Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

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Statik
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Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

Hi all,
I recently updated my wife's acer laptop. It was running Mint Mate 20.1 at the time and after an update, it hangs on a black screen with a cursor in the upper right just before the login screen. I did some searching but never found a solution. I guess my google-fu is waning. I have updated the laptop to 20.2. I can get to the login screen by selecting advanced options, recovery mode, resume boot. The laptop continues normally after that.
I seem to remember having or reading about this issue before but I cannot find the solution now.

Any help appreciated.

Statik
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SMG
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by SMG »

Statik wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:35 pm I can get to the login screen by selecting advanced options, recovery mode, resume boot. The laptop continues normally after that.
This sounds like it could be a graphics driver issue.

Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.
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Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

Here is the output.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-89-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
  Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 info: mate-panel wm: marco 1.24.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A315-42 v: V1.10
  serial: <filter>
  Mobo: PK model: Sleepy_PK v: V1.10 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.10
  date: 06/23/2020
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 32.0 Wh condition: 32.0/37.0 Wh (86%) volts: 8.5/7.7
  model: PANASONIC AP16M5J type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx
  bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  bogomips: 33538
  Speed: 1225 MHz min/max: 1400/2100 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz):
  1: 1222 2: 1221 3: 1222 4: 1222 5: 1397 6: 1397 7: 1222 8: 1220
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: N/A
  bus ID: 05:00.0 chip ID: 1002:15d8
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: ati,fbdev
  unloaded: modesetting,radeon,vesa compositor: marco v: 1.24.0
  resolution: 1366x768~76Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.0.3
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
  bus ID: 05:00.1 chip ID: 1002:15de
  Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: N/A bus ID: 05:00.5
  chip ID: 1022:15e2
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 05:00.6 chip ID: 1022:15e3
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-89-generic
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000
  bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
  vendor: Lite-On driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 04:00.0
  chip ID: 168c:0042
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 66.98 GiB (28.1%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SK Hynix model: HFM256GDJTNG-8310A
  size: 238.47 GiB speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2 serial: <filter> rev: 80002C00
  scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 140.97 GiB used: 66.93 GiB (47.5%) fs: ext4
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 52.8 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 234 Uptime: 13h 32m Memory: 9.73 GiB used: 3.61 GiB (37.1%)
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash
  v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 
My observations seem to indicate a spurious 'switch to external display' signal or 'turn off LCD' signal, possibly both, that is occurring as I observe an overlay which states 'no external display detected' at some points. I changed the keyboard setting in the BIOS to prevent a single-keystroke activation of this function but it does not seem to have fixed the problem.

Thanks!
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by SMG »

With a 3000 series Ryzen, we recommend using the newer kernel which has improvements for it. Hopefully, that would also get the graphics driver to install so the system would use hardware rendering.

Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: N/A
bus ID: 05:00.0 chip ID: 1002:15d8
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: ati,fbdev
unloaded: modesetting,radeon,vesa compositor: marco v: 1.24.0
resolution: 1366x768~76Hz
OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.0.3
compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes

Instructions for upgrading to the 5.11 kernel:
  • Open Update Manager.
  • Select View > Linux Kernels and click Continue.
  • Make sure 5.11 is selected on the left panel and then click the top-most option on the right panel. An "Install" button will appear.
  • Install the kernel and then reboot for it to become active.
Statik wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 9:43 amMy observations seem to indicate a spurious 'switch to external display' signal or 'turn off LCD' signal, possibly both, that is occurring as I observe an overlay which states 'no external display detected' at some points.
That will happen if the graphics driver does not install. Based on inxi info posted by others, it seems like the drivers for AMD Picasso sometimes install and other times do not with the 5.4 kernel. I've not seen anyone posting with that issue who is using the 5.11 kernel, so I expect switching to it will clear the issue. Let us know.
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Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

