Arch Linux

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

[SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

Hello everyone, this is my first post here so if I'm breaking any rules or this is posted in the wrong place please let me know and I'll try my best to remedy the issue as quickly as possible.

When I boot up my laptop, I make it through the grub, arch starts to boot, and then the screen will turn off for a few seconds, then come back on for a few seconds, and finally go back off. From there I can usually type in my password to get past the blank login screen, then manage to logout through use of the keyboard which will bring me back to a screen similar to what it shows when booting arch, and after that I will finally be able to actually see the login screen on my display.

This issue seemed random up until a few days ago. For the most part there was a ~30% chance of what I described above happening, every other time the screen would only flicker once and eventually get me to the login screen. But as of about 3 days ago it is a constant problem and happens almost every time.  I didn't update or change anything so I can't understand what could be causing the increase in frequency of this issue. This problem originally started a few months ago around the time I updated to kernel version 5.6.11.  I updated my system yesterday in hopes that would fix it but sadly that has not improved my situation.  I looked through the journal and was able to find this error, which I think should be relevant, but I can't seem to find any fruitful information on how to fix it:

Aug 05 13:21:26 TedArch kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* [CRTC:51:pipe A] mismatch in pch_pfit.enabled (expected no, found yes)
Aug 05 13:21:26 TedArch kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] *ERROR* [CRTC:51:pipe A] mismatch in scaler_state.scaler_id (expected -1, found 0)

If it helps, I can post an xorg log of a good boot where it displays the login screen, and a bad boot that displays nothing.  If I switch to TTY2 or TTY3 from a bad boot the display will return and I can see the command line, but switching back to the graphical interface will turn my display back off.

Display Manager: SDDM
DE: Plasma 5.19.4
WM: KWin

If there is any other useful information I can provide please let me know and I'll be glad to post it.  Thank you all for whatever assistance you may provide, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Last edited by tedifer_jones (2020-08-09 18:14:16)

Phrosgone

Member

From: Zurich

Registered: 2016-06-15

Posts: 16

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

Are you still using kernel 5.6? Is your system up to date? You should either have kernel 5.7 or 5.4 if you are using LTS kernel.

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

I fully updated my system yesterday, currently running kernel 5.7.12-arch1-1

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,048

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

Please post the full dmesg output and Xorg.log contents from a boot with the issue.

Last edited by loqs (2020-08-05 23:17:11)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

If it was happening sometimes and not others, I'd bet on a race condition. Add your display driver to the initramfs for early kms, see if it solves the problem.

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

Dmesg Output:  https://pastebin.com/7dh5HJXA

Xorg.log:  https://pastebin.com/PKibS0VM

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

I added "i915" to "modules" in mkinitcpio.conf, then proceeded to restart my computer about a dozen times.  It seemed to have fixed the issue for the first 7 boots, but for the next 5 I only had 2 successful boots.  That does seem to make issue less frequent, but not fully fixed.

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

After looking through the journal, it seems that the boot will be successful if SDDM crashes.

Here's a link for the dumped core from the journal:  https://pastebin.com/Dw4qGWu1

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,740

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

This seems a dual GPU config (intel + radeon)
Compare which GPU is used in the working ./. non working case.
Do you have an external display or dock attached?

---

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

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

No external display and no dock.  I’ll take a look at the GPUs later today and report back

tedifer_jones

Member

Registered: 2020-08-05

Posts: 10

Re: [SOLVED] Boot to Black Login Screen

Updated my system again today and proceeded to restart it another dozen times with a 100% success rate.  The flicker has moved to the beginning of the boot sequence but with no problems so far I'm going to leave it be.  If I have no more issues by tomorrow I'll mark this thread solved.

Thanks everyone!