Arch Linux

43615

Member

Registered: 2022-01-19

Posts: 32

[SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

Trying to get Nouveau+Xorg+Plasma to work, followed the corresponding wiki pages.

Running startx results in the screen turning off permanently, forcing me to reboot.

Device: HP EliteBook 8770w
GPU: NVIDIA Quadro K5100M
Driver: xf86-video-nouveau

(EE) entries from X's log:

[  3164.145] (EE) Failed to load module "nv" (module does not exist, 0)
[  3164.150] (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
[  3164.785] (EE) NOUVEAU(0): failed to set mode: Invalid argument
[  3165.333] (EE) 
[  3165.333] (EE) failed to create screen resources(EE) 
[  3165.333] (EE) 
[  3165.333] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/aegis/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[  3165.333] (EE) 
[  3165.334] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

After looking for information on the web, I tried adding the "nomodeset" kernel parameter. This expectedly resulted in a much lower video resolution, but allowed X to start without issues.
Any further ideas? Honestly no idea what to do here.

Last edited by 43615 (2022-01-20 05:50:32)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,742

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

Try removing xf86-video-nouveau to just rely on xorg's built-in modesetting driver, as the name implies that relies on modesetting so do not combine that with nomodeset.

Note that there are quite a few performance/compat concerns with nouveau so should you run into anything else not really working as expected you could opt for for the nvidia-470xx set of packages: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&K=nvidia-470xx

Where'd you want to pick up the -dkms variant and make sure you install the linux-headers package for your installed kernel(s)

Last edited by V1del (2022-01-19 13:12:19)

43615

Member

Registered: 2022-01-19

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

That almost works, but it makes my mouse cursor invisible and attempting to exit to console also turns off the screen. Had this exact issue with Manjaro's live system before, there doesn't seem to be a known solution.
Also, isn't that a nuclear option in terms of features? I want more than just a working DE with a browser.

As for the proprietary NVIDIA drivers:
1) they're proprietary
2) 470 is too recent, the last version supporting this card is 418 according to the official download page

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,742

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

That's not a nuclear option. The xorg ddx's only purpose is 2D acceleration for specific xorg calls.  "modesetting" is fully featured in that regard but implements 2D via "generic" OpenGL as present in mesa. modesetting is actively maintained as part of xorg, xf86-video-nouveau on the other hand likely didn't get updated for the xorg 21 release. Regardless of which you pick here this has from a logical perspective no relevance toward 3D or video hw acceleration.

For the invisible cursor one thing you can try is doing a configlet e.g. /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nouveau.conf

Section "OutputClass"
     Identifier "nouveaumodesetting"
     MatchDriver "nouveau"
     Driver "modesetting"
     Option "SWcursor" "on"
EndSection

Also if you are for some reason not yet updated make sure you are, at least the no console on TTY switch was an actual bug in one of the earlier xorg 21 point releases that should be fixed right now.

As for the prop concerns:

1) Yes, but it normally works properly, especially if you want to do more than DE/browser you are very quickly going to run into nouveau issues
2) The "official page" has some weird selection heuristics and is often outdated or you didn't select the "short lived feature branch" when looking it up. That's a Kepler card, for all intents and purposes it should be supported by 470xx. If you're not convinced or this particular support drop actually the case which I'd find strange, the next best legacy branch would be 390xx

Last edited by V1del (2022-01-19 15:00:30)

43615

Member

Registered: 2022-01-19

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

You convinced me, the official drivers worked (470xx), at least for X. The console is at a wrong resolution, I think it should be fixable if I force the display to "refresh" somehow. It did that with nouveau: The text after GRUB finishes is wrong, then some blue pixels appear and the display refreshes, then the resolution becomes correct. The official driver doesn't do that "refresh". Any idea on how that works and how I can artificially cause it?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,742

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

That is one thing that has always been a "pain point". nvidia never implemented a custom high res support for the linux tty. Nouveau does it by invoking modesetting/KMS which leads to the kernel setting the resolution of the terminal relevantly. It "should" be retained if you manage to force a higher resolution early on, which can be configured via GRUB: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB/T … resolution

That said I personally don't really consider this to be an issue, seeing as you gain very little compared to just running Xorg and opening a full screen terminal emulator, assuming you aren't actively debugging a failing xorg session, especially so since recent kernels crippled the use of the standard TTY by disabling scroll buffers due to security/bug concerns.

43615

Member

Registered: 2022-01-19

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

That worked, thanks!
New problem though: the screen is drawn extremely slowly in the console (X is fine). For example, a long help message takes 10 seconds to output. However, from what I've been able to find, this seems to be an NVIDIA issue (accelerated framebuffer not supported).
Doesn't really matter though, since there's little point in using ttys as you said. Actually looks quite funny when PgDning.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,742

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

If you consider this [SOLVED] please mark it as such by editing the title in your first post. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … ow_to_post

ichundes

Member

Registered: 2022-02-04

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Can't start X server, Nouveau issues

For anyone stumbling across this thread, the symptoms with the mode setting driver fit https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/nouveau/-/issues/137

There is a patch in https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/nouv … te_1244809 that will likely fix this.