Desktop environment not loading after enabling nvidia_drm.modeset=1

edh · 2025-11-09 09:53:40

Hi,

I've just come to install Arch on an older system with a Geforce GTS 450 GPU and have opted to install the nvidia-390xx-dkms driver from the AUR as this is the latest proprietary driver for this generation of card.

nvidia-smi gives:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 390.157                Driver Version: 390.157                   |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  GeForce GTS 450     Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 N/A |                  N/A |
| 37%   60C    P0    N/A /  N/A |      0MiB /   963MiB |     N/A      Default |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                       GPU Memory |
|  GPU       PID   Type   Process name                             Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0                    Not Supported                                       |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

I also get no DRM out of the box:

cat /sys/module/nvidia_drm/parameters/modeset
N

SDDM loads and I can log in to a Plasma session but only at the 1024x768 mode I am using with Grub as no DRM.

The Arch Wiki NVIDIA page and the Kernel mode setting page have a bit of a cyclic dependency between each other as they both refer to each other without actually showing a good example but I have from them added nvidia_drm.modeset=1 to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= line in /etc/default/grub before executing a grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

Weirdly this has caused SDDM to load at the resolution of the display (1366x768) but after entering credentials and hitting enter, I just get a black screen with a flashing cursor. This seems strange as Wayland is definitely working as otherwise SDDM would not show. Trying to CTrl+Alt+F2 to another TTY does nothing so the only way of booting the system is to edit out nvidia_drm.modeset=1 from the grub boot menu but this is less than ideal.

I have NVIDIA drivers working fine on my main system but as I've not had to do a reinstall in almost 6 years (a testament to rolling releases) I have not had to GET IT WORKING for that long either. Apologies if I am rusty, I may well have missed something stupid.

seth · 2025-11-09 15:36:14

Does it help to also add "initcall_blacklist=simpledrm_platform_driver_init" to the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters
Also https://archlinux.org/news/plasma-640-w … re-on-x11/ - wayland will not work w/ nvidia 390xx

edh · 2025-11-09 16:45:16

seth wrote:

Also https://archlinux.org/news/plasma-640-w … re-on-x11/ - wayland will not work w/ nvidia 390xx

That was the problem. Installing plasma-x11-session and selecting this option from SDDM gets the desktop to come up properly. I guess this is the kind of limitation you will come up against running an old unsupported driver like nvidia-390xx from the aur.

Thanks!

Last edited by edh (2025-11-09 16:45:42)

seth · 2025-11-09 16:52:31

\o/
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

You'll probably have to shorten the present subject.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-11-09 09:53:40

Desktop environment not loading after enabling nvidia_drm.modeset=1

#2 2025-11-09 15:36:14

Re: Desktop environment not loading after enabling nvidia_drm.modeset=1

#3 2025-11-09 16:45:16

Re: Desktop environment not loading after enabling nvidia_drm.modeset=1

#4 2025-11-09 16:52:31

Re: Desktop environment not loading after enabling nvidia_drm.modeset=1

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