SOLVED: Cannot Boot into Graphics

[datasponge]

I got a new hp envy 17 inch laptop intending to install some flavor of Linux, but every distro I have tried (except one old one) has hard hung attempting to boot from a live usb. The one distro that worked including graphics) was Mageia 6.1, but it hard hung after installing updates.

Debian has a reputation for rock-solid reliability, the older Mageia worked, so my hardware apparently does not require cutting edge software drivers, and I got Debian to boot to command-line, so Debian seems like my best option to try to get this working. Booting to Cinnamon desktop hard hangs the system to a black screen. Last message I can read is about Network Manager, then a line that goes by too fast to read before black screen. There is no blinking cursor on the black screen.

I got Debian live usb to boot to command line by editing grub to set runlevel 3, but I'm not an expert at debugging graphics, so I'm looking for help with what to do to find the right driver, etc. I have seen other reports of people who have Linux working on my specific model, but I don't know if they have exactly the same hardware.

Here is my hardware info output by inxi -Fxxxza --no-host:

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System:    Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 Console: N/A dm: N/A 
           Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Laptop 17-by1xxx v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 
           serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: HP model: 8530 v: 17.21 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: F.47 date: 09/05/2019 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 41.9 Wh condition: 41.9/41.9 Wh (100%) volts: 12.8/11.3 model: Hewlett-Packard Primary 
           type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-8265U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake family: 6 model-id: 8E (142) 
           stepping: C (12) microcode: B8 L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 28800 
           Speed: 654 MHz min/max: 400/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 600 2: 600 3: 600 4: 600 5: 600 6: 600 7: 600 8: 601 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:3ea0 
           Display: server: X.org 1.20.4 driver: i915 tty: 200x56 
           Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console for root. 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9dc8 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel 
           port: 4000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8723DE 802.11b/g/n PCIe Adapter vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: N/A port: 3000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
           chip ID: 10ec:d723 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 242.22 GiB used: 8.8 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN520 SDAPNUW-256G-1006 size: 238.47 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2 serial: <filter> rev: 20120006 scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sda type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk size: 3.75 GiB block size: physical: 512 B 
           logical: 512 B serial: <filter> rev: 8.07 scheme: MBR 
RAID:      Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 port: 5060 bus ID: 00:17.0 
           chip ID: 8086.282a rev: 30 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: N/A size: 3.84 GiB used: 8.8 MiB (0.2%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0 C mobo: 0.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 138 Uptime: 5m Memory: 7.68 GiB used: 226.7 MiB (2.9%) Init: systemd v: 241 runlevel: 3 Compilers: 
           gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash (sudo) v: 5.0.3 inxi: 3.0.32 

So far I have only booted Debian from the live usb, so if I can collect the right log files that way, that would be best so I can make sure everything works. But I can install it if that is easier to deal with to collect information, update drivers, etc.

I suspect the problem is with the graphics card since I can boot to runlevel 3 (command line with networking), but some distros have hung at various points apparently when attempting to run hardware (e.g. lvm attempting to start services). I have not been very systematic collecting info, so I can repeat whatever you recommend and provide more details.

Any help would be appreciated.

Phil

[datasponge]

I tried grub options xorg=safe and xorg=all with no change in behavior - still black screen.

Note also that this is different from other reports because black screen has no blinking cursor and is hard hung. i.e. it does not respond to keyboard including <Alt><F1> to open a command window.

I also looked up my graphics card and found the web site: https://packages.debian.org/sid/xserver ... ideo-intel, which reports:

The use of this driver is discouraged if your hw is new enough (ca. 2007 and newer). You can try uninstalling this driver and let the server use its builtin modesetting driver instead.

My laptop is brand-new, so theoretically this card should be handled by built-in modesetting.

Phil

[datasponge]

I tried to install Debian so I could view log files, etc. I used the non-graphical grub selection to avoid possible graphics problems. The installer stopped responding at a semi-graphical screen titled "Detecting Hardware to Find CD-ROM drives". So this could be hard to debug.

My plan is to go back to Mageia 6 since it installs and runs. Then I can more systematically install updates to see which one causes the boot to fail. That may point to specific hardware/device/version info that can help me with other distros.

If I can figure out the source of the problem then maybe I can work around it with other drivers and maybe get other distros to solve the problem with bug reports and possibly go back to Debian in the future.

But I will still pursue suggestions here to get the Debian live usb to boot to graphics or to provide info available from Debian Live command line.

Phil

[stevepusser]

First, don't run inxi as root. I can tell that because of the message in the Graphics section, and we can't see what driver it's using, though it's no doubt "modesetting".

I run the "intel" driver myself to clear up some annoying glitches with the modesetting driver on an Intel UHD 630, so don't believe everything you read. Experiment.

