Since I’ve installed Qubes OS (couple of weeks) I’ve been experiencing frequent and random blank screens that require a reboot to get the system back up and running again. Sometimes the display flickers showing blank / bright pink screens, some other times it suddenly just becomes blank.
Other OSs do not have any issue of this kind.
The system load doesn’t seem to make a difference since these episodes happen whether I’m running 10 qubes or just one browser tab. RAM shouldn’t be a problem with 32GB.
I do have an NVIDIA gpu but I don’t care about using it.
I tested with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset" added to grub settings but the issue still occurs.
Any idea how I could diagnose this problem, or better yet, solve it?
Does installing kernel-latest in dom0 solve the problem? What about disabling the NVIDIA GPU in the firmware? nomodeset is a bad idea and could cause lots of problems, so I suggest undoing that. You might also want to remove quiet to get better logging.
Thank you both for the suggestions. Sorry for getting back to you so late but I wanted to test these thoroughly.
After installing kernel-latest in dom0 and enabling the suggested parameter, I did still experience random heavy flickering, but the screen didn’t blank permanently, so I managed to get back to what I was doing within ~10 seconds or so. This doesn’t necessarily mean the problem is solved unfortunately.
I did that
I edited the value of GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to splash nouveau.modeset=0 then created /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf with the following content:
If you want to ask for help, I recommend to start a new topic, and to give some more details.
For example, which version of Qubes-OS, when was the last update, what hardware do you have, have you made other changes to hardware or software configuration, or to the way you use them… and more details about what happens before or after the black screens.
Did you try anything to identify the problem, like looking at log files, or searching for your hardware on this forum or anywhere else?
For problems with graphics, it may be necessary to give details of any ‘special’ customisation, like device pass through…
using Q 4.2.3,
K: 6.6.68-1
system updated every day if any - usually Fed41 has everyday an update,
No HW Changes nor SW configuration changes.
I turn off every day my laptop after my work.
Difference with normal process, during restart: I did left attached the USB maus and keyboard during restart.
After these events 2 times black screen; I did repeat the re-start, with out any USB device -maus or keyboard attached,
It didn’t happen any more till today. the issue seems to be depending on that attached USB devices during the machine start.
OK. Plugged in USB devices equals a hardware change. Sometimes there can be interactions with other devices.
You could try searching for your laptop model in the HCL, or try looking in the manual for configuration possibilities relating to USB. Make sure to keep careful notes if you change anything, so you can change it back if it makes things worse.
I have some small questions - did this problem only happen when starting the laptop?
Is it 100% sure that you are doing shutdown of the laptop before you get the problem with external mouse/keyboard? Not only suspend?
Sometimes the “power” button only does suspend, I think. Then it is a suspend/resume problem… (only an idea… I have seen a problem with a Windows computer like this)
This issue seems to be resolved, starting the device with unplugged external USB mouse /keyboard in my case. This is my normal case.
Before I hadn’t it, only in this case with plugged USB external devices.