Arch Linux

birdflesh

Member

From: Greece

Registered: 2010-08-04

Posts: 98

Early KMS - Diferrent behaviour depending on mkinitcpio hook selection

I have used until now a typical busybox-based initramfs using the HOOKS line bellow:

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block filesystems fsck)

and I have also included my graphics driver (radeon) in the MODULES line.
As a result I had a smooth startup sequence on my native resolution (1680x1050) with no resolution changes during the sequnce, similar to the screenshot bellow:

Since I changed my HOOKS line to a systemd-based initramfs similar to the one bellow:

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block filesystems fsck)

I see the first few lines (Welcome to Arch linux and a few target-met  lines) displayed in the resolution inherited by the GRUB menu before the resolution is changed to the native one. This change causes a black screen for a second or two and by the time the resolution switches to the native one almost all messages have already been printed.

What I already tried with no success is set my native resolution in GRUB, unfortunatelly it seems that this is not possible on my system. I also changed the order of some HOOKS with no success.

I would appreciate any suggestion on this. Thanks!

EJSnow

Member

From: /home/ejsnow

Registered: 2025-04-06

Posts: 15

Website

Re: Early KMS - Diferrent behaviour depending on mkinitcpio hook selection

Did you follow these instructions for setting the resolution in GRUB? Make sure you actually have the right mode by going into GRUB's commandline and entering:

videoinfo

There should be a mode for your monitor's native resolution listed that you can put in GRUB's config.

Also make sure you set:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

otherwise the kernel will still initially use a lower resolution.

Last edited by EJSnow (2026-04-03 12:50:03)

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I hate the rabbit hole I have fallen down but the sunk-cost fallacy, pacman, and the AUR prevent me from picking up and moving to Fedora or something.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,253

Re: Early KMS - Diferrent behaviour depending on mkinitcpio hook selection

Sure it's the resolution and not the font?
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=311338
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=312151

I would appreciate any suggestion on this.

Use the working busybox hooks?

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