After new monitor, old partitions won't boot into GUI

English Install/Boot/Login
1

openSUSE 15.5 and KDE

My old monitor of many years ago had stopped working so I temporarily used an old one of lower resolution while I purchased a new one. The temporary monitor had troubles displaying after the grub menu. Blank screen after grub2

But after the new monitor arrived, everything worked fine so no issues. Both had the same resolution and HDMI port. No problems noticed, that is, until I tried booting an old 15.3 partition. I make fresh installs on rotating partitions. That way, when I want to search for something I set up in the past, I can boot and check it out.

I was wanting to boot to my 15.3 partition to see if I had installed some certain software. But it loads the command login prompt. I tried the advanced recovery menu option to no difference. I see some error messages and I’m not sure what to look for. I tried logging in as my user and then tried “startx” and it said something about permissions. What I wrote down:

xinit failed
/usr/bin/Xorg is not setuid
change them in /etc/permissions.local and then chkstat --system --set

And I think I saw something about unable to open TTY0. And no monitor found…

Which made me think of trying to log in as root. Which I did and then startx and it appeared to work as expected.

I’m making the assumption, which may be incorrect, that it had something to do with replacing my monitor. Which seems very odd to me, if someone could explain why it should matter with booting. I’m pretty sure that before my monitor went bad, I had booted into other partitions.

So my question is, what do you think is going on, and is there something on the grub initrd line I could add to boot into the GUI? The particular thing I wanted to see is not critical, but I’m wanting to understand for future if for some reason I can’t boot, what I can do to get around it.

2

Does your PC have an NVidia GPU, and if yes, are NVidia’s proprietary drivers installed?

/var/log/Xorg.0.log from a regular attempt to boot 15.3 could have clues to the failure, as would inxi -GSaz output from normally operating 15.5 to tell us about your hardware working normally. There may be a DM log in /var/log/ offering clues as well.

3

Upload complete output of

journalctl -b --no-pager --full

to https://paste.opensuse.org/. Run as root.

4

I have integrated ATI graphics. Here is my 15.5 inxi that works:

inxi -GSaz
System:
Kernel: 5.14.21-150500.55.68-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
v: 7.5.0 parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.14.21-150500.55.68-default
root=UUID=9286d86c-b492-45d5-b9f3-b70c446be727 nosplash preempt=full
quiet security=apparmor mitigations=auto
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.9 tk: Qt v: 5.15.8 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM
Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.5
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Cezanne [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5.1 code: Vega-2
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2018-21 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s ports: active: HDMI-A-1 empty: DP-1
bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1638 class-ID: 0300 temp: 31.0 C
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.5
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 model: Gigabyte G24F 2 serial:
built: 2023 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2
size: 527x296mm (20.75x11.65") diag: 595mm (23.4") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.5 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (renoir LLVM
15.0.7 DRM 3.49 5.14.21-150500.55.68-default) direct render: Yes

I thought I was having problems with all partitions, but my 15.4 boots okay. But 15.3 and another partition with base system of 15.3 does not.

Here’s the journalctl output
https://paste.opensuse.org/pastes/4fee39b45c5b

I tried to redirect startx to a file, but it only redirected the following:

xinit failed. /usr/bin/Xorg is not setuid, maybe that’s the reason?
If so either use a display manager (strongly recommended) or adjust /etc/permissions.local and run “chkstat --system --set” afterwards

But on the output screen, I seem to remember something about it could not find a monitor or display.

Here’s a link to the 15.3 /var/log/Xorg.0.log file
https://paste.opensuse.org/pastes/6e62ca4278d9

5

I also was able to do a sudo startx. Not sure if that is good practice normally, but since I’m no longer using that partition thought I’d try it. Seems to suggest permissions, but why would that change? I did update my computer system after 15.3 so maybe that has something to do with it?

6

The journal is only 2 minutes long, containing nothing I recognize helpful WRT the complaint.

The Xorg.0.log file contains grievous error:

(EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

The most common cause of this is not the case here (use of nomodeset on Grub’s linu lines). In other cases, as here, it’s typically a failure of the correct kernel module for the GPU to load, in your case, amdgpu. Is your present GPU the same one you were using when 15.3 was still supported? Booted to a login prompt you could try sudo modprobe amdgpu && sudo systemctl restart xdm to see what happens.

7

SDDM waits for DRM devices to appear. There are no traces of them in this log. You can force GUI with basic framebuffer with nomodeset kernel parameter. Why KMS drivers are not loaded I do not know. You can try logging in and manually loading amdgpu (which should be the correct driver according to the output you provided).

