Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

Nono3167 · 2023-02-16 06:44:53

Hi,

I have a dual boot setup with Archlinux and Windows 10 (with EUFI boot partition).

After updating Windows 10 (still running Windows 10 ,not 11), I lost access to my grub.

I booted from a live usb and went through the following commands to bring back grub : arch-chroot, mkinitcpio, grub-mkconfig, grub-install.

That fixes grub but when I select Archlinux, I get stuck when X11 / SDDM is supposed to start. I see all item going green up to Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service. And then I get stuck.

If I disable SDDM (through recovery mode), I can log on the system and get to a prompt.

From there if I try to run SDDM, I get a black screen with a cursor that is displayed (fixed, not blinking).

I don't really know if my issue comes from how grub is booting the kernel (or something else) or if before I upgraded Windows, I also upgraded Arch with pacman Syu and that broke some package. (I don't remember if updating Arch was the last thing I did or not).

Does anyone have any idea?

seth · 2023-02-16 07:58:21

Compare

uname -a
pacman -Qs linux

Sidebar:

I have a dual boot setup with Archlinux and Windows 10

3rd link below. Mandatory.
Disable it (it's NOT the BIOS setting!) and reboot windows and linux twice for voodo reasons.

Nono3167 · 2023-02-16 21:19:16

uname-a gives me 6.1.8-arch1 kernel

The pacman command gives me a whole lot of packages. The local/linux package is 6.1.8.arch1-1

So it seems to match. Is there something else I should check from pacman command?

I checked and both hibernation and fast startup are disabled.

seth · 2023-02-16 21:41:04

Is there something else I should check from pacman command?

No.
A kernel mismatch would just have been an obvious explanation for the symptoms.

From there if I try to run SDDM, I get a black screen with a cursor that is displayed (fixed, not blinking).

Can you then switch to a different VT (ctrl+alt+f2,f3,…)?

Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Nono3167 · 2023-02-16 21:56:15

At first when I get to the console login, only vt1 is available. All other vt are showing a blinking cursor.

After I log in to the console (vt1), then all vt up to and including vt5 show a login prompt. Vt6 still shows a blinking cursor.

After I run 'systemctl start sddm' to start running the graphical interface, then I see a single cursor blinking about 1s and then freezing. All other vts are no longer available, the screen stays stuck.

The curl part of the journalctl command did not seem to work. I uploaded here the full content of the journalctl (without the pipe curl). This was taken after login and before I tried to start Sddm (obviously because after it just freezes) : https://0bin.net/paste/+M8Faa0H#DTda2mz … FHaC8LAuu4

Last edited by Nono3167 (2023-02-16 21:57:18)

seth · 2023-02-16 22:15:05

You didn't have a network connection when drawing the journal. It is probably only established w/ the (gui) session.

févr. 16 22:49:30 xps-9560-arch kernel: bbswitch: Found integrated VGA device 0000:00:02.0: \_SB_.PCI0.GFX0
févr. 16 22:49:30 xps-9560-arch kernel: bbswitch: Found discrete VGA device 0000:01:00.0: \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP

Neither nvidia nor nouveau show up anywhere.
Please post your Xorg log, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#General and try to disable bumblebee & bbswitch.

Nono3167 · 2023-02-16 22:31:59

In /var/log I have a couple of files that start with Xorg.

The most recent are Xorg.0.log and Xorg.pid-1489.log
Both files have a length of 0 bytes.

I juste disabled bumblebeed. Bbswitch service does not exist on my system. (error from systemctl).

I restarted and now Sddm starts well! I am re-enabling the service and are rebooting one more time.

And now everything works!

I guess I'll have to have a look back back at nvidia drivers and bumblebee later then. Any recommended setup seeing as I mostly don't need the nvidia GPU?

Thanks very much!

seth · 2023-02-16 22:40:54

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PRIME# … Management
But you don't have a turing chip, so it won't power down completely.

I guess I'll have to have a look back back at nvidia drivers and bumblebee later then.

Why though? If it suits your usage patterns and works again?
Thoug w/o the logs it's also not possible why SDDM prevously failed then

Nono3167 · 2023-02-16 22:48:06

Last time I checked, bumblebee was supposed to allow me to power down (or maybe just reduce the power consumption of) my NVIDIA card and use the Intel graphics chipset instead to increase the battery life of my laptop.

I'll see how the battery life goes right now and and see if I need to do any changes to improve it.

seth · 2023-02-16 22:54:47

Yes, but that's a different approach than prime which allows you to call the GPU any time (w/ having to restart X11) and for newer GPUs completely powers it down after it's use. Your GPU will still go into power saving, but not completely.

That's why

seth wrote:

I guess I'll have to have a look back back at nvidia drivers and bumblebee later then.
Why though? If it suits your usage patterns and works again?
Though w/o the logs it's also not possible why SDDM prevously failed then

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-16 06:44:53

Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#2 2023-02-16 07:58:21

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#3 2023-02-16 21:19:16

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#4 2023-02-16 21:41:04

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#5 2023-02-16 21:56:15

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#6 2023-02-16 22:15:05

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#7 2023-02-16 22:31:59

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#8 2023-02-16 22:40:54

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#9 2023-02-16 22:48:06

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

#10 2023-02-16 22:54:47

Re: Crash when starting SDDM / X11 after reinstalling grub

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