c/linux · by usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 167d

Help with Mint Xfce black screen on boot

I have an old Sony Vaio laptop that I'm trying to get Mint Xfce to work on. I needed to use compatibility mode when originally booting from the USB in case that's relevant.

The issue I have is that after the mint logo, it's just a black screen. A hard reset and starting in recovery mode will work, but I'd like to not have to go through recovery mode every time.

I'm assuming it's a driver issue with the Nvidia card (GeForce 310M), but the Driver Manager just shows a checkmark saying no drivers needed and nothing else (I'm guessing I should be able to see current drivers or something, anything?).

I've spent the last couple of hours searching in forums and have yet to figure out how to fix it.

17 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

anon5621@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 167d (3 replies)

Load in compatibility mode then

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelebek333/nvidia-legacy 
sudo apt update 
sudo apt install nvidia-340 xorg-modulepath

Reboot in normal mode

usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 167d (2 replies)

First two steps worked, but then I get errors and it says unable to locate those packages.

anon5621@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 167d (1 reply)

stick with Linux Mint 21.3 . It's the last version where the xorg-modulepath-fix package is supported. On Mint 22 , this package is missing, and the legacy driver will likely fail due to the newer kernel changes

usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 166d

Alright, I created a new bootable USB with Xfce 21.3 and didn't have to use compatibility mode this time. Did a fresh install and all the updates and it looks to be working just fine now! It even seems to run a bit faster which is also nice. Thanks for the help, this did the trick!

just_another_person@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 167d (4 replies)

Hit ALT+F2 or F3 to see if you get a console. Make sure your GPU drivers are installed and loading with nvidia-smi. Blacklist the Nouveau driver if necessary.

usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 167d (3 replies)

Command not found and then it lists a bunch of options nvidia-utils-### (there's a bunch of different ones with different numbers, some ending in -server).

How would I blacklist the nouveau driver? The driver manager doesn't seem to have any functionality beyond a big checkmark that says says (lies) that everything is good.

nyan@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 167d (2 replies)

How would I blacklist the nouveau driver?

Create a file in /etc/modprobe.d/ containing the text blacklist nouveau (worked for me on Gentoo and for a friend on Ubuntu) or add a kernel parameter module_blacklist=nouveau to your bootloader. However, if you don't have the correct proprietary driver, that won't help.

usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 166d (1 reply)

I ended up installing an older version of mint as suggested by another comment and it seems to be working just fine now. Guess there's a limit to how backwards-compatible the newest version is.

nyan@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 165d

It's really more nvidia's fault than Mint's—the nvidia proprietary drivers periodically drop support for a generation or three of cards, and nouveau doesn't work properly with some cards because nvidia has a history of not giving out needed information.