Intel hardware from Skylake (2016, sixth-gen) and newer requires firmware from the "firmware-misc-nonfree" package, not including in the standard Debian. You have eighth-gen hardware. There are Debian ISOs available that do include the non-free firmware.

Have you tried MX 19 from a Live USB? It's Debian Buster, but with the non-free firmware. I also did an updated ISO of it with a 5.3 kernel, newer Mesa 19.2.1, etc, and users have reported that that updated ISO gets to a GUI with Intel tenth-gen graphics, but MX 19 supports eight-gen out of the box--at least for me and other users.

[datasponge]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the response. I'm working on other debugging at the moment so do not want to reboot my system, but I still want to pursue this.

I did try to boot from MX Linux, but was unable to get the iso to boot from the usb. The md5 checksum matched, so I'm not sure what went wrong. I wrote it twice to usb using isodumper on another system and the second time verified the md5 checksum shown in isodumper details in addition to on the downloaded iso file. But my system still failed to recognize that usb as a boot device. It successfully booted another usb, so the BIOS settings did not get screwed up. I'll try the same usb stick with the Debian 10.2 + non-free when I get another chance to reboot.

Right now I am pursuing debugging in Mageia 6 because it installs and runs, then fails on update. So I have more options for how to debug this by determining exactly what update causes it to hard hang.

So I plan to get back to you soon once I am able to reboot that system to try the Debian + non-free and at that time also make sure nothing is wrong with that usb stick.

Phil

[datasponge]

Attempting to boot from a usb created with isoDumper from debian-live-10.2.0-amd64-connamon+nonfree.iso shows the Debian grub screen, but selecting Debian GNU/Linux Live (kernel 4.19.0-6-amd64) boots quickly to a black screen unresponsive to keyboard.

On the same grub boot menu item, pressing e and replacing splash quiet with 3, boots successfully to command prompt, but within about 15 seconds, a message appears and the system hangs. The message is:

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[    40.241058] nvme nvme0: controller is down: will reset: CSTS=0xffffffff, PCI_STATUS=0xffff

I have seen that message in other distros, so I'm getting the idea linux does not like (nvme or at least my flavor of it).

This USB is the same one I have saved the MX Linux iso to and which would not recognize it as a boot device. It recognized Debian on the same USB.

I've tried some various grub options for video and xorg settings, so I suspect it is not strictly a graphics issue. I know almost nothing about nvme.

Phil

[jwrober]

I have the same graphics card in my Lenovo X1. I installed this set of packages to help with graphics and other things when I installed Buster

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apt-get install firmware-linux firmware-linux-free firmware-linux-nonfree firmware-misc-nonfree intel-microcode

I would try that and see what happens. You will need to ensure you have contrib and non-free added to your /etc/apt/sources.list file

[datasponge]

I have the same graphics card in my Lenovo X1. I installed this set of packages to help with graphics and other things when I installed Buster

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apt-get install firmware-linux firmware-linux-free firmware-linux-nonfree firmware-misc-nonfree intel-microcode

I would try that and see what happens. You will need to ensure you have contrib and non-free added to your /etc/apt/sources.list file

Hi jwrober and thanks for the tip and command. Unfortunately the nvme error is preventing me from running even in runlevel 3 now.

Any tips on how to resolve the nvme hard hang? Repeating the message:

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[    40.241058] nvme nvme0: controller is down: will reset: CSTS=0xffffffff, PCI_STATUS=0xffff

After that message the system no longer responds to keyboard and I have to power off and back on.

This is all when booted from live usb. When attempting to install, the installer hard hangs when showing the message "Detecting Hardware to Find CD-ROM drives", which stays at 0%.

So I'm pretty much dead in the water on Debian.

Phil

[datasponge]

Things may be looking up. I successfully booted to live with desktop using Debian 10.2 non-free with the fix in https://community.wd.com/t/linux-suppor ... 018/225446

Specifically in the post by chrisyuan for ubuntu 18.04:

And I found solution how to fix it.

In the GRUB boot menu, press e to edit startup parameter
Add nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=5500 by the end of quiet splash

I'll do some more experiments before I decide if I want to pursue this vs other distro solutions, but this is the first hope I've had of getting a current version of linux installed.

I'll post more when I try whatever next steps I decide on.

Phil

[datasponge]

The grub edit to add nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=5500 has worked for multiple live boots in multiple distros, so I'm marking this as solved.

[datasponge]

Note that in spite of the subject, the problem turned out to be unrelated to graphics.

• Booting Debian at Runlevel 3 worked for a short time, but eventually became unstable.
• I was never able to install Debian without the nvme workaround.

All attempts across multiple distros failed at detecting or loading hardware steps including lvm startup actions, udev startup or simply black screen with unresponsive keyboard making it appear like a graphic problem.

Phil