Arch Linux

sorousherafat

Member

Registered: 2024-08-23

Posts: 2

Occasional Black Screen on Boot

hello everybody!

I have an up-to-date Arch installation on my Acer Nitro 5. usually I can boot my laptop without any issues; but from time to time, it will show me nothing but a black screen, not even the `systemd-boot` menu. the interesting part for me is that `journalctl -b -1` shows that even though I couldn't see anything, `systemd` reports finishing the startup.

here you can see a `diff` of two `journalctl -b` outputs, with a failed boot on the left and a successful boot on the right. please let me know if you think a full log would be helpful.

could this simply be a problem with my laptop's monitor?

thank you very much in advance!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,209

Re: Occasional Black Screen on Boot

---
> kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0406 -> 0407)
811,817d807
< kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: VGA decodes changed: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=io+mem
< kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Finished loading DMC firmware i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_04.bin (v1.4)
< kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] [ENCODER:98:DDI A/PHY A] failed to retrieve link info, disabling eDP
< kernel: [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20230929 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
< kernel: ACPI: video: [Firmware Bug]: ACPI(PEGP) defines _DOD but not _DOS
< kernel: ACPI: video: Video Device [PEGP] (multi-head: yes  rom: yes  post: no)
< kernel: input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/device:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input6
819,821d808
< kernel: ACPI: video: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
< kernel: input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:01/input/input7
< kernel: i915 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Cannot find any crtc or sizes
824c811,819

this bit here is likely the most interesting thing. Basically the driver can't initialize your screen

I'd say try to explicitly add i915 to your modules in mkiintcpio.conf.

sorousherafat

Member

Registered: 2024-08-23

Posts: 2

Re: Occasional Black Screen on Boot

oh that's interesting. great observation!

I added `i915`. I'll submit a new post here if this happens again. thank you so much!