(Solved) Unable to boot Mint with NVidia driver - Out of memory while loading initial Ramdisk

[Sylnox]

Hi all,

I was redirected here by SMG on the hardware board. I am having problems booting after installing any proprietary NVidia driver for my graphics card. To kick things off, here are my system specs:

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System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-56-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.3.0
    Desktop: Cinnamon 5.6.5 tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.1 Vera base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Alienware product: Alienware m15 v: 2.15.0
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Alienware model: 0FVTKF v: A01 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: Alienware v: 2.15.0 date: 09/07/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 54.1 Wh (100.0%) condition: 54.1/60.0 Wh (90.2%)
    volts: 17.2 min: 15.2 model: DELL HYWXJ04A type: Li-ion serial: N/A
    status: Full
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M525
    serial: <filter> charge: 100% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: Intel Core i7-9750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled
    arch: Coffee Lake rev: A cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 1.5 MiB L3: 12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4500 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800
    4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800
    bogomips: 62399
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] vendor: Dell
    driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3e9b
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU116M [GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile] vendor: Dell
    driver: nouveau v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8 ports: active: none
    empty: DP-3,HDMI-A-3 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:2191 class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Sunplus Innovation Integrated_Webcam_FHD type: USB
    driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-9:6 chip-ID: 1bcf:2b9c class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: LG res: 1920x1080 hz: 144 dpi: 142
    size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6") diag: 395mm (15.5") modes: 1920x1080
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:a348 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU116 High Definition Audio vendor: Dell
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:1aeb class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-56-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Rivet Networks driver: alx v: kernel pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1
    port: 3000 bus-ID: 70:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:e0b1 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp112s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 vendor: Rivet Networks Killer™
    driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 71:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp113s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-7:7 chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter>
    bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2 sub-v: 237e hci-v: 5.2 rev: 237e
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.32 TiB used: 10.1 MiB (0.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEMKF512G8 NVMe 512GB
    size: 476.94 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 7004 temp: 33.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Intel model: SSDPEKNW010T8 size: 953.87 GiB
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 004C temp: 32.9 C
    scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD Blue SA510 2.5 1TB
    size: 931.51 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 8100
    scheme: GPT
  ID-4: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Lexar model: USB Flash Drive
    size: 14.91 GiB type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 7.65 GiB used: 178.1 MiB (2.3%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
  ID-2: /var/log size: 12.11 GiB used: 10.1 MiB (0.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sdb3
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 14.9 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0 C pch: 54.0 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: nouveau
    temp: 36.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: apt: 2087
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
    1: deb cdrom:[Linux Mint 21.1 _Vera_ - Release amd64 20221217]/ jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com vera main upstream import backport
    2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 324 Uptime: 10m wakeups: 9 Memory: 15.3 GiB
  used: 2.51 GiB (16.4%) Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers:
  gcc: 11.3.0 alt: 11 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: gnome-terminal
  inxi: 3.3.13

When I install Mint initially it appears to work without issue. However, once I install the NVidia driver, the next time I try to boot GRUB gives me an Out Of Memory error. I encounter the same issue with Recovery Mode and Text Only mode. Trying to start in Recovery Mode gives me the Out of Memory error, but then it prints out this Kernel Panic info:

This error seems to be somewhat common and I have tried various fixes such as this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/41930/k ... n-block0-0 to no avail.

The other noteworthy piece of info is that doing "ls -l" in grub gives me a bunch of errors for the partition on which Mint is installed:

SMG thinks something is wrong with my EFI partition but was not sure what which is why I'm posting here. Another noteworthy thing is that I disabled Secure Boot to see if that helped and it did not (same Out of Memory error when trying to boot). Does anybody have any suggestions? I am happy to provide more info on my drive setup, I just need to know the best way to do so. Thanks for any help!

Edit: There is a very similar thread and the listed solution appears to be this: viewtopic.php?p=2230013#p2230013. This didn't work for me. I also changed GRUB's resolution to 800x600, which did not work either.

