[SOLVED] 8 month old untouched Manjaro updated with -Syyu boots to black screen, possibly nVidia issue

shuv1t · 01-26-2021, 12:31 PM

This is going to be a rather long story but I feel like all of this needs to be told for anyone interested in helping to get the whole picture.

I had to ditch my Manjaro for Win10 the last 8 or so months because of a hardware bug in my CPU causing crashes (but working fine in Windows). Now with a new CPU I again selected Manjaro from my dual boot menu and it loaded just fine. However after forcing a full update and restarting it just boots into a black screen. Keyboard and mouse are active so I assume it's just the nVidia drivers that borked it. However for some reason this boot makes it so POST skips any ability to enter bios from a USB keyboard. I tried mashing ESC and CAPS after reading about GRUB boot menu, but this also did nothing. I then went and bought a USB to PS2 adapter to plug my keyboard into the PS2 slot but this failed as the keyboard wouldn't work. I tried resetting the BIOS by shorting the jumper. This "failed" 4 times with different shorting tools, 2 different screwdrivers, a micro usb plug and another metallic tool. After each time doing this the PC seemed to post loop about 3 times until returning to the black screen - it simply wouldn't go into BIOS.

I physically disconnected the SSD with the manjaro partition and I was now able to boot into windows. Windows is sitting on a nvme disk. From there I managed to use Recovery -> Advanced Startup -> UEFI Firmware Settings which got me into BIOS. I noticed that the XMP profile had been disabled so it seemed like my BIOS reset at least had done something. After re-enabling my XMP profile and changing the boot priority to USB before HD I saved and exited. I still couldn't enter BIOS through keyboard (DEL) when booting to Windows. I tried booting to a Windows Installation USB and when I did the BIOS post screen appeared and I could enter it. Windows "Turn on fast startup" isn't enabled so this shouldn't be the reason I can't get into BIOS from booting.

I'm quite confused about what's going on but I assume it's got something to do with the boot sector on the Manjaro SSD overriding everything and just trying to boot into Manjaro. My motherboard (MSI B550 Mortar Wifi) with latest BIOS is also doing something weird skipping any USB detection on post. I couldn't find any setting for this in BIOS when I got into it earlier.

So, now that everything I've experienced and tried have been explained here is what I'm seeking help to do:

I'd like to keep the files on the SSD that has the Manjaro partition, and install a working version of Manjaro. I have plenty of other SSDs/nvmes that I can use for a new install. My first thought is to install Manjaro on a different partition and then hotswap the SSD and mount it, then transfer the files I want from it - and just format the thing before rebooting. Alternatively I could delete just the boot on this drive so I can boot with it connected without the boot trying to get me into the not working OS. I'm not entirely sure how I would do this.

All of this is moot if I can't get my graphics adapter to work. I'm perfectly fine with using a non-free version of the nVidia driver. The GPU is a RTX 2070 with PCI ID 1F07. How do I go about installing Manjaro + this graphics driver so I don't end up in the boot to black screen hell I experienced earlier? Do I just grab the latest .run bundle from nVidia and put it on the Manjaro USB?

teckk · 01-27-2021, 08:59 AM

Code:

However after forcing a full update and restarting it just boots into a black screen.

What does that mean? How did you force it. You should update an arch type machine with

Code:

pacman -Syu

Quote:

it just boots into a black screen

It does this before tty? It dumps you to a grub prompt? What boot loader are you using? Or are you booting into a display manager? Can you boot to tty instead? How are you starting X. What is in your ~/.xinitrc

Does the journal give you any info?

Code:

man journalctl

Also post

Code:

lspci -k
uname -a

Quote:

I'm perfectly fine with using a non-free version of the nVidia driver.

That's nouveau. You can't have nvidia and nouveau installed. Or you need to blacklist one of them.

You gave no info to work on.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nvidia
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nouveau
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wayland
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-boot
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ware_Interface

shuv1t · 01-27-2021, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by teckk

What does that mean? How did you force it. You should update an arch type machine with

I meant using pacman -Syyu instead of just -Syu, so forcing a refresh of all package lists.

Quote:

It does this before tty? It dumps you to a grub prompt? What boot loader are you using? Or are you booting into a display manager? Can you boot to tty instead? How are you starting X. What is in your ~/.xinitrc

Power on PC -> Screens goes on (nothing on monitors) for about 2 sec -> Screen goes into standby mode, aka no signal or I guess incorrect signal? No visible grub prompt. It used to boot me to grub bootloader with Manjaro and Windows, however not after the update. I'm not sure where it booted me at that point, since monitors showed nothing, but I assume it booted me into LightDM. Like I tried to explain I had no option to do anything while the PC booted.

