Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 05:00:18

Hello, I was following some guides on setting up vfio for gpu passthrough, and after modifying my mkinitcpio modules, vfio.conf (the correct kernel paramaters as well), and added "blacklist nouveau" to blacklist.conf. I rebooted and everything was frozen upon starting systemd.

What I assume mightve happened:
1. I mightve spelt nouveau wrong in the blacklist (I chrooted into my install and messed with everything trying to fix it so I am unable to check), which is probably not an issue since adding rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau to the grub commandline does nothing to fix it either
2. There is no graphics/it becomes frozen because of my blacklist, but I cant seem to fix this. I arch-chrooted into my install, removed blacklist.conf, vfio.conf, and reverted mkinitcpio.conf, and tried to rebuild using mkinitcpio -p linux after it failing initally and doing pacman -S linux, which fixed it, however it still froze when systemd started.

I'm unsure of what to do, and I don't want to loose all of my time I spent setting up my install. Any help?

SOLVED: enable sshd from iso and ssh into to fix it

Last edited by ndieo99 (2023-06-22 13:18:05)

seth · 2023-06-22 05:12:16

mkinitcpio -p linux after it failing initally and doing pacman -S linux, which fixed it

Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855

Can you boot when passing "nomodeset" to the kernel?
If you're trying to pass through the only GPU of the system w/ vfio, it's not available to show you any output during or after the boot.

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 05:15:25

appending nomodeset does not fix the issue. I have an intel igpu and an nvidia card. The bios is set to load the integrated graphics anyways.

Also, how would I build my initramfs after chrooting into my install? If I can mkinitcpio and remove the blacklist and vfio .confs this wouls resolve the issue, no?

Last edited by ndieo99 (2023-06-22 05:34:11)

seth · 2023-06-22 05:34:32

"mkinitcpio -P" - if you properly chrooted into the system (use arch-chroot) and mounted the /boot partition (iff there's one) you can expect that to work.
If it doesn't, post the errors you get (1st link below)

Whether it helps depends on what you actually configured for vfio.

If you disabled the nvidia GPU in the BIOS, you can also not pass it through.

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 05:41:43

Alright, I'll retry tomorrow however I did use mkinitcpio -P and it did indeed rebuild, however there's some caveat because even after this I still couldnt boot.

For future reference, I see many guides say to blacklist drivers using the blacklist.conf file which is baked into the initramfs when you do mkinitcpio. What is a better alternative for doing this? Adding the blacklist to the grub commandline so you can always remove it?

I will also post the results of mkinitcpio -M which will list more information

Last edited by ndieo99 (2023-06-22 05:46:34)

seth · 2023-06-22 05:48:04

The kernel commandline and the modprobe config have different implications (module_blacklist will prevent the module from loading no matter what, the regular blacklist in modprobe.conf will only prevent it from automatically being loaded) but if you're testing/trying things, a transient approach like editing the kernel commandline at the bootloader is the smart choice, so you don't get locked out of the system

Since the system will likely still boot, see whether you can get a journal out of it - either w/ ssh while it's running or from the live iso, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … al_to_view
For the latter, try to not reboot the system w/ the power key but by frenetically pressing ctrl+alt+del or https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Keyboa … el_(SysRq)

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 05:55:52

nothing shows after "starting systemd-udev", so I cannot ssh or post any journal/logs since the whole screen freezes after that point.

seth · 2023-06-22 06:04:30

What?
As long as the system boots you can of course ssh into it, regardless of what happens on the monitor. That's the point of remote access.
You can enable sshd eg. from the chroot.

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 06:13:46

I will try to start the ssh daemon and ssh from another lan device, however how would I go into terminal only mode as I'd have to blindly enter in my login and the commands to enable ssh, and then ssh using a separate device?

cant ssh from a chroot on a usb on the same hardware

Last edited by ndieo99 (2023-06-22 06:15:17)

seth · 2023-06-22 06:16:14

You don't.
You boot the install iso, chroot into the system and enable the sshd.service.
Then you boot the system regularily, wait a moment (after the stall) for the ssh daemon to start and then ssh into it.

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 13:17:26

alright, Ill do that thanks for the help
closing this issue

ndieo99 · 2023-06-22 13:22:34

_

Last edited by ndieo99 (2023-06-22 14:02:22)

seth · 2023-06-22 14:12:23

systemctl enable sshd.service

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/OpenSS … management

closing this issue

Apparently not and the issue wasn't how to start ssh but that the system doesn't boot - we're just trying to extract some data as to why that is?

ndieo99 · 2023-06-23 08:32:41

apperantly the freeze is caused by the 6.0+ linux kernels and the efi framebuffer. Everything was working correctly, and the prompt to enter my encryption password was showing while the framebuffer was frozen. To fix this, I added my igpu driver before all vfio drivers in mkinitcpio.conf in MODULES. Thanks for your help through

seth · 2023-06-23 12:25:38

Do/did you maybe have nouveau in the initramfs, too?

freeze is caused by the 6.0+ linux kernels and the efi framebuffer

doesn't really make sense if the plan was to pass the nvidia GPU through and adding i915 to the initramfs "fixed" it.
If you want to know what actually happened, you'll have to look at the journal of a relevant boot.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-06-22 05:00:18

Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#2 2023-06-22 05:12:16

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#3 2023-06-22 05:15:25

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#4 2023-06-22 05:34:32

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#5 2023-06-22 05:41:43

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#6 2023-06-22 05:48:04

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#7 2023-06-22 05:55:52

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#8 2023-06-22 06:04:30

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#9 2023-06-22 06:13:46

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#10 2023-06-22 06:16:14

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#11 2023-06-22 13:17:26

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#12 2023-06-22 13:22:34

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#13 2023-06-22 14:12:23

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#14 2023-06-23 08:32:41

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

#15 2023-06-23 12:25:38

Re: Cannot boot, wrongly blacklisted drivers

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