Arch Linux

Ousia

Member

Registered: 2019-12-09

Posts: 8

[SOLVED] Display manager won't start

Hi everyone! I recently installed Arch on a new Dell laptop, but now it freezes at boot, before launching SDDM. I am guessing (but I might be wrong) this has to do with the Nvidia drivers. If I move to a different tty, I can work from there. Sometimes the screen resolutions is correct, sometimes not, it seems to be random.
If I run xrandr on a different tty, the output is

Can't open display

What I tried, following the wiki:

- Using the

rcutree.rcu_idle_gp_delay=1

kernel parameter and adding the nvidia module directly to the mkinitcpio config file;

- Blacklisting the i915 and intel_agp modules;

- Adding

xrandr --auto

to the .xinitrc;

- Some combinations of the above.

I'm pretty clueless, any help is much appreciated.

Last edited by Ousia (2019-12-09 23:45:14)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,703

Re: [SOLVED] Display manager won't start

Did Xorg work before you installed sddm?
What window manager are you trying to use? (I can guess, but please be explicit)

Please post your Xorg logs.

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dglt

Member

Registered: 2019-08-14

Posts: 82

Re: [SOLVED] Display manager won't start

if this is a intel/nvidia optimus laptop, the intel gpu is needed for the laptop display so you dont want to blacklist it's drivers. did you setup something to manage the hybrid graphics (bumblebee, prime, optimus-switch, optimus-manager)??

if you only installed nvidia drivers without setting them up right for an optimus setup, you wont get very far.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: [SOLVED] Display manager won't start

Moving to Newbie Corner.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: [SOLVED] Display manager won't start

Ousia, I think you might have hit "report" instead of reply.

I solved the problem. It was a noobish conflict of configuration files. Sorry for the inconvenience, I lost my patience after getting stuck on the issue for hours, but it was a triviality.

If you could tell us what config file you had misconfigured, it might help someone in the future. You can also mark this thread [SOLVED] by editing your first post and adding it to the title.

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Ousia

Member

Registered: 2019-12-09

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED] Display manager won't start

While following the Wiki Page I mistakenly added the relevant code (see below) not only to the SDDM configuration file, but also to xorg.conf. After deleting xorg.conf (I didn't have any other configuration in it), reinstalling SDDM and adding

xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0
xrandr --auto

only to SDDM's configuration file, everything's working again.

Thanks for your help, and sorry again for opening this thread so hastily.