This is .xinitrc I pulled from the partition using DiskInternals Linux Reader:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

SESSION=${1:-xfce}

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
    xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
    xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
    xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

# start some nice programs

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
    for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
        [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
    done
    unset f
fi

get_session(){
	local dbus_args=(--sh-syntax --exit-with-session)
	case "$SESSION" in
		awesome) dbus_args+=(awesome) ;;
		bspwm) dbus_args+=(bspwm-session) ;;
		budgie) dbus_args+=(budgie-desktop) ;;
		cinnamon) dbus_args+=(cinnamon-session) ;;
		deepin) dbus_args+=(startdde) ;;
		enlightenment) dbus_args+=(enlightenment_start) ;;
		fluxbox) dbus_args+=(startfluxbox) ;;
		gnome) dbus_args+=(gnome-session) ;;
		i3|i3wm) dbus_args+=(i3 --shmlog-size 0) ;;
		jwm) dbus_args+=(jwm) ;;
		kde) dbus_args+=(startkde) ;;
		lxde) dbus_args+=(startlxde) ;;
		lxqt) dbus_args+=(lxqt-session) ;;
		mate) dbus_args+=(mate-session) ;;
		xfce) dbus_args+=(xfce4-session) ;;
		openbox) dbus_args+=(openbox-session) ;;
		*) dbus_args+=("$SESSION") ;;
	esac

	echo "dbus-launch ${dbus_args[*]}"
}

exec $(get_session)

Quote:

Does the journal give you any info?

Code:

man journalctl

Also post

Code:

lspci -k
uname -a

I'm sorry, I was simply unable to boot into anything with this partition connected - I couldn't run any diagnostics on anything.

Quote:

That's nouveau. You can't have nvidia and nouveau installed. Or you need to blacklist one of them.

Okay, I just want to install and have it work and not be met with the same utter borked boot that I had. I'm fine with using either as long as it works.

Quote:

You gave no info to work on.

I honestly didn't have too much to work on, but you've asked good questions that I should have covered better.

ondoho · 01-27-2021, 01:43 PM

I'm just going to assume that your update went fine, but some GPU driver update messed things up for Xorg.
Figure out how to boot into non-graphical, or tty, or recovery or whatever you want to call it (I'm further assuming that this is a UEFI system so I cannot be more specific, however you're not the first person with this problem, so the info/howto is out there).

teckk · 01-27-2021, 02:30 PM

Any chance you can downgrade the kernel? 5.10 has been causing problems with many things. Look at the arch forum. You still have 5.8-5.9 in your pacman cache?

You still have the install media? Can you chroot in and downgrade the kernel?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot

Uninstall any nvidia that you have installed. Try to boot without it. Also, you don't have linux-lts with nvidia, or nvidia-lts with linux do you?

Also, do you have /boot on another partition? If so is it mounted when you update?

If you don't even get a bootloader prompt...grub is hosed, you did not have boot mounted when update, the new kernel needs a new boot parameter, wrong nividia module...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_parameters

Also no need to pacman -Syyu In fact that should not be done normally.

shuv1t · 01-27-2021, 03:01 PM

Thank you for your replies and suggestions. I've deleted the EFI System Partition on the SSD with Manjaro and instead of trying to repair the thing I'll just reinstall now that I can boot with it connected. I had another EFI System Partition on the Windows partition that was installed pre-Manjaro. The EFI on Manjaro took priority over this, so that was what made it possible for me to boot into windows when I disconnected the "Manjaro SSD".

I'm sorry for not answering your questions further, but since I've decided to go for a reinstall instead of repair I feel it's a bit pointless. The reason I did -Syyu was because I got some errors when I tried updating normally so I googled the error messages and followed a solution. The problem might just have been -Syyu installing nouveau on top of my already installed nvidia. Will remember to blacklist nouveau on reinstall and go with drivers from nvidia.

I'll check this as solved when I've gotten the install to work.

ondoho · 01-28-2021, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuv1t

The reason I did -Syyu was because I got some errors when I tried updating normally so I googled the error messages and followed a solution. The problem might just have been -Syyu installing nouveau on top of my already installed nvidia. Will remember to blacklist nouveau on reinstall and go with drivers from nvidia.

Would've been nice to talk about these errors right from the start, and explain what solution you followed (instead of all the other problems you described).
Also, nouveau is not a package you install.
You are making assumptions instead of trying to find out what really happened.
Going back to post #1, I see that it is full of assumptions, too. It almost feels like you're building yourself a mental image of a system that is broken in various ways, without actually knowing any of it.

The first step would've been to figure out at which point the boot really fails. Too late for that now.

shuv1t · 01-28-2021, 03:09 AM

I didn't remember the exact wording of the errors, it had something to do with corrupted packages when I tried updating some applications (Chrome and 6 other non system related) through the automatic updater in Manjaro. I could maybe go back and find the message if those are logged somewhere. However with a system that don't let you do *anything*, not even get into BIOS, it didn't think trying to find a fix for what caused the corruption would do much good. I do not believe these errors were what caused my boot to get borked. They were only what caused me to use -Syyu in the first place.

I don't think I explained what my boot was like well enough with the questions about diagnostics and uninstalling stuff. My PC was in a broken state from the update. No entering BIOS, no booting from alternative media. Not until I physically removed the SSD with the Manjaro partition. How do you figure out where the boot fails when you can't do anything? I still have access to the partition through windows now that I've deleted the boot sector on the drive.