I did the kernel upgrade last night which also triggered an update. After the update, the output is:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.11.0-38-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  Desktop: MATE 1.24.0 info: mate-panel wm: marco 1.24.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire A315-42 v: V1.10 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: PK model: Sleepy_PK v: V1.10 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.10 
  date: 06/23/2020 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 32.0 Wh condition: 32.0/37.0 Wh (86%) volts: 8.5/7.7 
  model: PANASONIC AP16M5J type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx 
  bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 33538 
  Speed: 1226 MHz min/max: 1400/2100 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 1225 2: 1223 3: 1224 4: 1223 5: 1223 6: 1223 7: 1226 8: 1312 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: amdgpu 
  v: kernel bus ID: 05:00.0 chip ID: 1002:15d8 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa compositor: marco v: 1.24.0 
  resolution: 1280x720~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics (RAVEN DRM 3.40.0 
  5.11.0-38-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
  v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 05:00.1 chip ID: 1002:15de 
  Device-2: AMD Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_pci_acp3x v: kernel 
  bus ID: 05:00.5 chip ID: 1022:15e2 
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 05:00.6 chip ID: 1022:15e3 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.0-38-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 
  bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Lite-On driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 04:00.0 
  chip ID: 168c:0042 
  IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 238.47 GiB used: 67.62 GiB (28.4%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SK Hynix model: HFM256GDJTNG-8310A 
  size: 238.47 GiB speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2 serial: <filter> rev: 80002C00 
  scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 140.97 GiB used: 67.56 GiB (47.9%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 59.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 59 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com uma main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 269 Uptime: N/A Memory: 9.67 GiB used: 667.7 MiB (6.7%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 
The blinking seems to have been reduced but it has not been cured completely. Any ideas?

Thanks!
Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by SMG »

Statik wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 8:44 amThe blinking seems to have been reduced but it has not been cured completely. Any ideas?
I read back through the topic and I'm not sure what blinking you mean. Is this when you were getting the spurious switch to external display message?

Is the computer booting properly now and not hanging?
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Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

Yes, the computer boots properly without hanging.
Sorry, I had two problems that I thought were related. The hang, and the blinking which seemed to be related to a switch to external display/turn off LCD spurious message. Since the update to the new kernel, the hang is gone and the switch to external display seems gone, but there appears to be occasional LCD off happening.

Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by SMG »

Statik wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 10:20 am there appears to be occasional LCD off happening.
Could you please give more description of what you mean by this? The original data you posted only indicates there is only one screen. Do you sometimes have two screens and that is when this happens? Or does it happen when there is only one screen?
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

The laptop only has the built-in screen. When the screen flashes, before the kernel update, there was occasionally a screen overlay that reported that no external display was present.
Now that the kernel update has been done, I have not seen the overlay popup, but the occasional blackout of the screen continues. We also tried plugging in a HDMI cable to the TV which results in a mirrored display. The flickering also occurs on the tv.

Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by SMG »

Statik wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:49 pmNow that the kernel update has been done, I have not seen the overlay popup, but the occasional blackout of the screen continues.
Is there any particular task you are doing or program you are using when this happens?
Statik wrote: Sun Oct 24, 2021 3:49 pmWe also tried plugging in a HDMI cable to the TV which results in a mirrored display. The flickering also occurs on the tv.
So now the flickering is only on the TV? Or is the flickering the same as the blackout screen?
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Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

So I had the opportunity to test the laptop again last night by plugging it into the TV.
The current symptom is: TV doesn't flash or flicker at all. Laptop screen occasionally goes black for an instant. Does not appear to be task related or physically activated (vibration or wiggling doesn't make it happen). The overlay about the external screen does not appear either.
I'm suspecting the backlight driver board is going. Unless someone knows of another software fix?

Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by SMG »

Statik wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 11:43 am Laptop screen occasionally goes black for an instant. Does not appear to be task related or physically activated (vibration or wiggling doesn't make it happen). The overlay about the external screen does not appear either.
I'm suspecting the backlight driver board is going. Unless someone knows of another software fix?
I know when LM20 originally came out there were problems with the amdgpu driver causing a staircase effect and other distortions on the MATE and Xfce desktops. At the time, the workaround was to use compton instead of the default marco. The inxi data you posted indicates you are using marco so I expect the newer kernel has a newer driver with fixes for the prior problem.

Maybe all the kinks have not been fixed with the amdgpu driver? Usually, a laptop screen is a DP connection and not an HDMI connection. That is the only difference which comes to mind as to why you might see a problem on one screen and not the other. You could try using compton and see if that removes the occasional black screen issue on the laptop.
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Statik
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Re: Acer laptop boot hangs on black screen before login

Post by Statik »

So the problem here ended up being a bad video cable and cable routing. The laptop has a really poorly engineered signal cable route that takes it through a flimsy hinge. The cable doesn't stay in its routing clips and bends, occasionally getting to an angle where it intermittently disconnects. Now the hinge itself has failed. Very poorly engineered. This computer will end up being a backroom server.
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