8

I think it was after 15.3 I upgraded my computer.
I tried the modprobe and no result, just the prompt again.

When I try “startx”, it says no screens found.

9

Upgraded from what? Did you have an Intel or NVidia GPU before? What does “upgrade” mean, a whole new computer, with an old HDD and/or SSD transferred from old to new?

10

Sorry, I had mentioned some in the other thread, but guess that doesn’t help here. New, but still have integrated AMD graphics. New motherboard and processor and memory. Kept the hard drive and monitor, keyboard, mouse. Then the monitor went bad. Actually, after everything worked, I loaded onto a NMVE drive.

I guess I don’t understand about the display monitor. Should any of the above matter? Shouldn’t any system be able to unplug and plug in another monitor and it works on the fly? But my observations seem to reveal the system detects the monitor. After selecting an entry in grub, the loading screen appears to detect the monitor. Maybe HDMI sends something out? If I booted without the monitor plugged in, then plug it in, would it respond differently?

I could see a very likely situation where a computer goes bad, you pull the hard drive, stick it in another system, and if it doesn’t load on the display, then what do you do?

11

It might depend entirely on the information you still haven’t provided - EXACTLY - what the prior GPU was, and its configuration. An NVidia GPU and/or use of proprietary video drivers would explain everything. Either would cause an expectation of failure, unless the old GPU was moved along with the hard drive to the new motherboard.

12

No, not NVidia. AMD. Or maybe you mean ATI in the AMD which is integrated into the CPU. Which was new. Sorry, all this is new to me. The old one was ATI integrated on the motherboard. Many years old. There used to be video cards, then it was part of the motherboard, then surprise it’s on the CPU. How strange is that! And you can also have separate video cards. I don’t. And I just used whatever the operating system installed.

So I hear you saying one reason not to use proprietary drivers would be if you for some unknown reason have to move your drive to a different system?

13

It can complicate and/or block the process. If aware ahead of time, mitigation and ultimate success isn’t usually too difficult. This is a problem far more often encountered by NVidia users, and almost unheard of by Intel users.

From AMD/ATI to AMD generally works out fine, if not using AMD’s own drivers. When AMD’s drivers are used, removal prior to migration usually avoids issues with the new. But sometimes, special configuration was employed to work around issues, or needs to be. Either can block migration until understood and handled. Without GPU model numbers, nothing more useful can be offered to explain or warn.

14

I think early on, I had a system where I put proprietary drivers (maybe it was nvidia) and after that, I got ATI and just let it use the default. Not sure if I’m not experiencing the best for my unit, but I’m not a gamer and it shows text and videos. And now another good reason not to install proprietary drivers and maybe not go with nvidia since I have seen mostly drivers with it.

Here’s my CPU ? / GPU ? info:
12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with Radeon Graphics

15

If with 15.3 you had an NVidia GPU, it’s entirely unsurprising that X graphics would now fail using an AMD GPU. If that was the case and you need 15.3 to have working X now, you’d need to purge whatever was specifically configured for, or designed exclusively for, use with NVidia. If proprietary NVidia drivers are installed, they must be removed according to the instructions for removal that accompanied installation. If limited graphics capability is acceptable in 15.3 now, you might find selecting a recovery mode Grub menu selection would suffice.

16

Sorry, I mean a long time ago, like with version 11.3. No, I had AMD ATI before with 15.3 and AMD ATI now with 15.5. Recovery mode from grub still booted into command prompt.

17

One thing that would be different is that the video was on the motherboard before and now on the CPU. Both ATI graphics.

18

That should make no difference.

Are there any *.conf files in 15.3’s /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ whose content could apply to graphics? This includes /etc/X11/xorg.conf if it exists. If yes, try moving them all elsewhere temporarily, then try restarting X or rebooting to see if it makes any difference.

The following result comes from 15.3 and a Radeon older than yours by several years. With no *.conf files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ applicable to display, neither amdgpu nor radeon, the following inexplicably results:

X won't start.

This is not to my recollection ever been normal behavior in Leap, or TW, or any other distro released in the past decade or so. Normally, automagic X configuration simply works for AMD’s and Intel’s GPUs. X should work normally with AMD and Intel GPUs when /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ doesn’t even exist.

