=3 quiet
Build Date: 25 October 2019  08:43:50AM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.38.4
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Oct 30 00:07:18 2019
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(EE) 
Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found(EE) 
(EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
(EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
(EE) 
(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

Any help is much appreciated

Last edited by Higlav (2019-10-31 15:50:35)

Trilby · 2019-10-29 23:27:56

What's in your xorg.conf and why is it there? By default there is no xorg.conf, and generally one should not be needed. Nvidia may be an exception, but more often, the nvidia tool generated xorg.conf is a source of problems.

V1del · 2019-10-30 00:16:21

You need to install nvidia-dkms and the linux-hardened-header to have any chance of this working, if at all, as the hardening introduced by the hardening kernel often changes things here in implicitly incompatible ways. If you are "testing" for basic hardware support, don't start with the hardened kernel as it can introduce all sorts of gotchas you should omit if you just want to check whether it's working.

Higlav · 2019-10-30 10:12:33

Trilby wrote:

What's in your xorg.conf and why is it there? By default there is no xorg.conf, and generally one should not be needed. Nvidia may be an exception, but more often, the nvidia tool generated xorg.conf is a source of problems.

I indeed had that same experience before with my old laptop and my other pc. But since this new laptop is putting more obstacles in my way than any of the other systems before, I thought I might as well try out the most common options. Therefore I tried it out first without and then with the nvidia-xconfig generated config file.

V1del wrote:

You need to install nvidia-dkms and the linux-hardened-header to have any chance of this working, if at all, as the hardening introduced by the hardening kernel often changes things here in implicitly incompatible ways.

Ah, yes. That's an error on my part: I should've known that I need to install *-dkms packages when using a custom kernel(or a kernel other than standard arch). My bad.
Unfortunately it remained the same after swapping to the dkms packages and appropriate header files.

V1del wrote:

If you are "testing" for basic hardware support, don't start with the hardened kernel as it can introduce all sorts of gotchas you should omit if you just want to check whether it's working.

Yes, this makes more sense. To stop even more problems from popping up I now changed to the standard linux kernel (incl. the header files and nvidia package).

Now the situation changed slightly: tty1 still has the blinking cursor, but when I manually execute Xorg(on tty2), it makes me first go to tty1, then gets the backlight to turn off for a split second, before it shows a blank/black screen again (switched to tty3).

Here are the updated outputs:

journalctl -b -1

output

Xorg

X.Org X Server 1.20.5
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Arch Linux
Current Operating System: Linux teegardenb 5.3.7-arch1-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT @1572002934 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=e646363d-2a3c-4299-9217-91e93615b841 rw loglevel=3 quiet
Build Date: 25 October 2019  08:43:50AM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.38.4
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Oct 30 11:02:38 2019
^C(II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

V1del · 2019-10-30 10:37:27

Journal/kernel log wise module loads fine, from that pseudo xorg excerpt, xorg starts fine.

Is the nvidia-xconfig file still present? Remove it (technically there are use cases where utilizing it properly can have merit, however "my xorg doesn't start, so hopefully running nvidia-xconfig will fix it" is never such an use case)

What's supposed to start on startx? Post your .xinitrc (or did you never run startx? Running just xorg - expectedly - just starts xorg, as it doesn't have anything else to do and no client connected it will immediately stop again).

Last edited by V1del (2019-10-30 10:39:37)

Higlav · 2019-10-30 12:36:21

V1del wrote:

from that pseudo xorg excerpt

Hehe, I had to tinker a bit with my bash skills to get that excerpt and then just appended the last line by hand.

Xorg 2>&1 | head -n15 | sprunge

(sprunge is just an alias)

V1del wrote:

Is the nvidia-xconfig file still present?

No, I removed it right away after Trilby pointed out that it was not needed.

V1del wrote:

What's supposed to start on startx? Post your .xinitrc (or did you never run startx? Running just xorg - expectedly - just starts xorg, as it doesn't have anything else to do and no client connected it will immediately stop again).

I expected X to start and to display gdm (the unit status seems fine).
Here's my .xinitrc file:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Init X
#

xrandr --auto  # Prevents black screen on nvidia card

[ -f ".Xresources" ] && xrdb -merge ".Xresources"

# Export the XDG dirs
# . "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/user-dirs.dirs"
export XDG_DESKTOP_DIR
export XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR
export XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR
export XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR
export XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR
export XDG_MUSIC_DIR
export XDG_PICTURES_DIR
export XDG_VIDEOS_DIR

