Xrandr Can't Open Display & Crashes System on next reboot.

amghwk · 2021-11-11 04:58:20

MSI MEG Unify X570
Ryzen 9 5900X
Radeon 5700XT
Samsung monitor connected via Display Port (4K)
Sony TV connected via HDMI (4K)
Mirrored display. (also tried disabling one and just tried with a single display.)

DE: KDE

I have just upgraded my system to the above motherboard and CPU. I did a clean install of Arch. (I have been installing Arch many times now, and I have followed the wiki to the letter. I can install without looking at the wiki, but I still refer to it so as not to miss anything.)

System seems to run okay. But when I type xrandr, the message says "Can't open display". And following that, from next boot onwards, the system doesn't boot to the SDDM login screen anymore. The whole screen is black. And unresponsive. I needed to hard reset, but then again goes back to this black screen again.

(The reason I tried running xrandr is to reset the desktop resolution back to the 4K resolution it was originally on, after exiting from WINE game - namely Diablo II, since the resolution is messed up after exiting.)

And on another note, when I install XFCE with lightdm, it doesn't boot after enabling the lightdm. Same black screen.

Last edited by amghwk (2021-11-11 05:00:03)

seth · 2021-11-11 07:33:40

when I type xrandr

Where? The console? Won't work.

the message says "Can't open display".

Because this means there's no $DISPLAY variable set (unless it actually said sth like "Can't open display :0.0")

system doesn't boot to the SDDM login screen anymore

Boot the multi-user.target (2nd link below, if it doesn't work either, pass "nomodeset" the the kernel commandline) and post the system journal for a bad boot ("sudo journalctl -b -1 | curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io" for the previous one)

I needed to hard reset

Are you sure that ctrl+alt+del (hit it a couple of times) or a soft reboot (brief touch of the power button) doesn't work? Because hard reboots will not sync the journal to disk, so we won't be able to inspect the boot.
Can you install/enable/run sshd and try to log into the BlackScreen™?

amghwk · 2021-11-12 02:21:39

seth wrote:

when I type xrandr
Where? The console? Won't work.

Xrandr is a console/terminal command, no? However I can get the output using xrandr in console from a live distro like Manjaro XFCE. Not sure why it says can't open display in Arch.

Anyway, I did a clean install again, and now Installed XFCE. I can boot now, using nomodeset, but the resolution is stuck at 640x480 and no other options available in the Display option in System Settings.

seth · 2021-11-12 07:39:10

There's a major difference between the linux console and a terminal emulator inside X11.
You can run "xrandr" in an xterm (or gnome-terminal or whatever) but not in the linux console (the DOS like environment w/o a GUI) w/o directing it to a $DISPLAY server

And "nomodeset" will not allow you to run a display server (X11) but for the VESA or fbdev driver (what is not what you want, as it provides the limitations you figured…)

seth wrote:

Boot the multi-user.target (2nd link below, if it doesn't work either, pass "nomodeset" the the kernel commandline) and post the system journal for a bad boot ("sudo journalctl -b -1 | curl -F 'f:1=<-' ix.io" for the previous one)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-11-11 04:58:20

Xrandr Can't Open Display & Crashes System on next reboot.

#2 2021-11-11 07:33:40

Re: Xrandr Can't Open Display & Crashes System on next reboot.

#3 2021-11-12 02:21:39

Re: Xrandr Can't Open Display & Crashes System on next reboot.

#4 2021-11-12 07:39:10

Re: Xrandr Can't Open Display & Crashes System on next reboot.

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