bent fender composed on 2024-08-28 09:51 (UTC-0400):
Wed, 28 Aug 2024 08:53:32 -0400 Felix Miata composed:
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.
The above is not true, my bad: they boot but the monitor goes black after the HDMI icon appears on it. I suppose that's where a GUI log-in would begin being shown.
I don't know anything about any HDMI icon. I've never in recollection seen one on a boot or login screen. If it is the login screen, the problem is unlikely a driver issue, but a display manager configuration or compatibility issue. That can be handled by a switch to a different display manager: sudo update-alternatives --config default-displaymanager For this to work, another may need to be installed. Supported ones I'm familiar with include SDDM, GDM, LightDM and XDM. Available in optional repos are KDM3 and TDM. The command presents a menu. All that's necessary is to choose something else, if something else is present.
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.
All that is over my head for now
It needn't be. You've downloaded files before. These take practically no time to fetch, and can be placed on any filesystem Grub knows how to read. There are two options for stanza placement. /boot/grub2/grub.cfg is not one of them. /boot/grub2/custom.cfg can be created for the purpose, or /etc/grub.d/40_custom can be used. Any plain text editor will work. This is an example based upon what I've used here: menuentry "Install openSUSE TW via HTTP" { search --no-floppy --label --set=root p03data linuxefi /ostw/linux showopts install=http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss hostname=myhost hostip=<IPaddress>/24 gateway=<IPaddress2> nameserver=1.1.1.1,1.0.0.1 BrokenModules=floppy initrdefi /ostw/initrd } p03data is the volume label of the filesystem where I put linux and initrd. If you're a DHCP user instead of a static IP user, then hostip, gateway and nameserver aren't necessary. Most likely, neither is BrokenModules. plymouth.enable=0 can also be appended, as well as anything from the LinuxRC SDB URL above.
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?
This didn't change anything:
break into grub shell with 'c' set root=(hd0,14) linux /boot/vmlinuz plymouth.enable=0 root=/dev/sda14 initrd /boot/initrd boot
While C is OK, it requires a lot less typing to use E instead. Depending on your hardware and partitioning, more may be required.
My problem when trying to boot my installed TW is maybe not with the nvidia driver as much as with its absence; the last card configured having been AMD but now booting with an nvidia card. All this liturgy about removing a driver and installing the correct one before rebooting after a card-change is dead in the water when a card just packs up and the only option becomes to go with another one (no one that I know of keeps two identical cards around!)
Switching GPUs is very rarely complicated when only FOSS is used. Normally this kind of trouble is a result of how NVidia's proprietary drivers are installed and configured. If dual GPUs are not involved, FOSS drivers work automatically 99+% of the time if NVidia's drivers have never been installed. -- 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