Quick remark: Up until now I had the xrandr call and the source/exports commented out to eliminate a problem arising from them. Meaning I only had the file check for .Xresources and the instruction to merge its configs in my .xinitrc file. The xrandr line I transferred from my other arch pc.
Just to check I also restarted my machine with everything but the sourceing or the xdg user dir file uncommented, but that didn't change much.
What I realized is that I hadn't installed the xorg-xinit package, as I assumed it was included in the xorg package group. After installing it, I ran startx and it says that it cannot connect to the X server:

X.Org X Server 1.20.5
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Arch Linux
Current Operating System: Linux teegardenb 5.3.7-arch1-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT @1572002934 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=e646363d-2a3c-4299-9217-91e93615b841 rw loglevel=3 quiet
Build Date: 25 October 2019  08:43:50AM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.38.4
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Oct 30 13:31:10 2019
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down .(II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

I restarted but still the same problem.

Last edited by Higlav (2019-10-30 12:38:34)

V1del · 2019-10-30 13:55:48

Higlav wrote:

V1del wrote:
from that pseudo xorg excerpt
Hehe, I had to tinker a bit with my bash skills to get that excerpt and then just appended the last line by hand.
Xorg 2>&1 | head -n15 | sprunge
(sprunge is just an alias)

While undoubtedly well intended, in general in cases like these post the complete unaltered log you are getting, you might lose a lot of important and relevant context trying to filter things. Should the following suggestions not suffice, post a complete xorg log.

Your .xinitrc is inherently incomplete, you should have some more definitions for properly initalizing a session, and most importantly, actually start something that should run on the started xorg server note the blue boxes that still doesn't fix anything in regards to GDM, but there's also a few peculiarities you have to be aware of in that case, particularly: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GD … rg_backend

Last edited by V1del (2019-10-30 15:31:23)

WorMzy · 2019-10-30 15:09:34

Mod note: not an installation issue, moving to NC.

Higlav · 2019-10-30 18:44:35

It's getting obscurer: I just booted the machine and after waiting for one or two minutes on the blinking cursor, I got moved to tty2 and gdm was displayed. I could log in and start a gnome session. After fixing my .profile gdm started right away though.
Here's the latest journalctl output and here the Xorg log of the same session.

Here is the new .xinitrc file I copied and edited (for bspwm):

#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
    xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
    xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
    xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

# start some nice programs

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
 for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
  [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
 done
 unset f
fi

#twm &
#xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
#xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
#xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &
#exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
exec bspwm

I also set the option for gdm not to look for wayland.

Now I can login to a bspwm session, but it's broken. I get to a completely blank screen on tty2. I'm using the example bspwmrc and sxhkdrc files and consulted its troubleshooting section for this problem, but to no avail.
Quick question: Gdm lets me set a wm to start after login, but my .xinitrc still executes bspwm regardless. Should I fix that and if so, how?

Last edited by Higlav (2019-10-30 18:45:59)

loqs · 2019-10-30 19:02:21

.xinitrc is used by startx and xinit not display managers. I would suggest removing xf86-video-vesa as the system is using nvidia.
Edit:
bspwm does supply /usr/share/xsessions/bspwm.desktop so I expect there is an option to select a bspwm session in GDM.

Last edited by loqs (2019-10-30 19:07:40)

Higlav · 2019-10-30 19:34:38

loqs wrote:

.xinitrc is used by startx and xinit not display managers. I would suggest removing xf86-video-vesa as the system is using nvidia.

So .xinitrc won't get run when I log in via a dm? TIL
Also thank you for the remark about the redundant vesa library.

loqs wrote:

bspwm does supply /usr/share/xsessions/bspwm.desktop so I expect there is an option to select a bspwm session in GDM.

Yes, the option is indeed there, as expected.

btw: Is it normal for gdm to "sit" on tty1 and to start the wm session in tty2? I always thought "tty7" was used for both of that... Right now I can get to gdm even after I logged in by simply switching to tty1.

loqs · 2019-10-30 19:40:12

X used to be traditionally be started on tty7 then it was switched to tty1.
GDM switched from using the same X server for the user session to spawning a new X server for it on the next available tty.

Higlav · 2019-10-30 20:30:43

Ah, that's why. I see now. Thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2019-10-29 23:22:40

[SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#2 2019-10-29 23:27:56

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#3 2019-10-30 00:16:21

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#4 2019-10-30 10:12:33

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#5 2019-10-30 10:37:27

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#6 2019-10-30 12:36:21

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#7 2019-10-30 13:55:48

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#8 2019-10-30 15:09:34

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#9 2019-10-30 18:44:35

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#10 2019-10-30 19:02:21

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#11 2019-10-30 19:34:38

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#12 2019-10-30 19:40:12

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

#13 2019-10-30 20:30:43

Re: [SOLVED] X/DM does not start: Blank screen, blinking cursor

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