[Jo-con-Ël]

Disable Secure boot on computer Setup and booting Linux Mint live open a terminal and post back following code result

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sudo fdisk -l
sudo parted -l
lsblk -f
mokutil --sb-state
sudo efibootmgr -v

[Sylnox]

Disable Secure boot on computer Setup and booting Linux Mint live open a terminal and post back following code result

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sudo fdisk -l
sudo parted -l
lsblk -f
mokutil --sb-state
sudo efibootmgr -v

Here you go!

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Disk /dev/nvme1n1: 953.87 GiB, 1024209543168 bytes, 2000409264 sectors
Disk model: INTEL SSDPEKNW010T8                     
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 0CC9C85E-4243-4F9C-AFCA-9E131A2FFB86

Device         Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme1n1p1    34      32767      32734    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme1n1p2 32768 2000406527 2000373760 953.9G Microsoft basic data


Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 476.94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk model: SSDPEMKF512G8 NVMe INTEL 512GB          
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: B6881B86-03E3-4372-86FA-BA23514F1E9B

Device             Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048     309247    307200   150M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2    309248     571391    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3    571392  964438015 963866624 459.6G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 964438016  966465535   2027520   990M Windows recovery environmen
/dev/nvme0n1p5 966465536  997183487  30717952  14.6G Windows recovery environmen
/dev/nvme0n1p6 997185536 1000187903   3002368   1.4G Windows recovery environmen


Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WD Blue SA510 2.
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: CB1CFDCE-2B8E-45EB-A69C-3BAE2F34A875

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda2  390625280 421875711  31250432  14.9G Linux swap
/dev/sda4       2048 390625279 390623232 186.3G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.
Model: ATA WD Blue SA510 2. (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name  Flags
 4      1049kB  200GB  200GB   ext4
 2      200GB   216GB  16.0GB  linux-swap(v1)        swap


Model: SSDPEMKF512G8 NVMe INTEL 512GB (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  158MB  157MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 2      158MB   293MB  134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      293MB   494GB  493GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      494GB   495GB  1038MB  ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 5      495GB   511GB  15.7GB  ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 6      511GB   512GB  1537MB  ntfs                                       hidden, diag


Model: INTEL SSDPEKNW010T8 (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme1n1: 1024GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      17.4kB  16.8MB  16.8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 2      16.8MB  1024GB  1024GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata


NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
sda                                                                         
├─sda2
│    swap   1           cfa91601-e008-464d-95e1-6a4bbe1cae7f                [SWAP]
└─sda4
     ext4   1.0         c80965df-f841-467d-8f41-125c1ddbb806  142.6G    17% /
nvme1n1
│                                                                           
├─nvme1n1p1
│                                                                           
└─nvme1n1p2
     ntfs         SSD_Data
                        E2C68BFFC68BD1E9                                    
nvme0n1
│                                                                           
├─nvme0n1p1
│    vfat   FAT32 ESP   50C2-39E8                              63.5M    56% /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2
│                                                                           
├─nvme0n1p3
│    ntfs         OS    0E26C7C326C7AA53                                    
├─nvme0n1p4
│    ntfs         WINRETOOLS
│                       6A129CF2129CC48B                                    
├─nvme0n1p5
│    ntfs         Image 86B49D34B49D27A7                                    
└─nvme0n1p6
     ntfs         DELLSUPPORT
                        0406003D060031EA                                    
SecureBoot disabled
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,0000,0002,0001
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,329fc419-7ea6-44e0-a8c5-61601495f18d,0x800,0x4b000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot0001* Onboard NIC (IPV4)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x6)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(a4bb6d48a7c8,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0002* Onboard NIC (IPV6)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x6)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(a4bb6d48a7c8,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0003* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,329fc419-7ea6-44e0-a8c5-61601495f18d,0x800,0x4b000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

[Jo-con-Ël]

Now you are booting installed Mint with secure boot disabled and didn't comment any problem (neither OOM).


Post back following code resul (url)

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dmesg | nc termbin.com 9999

[Sylnox]

Hi,

Here is the requested link https://termbin.com/4igys I timeshifted to before I installed the NVidia driver which allowed me to boot my installed copy of Mint again so I ran the commands there. I thought since it was partition stuff it would be the same from the install or live USB but maybe I was mistaken. If it makes a difference I can install the driver (which will cause the boot issue pictured in my first post) and then provide you with the output of those commands from the Live USB.

