I’m trying to dual-boot openSUSE with Windows on my new laptop. My only prior experience with Linux is putting Mint on an old computer and using it like Windows. When I tried to boot, I got a black screen with a single, stationary hyphen thing in the top left corner.
I’ve read about people who have NVIDIA graphics, as I do, having to add “nomodeset” to the boot parameters. It makes sense for it to be a graphical issue because the installer gave me the text-based version. I tried nomodeset—I hope I put it in the right place; it was at the end of the Linux EFI line—but I was still getting the same issue. What could this be? I’d really like to use openSUSE; it looks like a lovely distribution!
If it matters at all, I made a separate partition for /boot.
Does it have NVidia graphics only, or also Intel? The two coupled comprise Optimus Graphics, which requires special software and configuration, bumblebee or suse-prime.
Nomodeset is supposed to be a troubleshooting parameter.
See if, instead of nomodeset, appending plymouth.enable=0 to the linuxefi line using the E key at the Grub menu helps.
Next I would try plymouth.enable=0 with nouveau.modeset=0 without nomodeset, to see if the Intel GPU can produce some visible output, so that suse-prime and/or bumblebee can be configured.
After a minute or so of black screen, can you reach a login prompt using Ctrl-Alt-F2 or Ctrl-Alt-F3?
Well, something’s happening! I did plymouth.enable=0 and nouveau.modeset=0. Said it couldn’t start the X display manager and prompted me for login and password, which I entered.
I was going to follow the instructions for configuring Bumblebee or SUSE Prime, but I wasn’t able to install the Nvidia driver. I added the Nvidia repository mentioned in the SDB. When I did zypper refresh, it said the Nvidia repository was invalid and all the others couldn’t connect because of a “curl error.”
Any help on this? I can’t install Nvidia drivers because the system won’t connect to any repositories. I’m not sure I’m editing the configuration file correctly as in the webpage I linked.
I do; I’m using wi-fi. During installation the connection worked, and it seemed to be able to set up the repositories just fine. The link I posted said Zypper might be trying to use IPv6, and indeed I only have IPv4 so I don’t know if that’s the issue.
Have you tried appending ipv6.disable=1 to kernel cmdline? I don’t get curl errors using it. I have in /etc/sysctl.conf uncommented lines only net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1.
Getting somewhere! Disabling IPv6 didn’t help my connection, so I just plugged in an ethernet cable for now. I went and installed Bumblebee.
When I restarted I got the Leap logo before the command line came back up. Now how do I start the graphical interface? I tried running startx but it said xinit failed and I should use a display manager.
Accidentally deleted my post. It’s getting somewhere! Disabling IPv6 didn’t help my connection, so I just plugged in an ethernet cable for now. I went and installed Bumblebee.
This time I didn’t need to edit the boot options, and I got the Leap logo before the command line came back. Now how do I start the graphical interface? I ran startx but it said xinit failed and I should use a display manager.
To make startx work for an ordinary user requires a change of permissions on /usr/bin/Xorg. The official (& unrecommended) way to do this is via /etc/permissions.local, changing its last line by removing the leading #, then applying the change with chkstat.
What’s the recommended way? Should I use a display manager as it said? I wouldn’t know how to do that; I would’ve thought it came with a display manager since I chose KDE at installation.
The display manager SDDM is normally installed when KDE is selected, so the best way forward is to find out what’s preventing it from starting. Knowing some detail about your Intel and NVidia GPUs and other hardware should help with diagnosis. I suggest to boot without nomodeset on cmdline into multi-user mode by appending a space and 3 on the kernel cmdline along with adding plymouth.enable=0 and nouveau.modeset=0 and removing quiet and splash=silent. As boot completes, try to make a mental note of error messages seen on screen. When boot completes, do Ctrl-Alt-F3, login as root, run ‘zypper in inxi’, then run ‘WINDOWMANAGER=startplasma-x11 startx’. If that fails to start Plasma, then try ‘WINDOWMANAGER=startkde startx’. If you get into Plasma, open Konsole and do:
Copy all that input and output to a file, then exit Plasma. Next, paste that file’s content here, upload /var/log/Xorg.0.log to https://susepaste.org, and report the resultant URL here. Sometimes the command susepaste will successfully do the uploading, so you can avoid transferring the info elsewhere to use a web browser for uploading, e.g.
and upload files dmesgfile.txt, jrnlfile.txt and other.txt to susepaste.org. Report here whatever you can remember of error messages seen on screen during boot.
I use KDE and also a Nvidia card with proprietary drivers. However, I use KDM instead of SDDM with good results. After all, there ought to be some »synergy« between the KDE display manager and the KDE desktop environment, so why not take advantage of that?
Using a very stripped down, unthemed and absolutely minimal kdmrc, KDM starts considerably faster than SDDM (on my machine, about 80 to 90ms according to »systemd-analyze blame«, compared to SDDM taking over 400ms). The only thing I added to it was for KDM to auto-login into my standard user.
Another thing I had to do in order to avoid said black screen:
sudo usermod --append --groups video *my-standard-user*
sudo usermod --append --groups video kdm* # not sure if this one is still necessary*
The Nvidia drivers seem(ed?) to deny service if the caller isn’t in the »video« group. Hope this helps. Cheers!
Plasma still won’t start. I tried both those startx commands both with and without sudo. It told me serverauth and Xauthority do not exist and then gave me the same message that I should use a display manager.
Plasma still won’t start. I tried both those startx commands with and without sudo and was told serverauth and Xauthority do not exist. I also tried adding myself to the video group.
Okay, now I’ve tried both startx commands with and without sudo and I still get that serverauth and Xauthority do not exist. Still no Plasma. The susepastes failed as well.
I already did install Bumblebee. After that, I started getting the Leap logo at boot but no graphical desktop.