However, if I include a .conf file that specifies either the modesetting DIX display driver, or the amdgpu DDX display driver, all is good:

# cat X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu.conf
Section "Device"
        Identifier "AMDgpu"
#        MatchDriver "amdgpu"
        Driver "amdgpu"
EndSection
{(<[EOF]>)}
# inxi -GSaz --vs --za --hostname
inxi 3.3.35-00 (2024-06-18)
System:
  Host: ara88 Kernel: 5.3.18-150300.59.106-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz root=LABEL=<filter> noresume
    ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1
    consoleblank=0
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.18.6 tk: Qt v: 5.12.7 info: frameworks v: 5.76.0
    wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: 1: TDM 2: XDM Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.3
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics] vendor: ASRock driver: amdgpu
    v: kernel alternate: radeon arch: GCN-2 code: Sea Islands
    process: GF/TSMC 16-28nm built: 2013-17 ports: active: DP-1,VGA-1
    empty: DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:130f class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 541x304mm (21.30x11.97")
    s-diag: 621mm (24.43")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DisplayPort-0 pos: primary model: Acer K272HUL
    serial: <filter> built: 2018 res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2
    size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: VGA-1 mapped: VGA-0 model: Dell P2213 serial: <filter>
    built: 2012 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2
    size: 473x296mm (18.62x11.65") diag: 558mm (22") ratio: 16:10 modes:
    max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: x.org mesa v: 20.2.4 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD KAVERI (DRM 3.39.0
    5.3.18-150300.59.106-default LLVM 11.0.1) device-ID: 1002:130f
    memory: 1000 MiB unified: no
#

# cat X11/xorg.conf.d/15-ddxdrv.conf
#Section "OutputClass"
Section "Device"
  Identifier "DDX"
#       MatchDriver "modesetting"
        Driver "modesetting"
EndSection
{(<[EOF]>)}
# inxi -GSaz --vs --za --hostname
inxi 3.3.35-00 (2024-06-18)
System:
  Host: ara88 Kernel: 5.3.18-150300.59.106-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz root=LABEL=<filter> noresume
    ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 radeon.cik_support=0 amdgpu.cik_support=1
    consoleblank=0
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.18.6 tk: Qt v: 5.12.7 info: frameworks v: 5.76.0
    wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: 1: TDM 2: XDM Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.3
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Kaveri [Radeon R7 Graphics] vendor: ASRock driver: amdgpu
    v: kernel alternate: radeon arch: GCN-2 code: Sea Islands
    process: GF/TSMC 16-28nm built: 2013-17 ports: active: DP-1,VGA-1
    empty: DVI-D-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:130f class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 4240x1440 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 897x304mm (35.31x11.97")
    s-diag: 947mm (37.29")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 pos: right model: Acer K272HUL serial: <filter>
    built: 2018 res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2
    size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: VGA-1 pos: primary,left model: Dell P2213 serial: <filter>
    built: 2012 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2
    size: 473x296mm (18.62x11.65") diag: 558mm (22") ratio: 16:10 modes:
    max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: x.org mesa v: 20.2.4 glx-v: 1.4 es-v: 3.2
    direct-render: yes renderer: AMD KAVERI (DRM 3.39.0
    5.3.18-150300.59.106-default LLVM 11.0.1) device-ID: 1002:130f
    memory: 1000 MiB unified: no
#

So, there may be a bug, and you do need an appropriate .conf file declaring which display driver to utilize. It may not matter which (amdgpu or modesetting), but it could be what’s happening is that X wants to fallback to the radeon driver by default, which I do not have installed, and is not a preferred display driver for AMD GPUs the age of mine or newer. Your inxi output shows 15.5 is using the modesetting DIX.

19

I did not see a /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I saw a xorg.conf.install, so don’t know if that is relevant.
I created a .conf file for the 15-ddxdrv as you listed above. There was a 10-amdgpu.conf like yours except the MatchDriver was not commented out. I don’t know what a DIX or DDX display driver is, nor how to conclude that from my output, but I created the file and tried booting. Didn’t work.

I tried the inxi -GSaz for 15.3. It said invalid parameters for --vs and --za

System:
Kernel: 5.3.18-150300.59.98-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.18-150300.59.98-default
root=UUID=5d7d9176-39f9-4b5f-ab53-343e1823cfb6 nosplash
resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/7b5cf2ba-9335-4fc4-a983-5747c8abe390 quiet
mitigations=auto
Console: tty 1 dm: SDDM Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.3
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Cezanne vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A bus ID: 07:00.0
chip ID: 1002:1638
Display: server: X.org 1.20.3 driver: ati,radeon
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa tty: 80x25
Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G --display

I noticed when selecting the entry from grub, I can tell right away it is different. Very large font. I notice in the grub menu, 15.5 has load_video and insmod gzio as additional items. But different from 15.4 which does work. But thought I’d try it on the grub line after this.

20

load_video and insmod gzio did not help.

Although it was a fresh install after the new hardware, 42.3 boots up fine. I forget why I installed it. I don’t think because of having problems.