bent fender composed on 2024-08-28 06:13 (UTC-0400):
Somewhere along the line I got ticked off and scrounged up an older AMD card, the last time I ran TW (and Artix without systemd) was with that AMD card. Then the AMD card packed up so I reinstalled the old nvidia gt640 interim. Since then neither TW nor Artix boot, both get only as far as a last HDMI icon on the monitor. I've tried so many things with the TW partition that it's prbably totally borked by now, though I could recover it from stored backups to the dates shown.
My Slackware, Devuan, and VoidLinux installs which never used nvidia drivers at all (if that's what the problem is) all boot without issues. I thought my best shot would come from booting a TW DVD and doing an upgrade but the DVD's don't boot either so even a chroot has to be done from Slackware, a last Mohican that still lets you log in at cLi level. THIS is what I don't understand, why would an installer want to use any proprietary driver at all when an alternative avails (if that's what the problem is)?
So what I think I should try is recover the TW partition, then chroot from Slackware and TRY to edit what needs editing so that nouveau gets used on the next boot, which is a few fathoms over my head. I did chroot and try to install the last nvidia 'run' driver file but I don't think it helped any (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-470.256.02.run).
I have a small bunch of NVidia cards, all older than a GT 640. None while in my possession have ever been exposed to NVidia's drivers. None have any meaningful problems running TW, or anything else. e.g. # inxi -GSaz --za --hostname System: Host: gb970 Kernel: 6.9.9-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: root=LABEL=<filter> ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 noresume consoleblank=0 mitigations=off Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.10 tk: Qt v: 5.15.12 info: frameworks v: 5.115.0 wm: kwin_x11 dm: 1: KDM 2: SDDM note: stopped 3: XDM Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20240825 Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GF108 [GeForce GT 630] vendor: Gigabyte driver: nouveau v: kernel non-free: series: 390.xx+ status: legacy (EOL~2022-11-22) last: release: 390.157 kernel: 6.0 xorg: 1.21 arch: Fermi code: GF1xx process: 40/28nm built: 2010-2016 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DVI-I-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0f00 class-ID: 0300 temp: 46.0 C Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.12 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: nouveau,nv,nvidia dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0 screens: 1 Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3600x1200 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 762x254mm (30.00x10.00") s-diag: 803mm (31.62") Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 pos: right 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 Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-1 pos: primary,left model: NEC EA243WM serial: <filter> built: 2011 res: 1920x1200 hz: 60 dpi: 94 gamma: 1.2 size: 519x324mm (20.43x12.76") diag: 612mm (24.1") ratio: 16:10 modes: max: 1920x1200 min: 640x480 API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau x11: drv: nouveau inactive: wayland API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.3 vendor: mesa v: 24.1.3 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVC1 device-ID: 10de:0f00 memory: 982.4 MiB unified: no API: Vulkan v: 1.3.290 layers: 3 device: 0 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 18.1.8 128 bits) driver: N/A device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib # I haven't installed a 6.10 kernel on anything yet. That will probably start next month. Note that all my installations specifically exclude plymouth, the bloatware responsible for GUI startup that I find no use for. One of the beauties of Linux is the ability to see something happening during boot, and catch an error message when necessary. I haven't allowed but about 2 TW and/or Slowroll installations to upgrade Plasma from 5 to 6 yet, the above being one of the many locked down to 5. So far, I've seen only regressions, no improvements, and less freespace on /, on those I've allowed to upgrade to 6. I have more TWs on KDE3 or TDE than on Plasma, all working as expected, except for non-blocking https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1211761. Perhaps you can avoid your trouble booting installation media by not using it. Instead, download linux and initrd for NET installation from http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/boot/x86_64/loader/ and put them in a Grub stanza. This is how I start most installations, main exception being when no disk in system contains a working Grub already. Once stanza is constructed and placed, starting installer is a snap. Initial configurations can be included on the stanza's linu line, such as for network. https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Linuxrc has these instructions. Have you tried appending plymouth.enable=0 to your installed system's or installation media's boot menu linu line, and dropping quiet and splash=silent from them? I'm not getting black screens here, except for background color for login and bash prompts on vttys. -- Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion, based on faith, not based on science. Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata