Livedvd boots to black screen on desktop but boots fine on 2nd machine

Newbie Corner
#1

Hi all. First post and also first try with an arch-based distro after 15 years of Deb/Ubuntu and derivatives - so please be gentle with me :wink:

I successfully downloaded the latest KDE iso and installed on a spare PC I keep for playing around and testing new distros. I left everything with the Nouveau defaults until installed and then set up keyboard, language and Nvidia driver for a GT 440 card. Used it for a few days and couldn't fault it. So far so good.

I then decided to install to a spare partition on my main "production" PC. This is when I hit a ■■■■■ wall - the DVD would not even boot to a desktop. Apart from an Nvidia TXi 750 card and a different monitor, both PCs have similar motherboards, CPUs etc. I don't multi-boot either PC (i.e. no Windows worries etc).

So far this is what I have tried:

  1. Booting with the default keyboard, language and free driver option. This gave an unresponsive black screen with no mouse cursor after a lengthy echoing of all green "OKs". I did notice that the first boot entry said something to the effect of: "3.361961 Nouveau fault MMIO read fault ... IBUS".

  2. Booting with the default keyboard, language and non-free driver option. Same result as above except the Nouveau fault did not appear (presumably because it booted for the non-free driver).

  3. Booting with driver=free nomodeset=1 as a substitute for the default of driver=free nouveau.modeset=1 i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=1. Not sure whether this command/syntax is correct or not but someone should be able to help me here. Same result as above.

  4. Repeated 3. with driver=non-free modeset=1. Same result.

  5. Swapped the DVI Samsing monitor and the GTX 750 Ti card for the older VGA monitor and GT 440 card from the successful PC. Repeated 1-4 above. Still the same black unresponsive screen in all cases.

That is where I have left it. I am presuming that the DVD is OK - indeed I I tried rebooting the first PC with the disk again and it booted fine. I figure I may have something in the Bios that it doesn't like but not sure how to diagnose that.

Can anyone help pls.

PS - Cannot find an icon/option for pasting code?

Can't boot from live usb, stuck on started tlp system/shutdown
#2

So it is not just the 750Ti as your post title indicates? If no video card works with the usb then maybe the pcie slot in the pc is bad or dirty or the cards are not seating properly or needs adjusting in the bios etc....

#3

You pase in code formate if you start with a line with [code]and end with a line with [/code] like this

[code]
~>> inxi -F
System ...
CPU ...
...
[/code]

Or you can use three https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_accent

```
~>> inxi -F
System ...
CPU ...
...
```
#4

Ah - I see where you are going. Sorry - I obviously have not made myself clear. The installed graphics card is an nvidia GTX 750. The manjaro livedvd will not boot with that card installed, that's why I tried the GT440. That did not work either, so I now know the problem is not card-specific. Hope that is clear. I will see if I can edit the post title. Also relevant:

  1. This PC currently runs several linux distros (all deb based). They all boot fine with both those nvidia cards.

  2. The dvd player will boot just fine if I try several previous DVD-burned iso's that I have still around the place. So it is not a problem with the dvd drive.

  3. I have just downloaded Chakra and the iso of that boots fine when burned to a dvd - both free and non-free options. I noted that the first boot entry using the free option gave the same Nouveau MMIO fault as the Manjaro boot attempt but still booted OK, so it doesn't look relevant.

  4. The dvd I made of Manjaro boots and installs just fine on another similar PC but will not even boot on this PC.

See my problem?

Thanks for the tip about inserting code in a post

2 Likes
#5

I edited the thread title to (hopefully) make it clearer, feel free to change it again yourself if not happy. :smiley:

#6

Thanks for that - but no advice yet.

Trying Chakra at the moment but not as happy as I am with Manjaro, running perfectly on the wrong machine!

#7

I may not be alone - see this post in same forum in last few days https://archived.forum.manjaro.org/t/cant-boot-from-live-usb-stuck-on-started-tlp-system-shutdown/37970

#8

Can you obtain /var/log/Xorg.0.log from the system which boots to black screen? From Chakra as well.
Also provide
hwinfo --gfxcard
and
inxi -Fxxxz
from Chakra and Manjaro.

#9

Hi and thanks for helping me.

I can post all your requests for Chakra which I have installed sucessfully to my HD. But not sure how I can get the Manjaro data for you. Just to be clear, I am trying to boot from the Livedvd for Manjaro which boots to a completely unresponsive black screen - no cursor and no prompt.

The last instruction echoed to the screen is something like "A start job is running for LiveMedia MHWD Script". Then it goes to a black screen. Interestingly, the DVD player goes on churning for another minute or two as if it is finishing setting up the desktop.

If I then reboot without the DVD, obviously it boots into the first item in my Grub menu which is Ultimaye (deb) distro. Presumably there will be no record of the old Xorg log file?

BTW - I have now also tried to boot the DVD from another external DVD drive. Still no luck although it will boot in another PC.

1 Like
#10

You can try to pass the boot parameter 3 (just enter the number three where you wrote nomodeset etc.).
The pipe the terminal output to text files.

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
inxi -Fxxxzc0 > /mnt/inxi.txt
cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log /mnt
hwinfo --gfxcard > /mnt/hwinfo.txt
#11

There is also the possibilty to copy the ISO to the HDD and boot the ISO with Grub. Just copy the ISO to a place on the disk, create an entry in /etc/grub.d/40_custom

menuentry "Manjaro KDE ISO" {
    set isofile="/path/and/name_of_the.iso"
    set archi="x86_64"
    set dri="free"
    search --no-floppy -f --set=root $isofile
    probe -u $root --set=abc
    set idev="/dev/disk/by-uuid/$abc"
    loopback loop $isofile
    probe -l (loop) --set=mlabel
    linux  (loop)/boot/vmlinuz-$archi  img_dev=$idev img_loop=$isofile  isobasedir=manjaro misolabel=$mlabel nouveau.modeset=1 i915.modeset=1 radeon.modeset=1 logo.nologo driver=$dri
    initrd  (loop)/boot/initramfs-$archi.img
}

and run sudo update-grub (or the Arch or Debian equivalent).
But it is probably the video driver, the method DVD or USB or HDD will make no difference.

#12

Hello,

Would you mind to look at https://archived.forum.manjaro.org/t/error-installing-manjaro-17-0-6-kde/34490/18?u=yerri to try to disable MHWD live service. Thanks.

1 Like
#13

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried adding the parameter 3 but boot still did not get to a prompt. It halts at "Started TLP system startup/shutdown" whatever that means.

I am going to try your next suggestion re booting from a copy of the iso on the HDD and reply below

#14

please try @yerri suggestion first.

1 Like
#15

Since I run a Manjaro pc with the Nvidia 750Ti I tested the newest KDE 17.1.1 and it boots just fine here, matter of fact typing this in from the live usb right now.

Now there is a point as you say it seems to stall at the LiveMedia MHWD Script
BUT if you have patience after some seconds (15-30s maybe longer on slower hardware) it starts to come to life and eventually you get the KDE desktop.
This acts exactly as the symptoms you describe and I have repeated here.

I think it should work with your hardware based on my findings, not a GPU issue or an installer issue either.

[manjaro@manjaro ~]$ inxi -b
Resuming in non X mode: xrandr not found. For package install advice run: inxi --recommends
System:    Host: manjaro Kernel: 4.14.11-3-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.11.5 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: ASRock model: Z77 Extreme4-M serial: N/A
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: P1.50 date: 12/10/2012
Battery    hidpp__0: charge: N/A condition: NA/NA Wh
CPU:       Quad core Intel Xeon E3-1270 V2 (-MT-MCP-)
           speed/max: 3500/3900 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
           Display Server: N/A drivers: nouveau (unloaded: modesetting)
           tty size: 77x24
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCIE Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169
Drives:    HDD Total Size: NA (-)
Info:      Processes: 197 Uptime: 17 min Memory: 1669.9/15998.3MB
           Init: systemd Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.53 
[manjaro@manjaro ~]$
1 Like
#16

OK Success!!!! I modified the boot script as suggested, inserting

systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service

and have now been able to boot to a working desktop. I will install on a spare partition while I am winning and get back to you if there are any issues.

A big thank you to all those that took time and trouble to help me - especially with patience and none of that (in)famous arch treatment. What a nice forum. It makes all the difference.

Regards

Richard

#17

Oooops - my attempt to enclose the command in code brackets seems to have gone wrong. The code I added to the boot script as suggested was: systemd.mask=mhwd-live.service, should anyone come looking.

#18

In case people do come looking.
I doubt this is even needed see post #15.

#19

Well - you're the expert. Only thing I observed was it finally at least got me to a desktop.

Anyway, it is still no good, spoke too soon. I installed to a spare partition but on boot it still does not get to a desktop. Stalls at the same place as with the LiveDVD before I added the mask command:c "Started TLP system startup/shutdown"

Tried both the options under Advanced Manjaro in the boot menu but just went like the first effort.

Not only very frustrating but I am running out of time to get this operational. Actually I have this other life to lead and it takes my main PC out of service unless I boot back and forward between a working deb distro and this broken install of Manjaro...

#20

Please start a new thread with the new problems, I am going to mark this as solved on my post.

On your new thread you may want to include more details.

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