Edit: Also, you did ask me to turn off secure boot, right? Or did I misunderstand?

[Sylnox]

A person with seemingly the exact same problem as me: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... en-booting. I followed their solution and it made no difference

Found this thread for Ubuntu with similar suggestions https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... g/1970402/. Seems like depending on your system the problem may be impossible to solve and the only solution is to stick with Nouveau? That would be unfortunate.

[SMG]

A person with seemingly the exact same problem as me: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... en-booting. I followed their solution and it made no difference

Found this thread for Ubuntu with similar suggestions https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... g/1970402/. Seems like depending on your system the problem may be impossible to solve and the only solution is to stick with Nouveau? That would be unfortunate.

I already gave you the two options in the first solution in this post in your other topic.

Or did you try the second solution to update-initramfs for your current kernel?

[SMG]

Have you tried installing an older Nvidia driver instead of the latest one?

Do you have ant usb hubs attached?

[Sylnox]

Have you tried installing an older Nvidia driver instead of the latest one?

Do you have ant usb hubs attached?

Hi SMG, yes I tried both changing the compression and updating the GRUB resolution like your resources suggested. I also tried all the NVidia drivers that the Mint driver manager provides. None of that made any difference. The only way I can boot is by using Nouveau, which works out of the box. No USB hubs in use either.

Today I also tried all the suggestions in that Ubuntu bug thread I posted to try to make the initrd image smaller. Nothing made any difference. Does installing the NVidia driver alter the initrd image? My understanding from the threads I linked is that the file is just too big.

A silver lining is that I've learned how to use Timeshift so I no longer have to reinstall after I screw up my boot

Oh, one more thing. Grub actually has started (or maybe it was doing it all along?) giving me the Out of Memory error even with Nouveau installed. However, in that case it is somehow able to recover and proceed with the boot. With an NVidia driver installed trying to continue instead results in that kernel panic that I posted above.

[SMG]

Today I also tried all the suggestions in that Ubuntu bug thread I posted to try to make the initrd image smaller. Nothing made any difference. Does installing the NVidia driver alter the initrd image?

Installing the Nvidia driver and having it load at boot time are two separate steps. You must reboot after installing the driver for the driver to load. It loads during the boot process. I don't specifically know why it is impacting the initrd image in the way it is (especially since the problem has also affected people who do not even have Nvidia GPUs/drivers).

My understanding from the threads I linked is that the file is just too big.

There are people with newer GPUs and much larger monitors who are able to boot. I do not know what might be different about your situation. Did you try installing an older Nvidia driver version?

Oh, one more thing. Grub actually has started (or maybe it was doing it all along?) giving me the Out of Memory error even with Nouveau installed. However, in that case it is somehow able to recover and proceed with the boot.

I would think we should be able to see those errors, but I didn't see anything in the link you posted.

There are also more than one type of out-of-memory error which is why it is important to see the exact, entire error message including what may have come before it.

[Sylnox]

My understanding from the threads I linked is that the file is just too big.

There are people with newer GPUs and much larger monitors who are able to boot. I do not know what might be different about your situation. Did you try installing an older Nvidia driver version?

What's the best way to do this? I've tried the following drivers:

As for your question about the nature of the out of memory error, I believe it says something along the lines of "Out of memory while loading initial Ramdisk". It goes by pretty quick. I may try to take a video and see if I can catch it so you know exactly what it says.

[Sylnox]

Okay, I installed the driver again and the installation processed increased my initrd image from 120mb to 212mb. Based on what I've read and the errors I'm getting, I really think this is the problem, but what can I do about it? Applying all the suggestions on the Ubuntu bug thread gets me down to ~144mb, but that doesn't appear to be enough.

[SMG]

As for your question about the nature of the out of memory error, I believe it says something along the lines of "Out of memory while loading initial Ramdisk". It goes by pretty quick. I may try to take a video and see if I can catch it so you know exactly what it says.

If the prior boot cycle was one which you attempted but failed due to the error, what is the output of

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journalctl -b -1 | grep -i "error\|memory"

[Sylnox]

As for your question about the nature of the out of memory error, I believe it says something along the lines of "Out of memory while loading initial Ramdisk". It goes by pretty quick. I may try to take a video and see if I can catch it so you know exactly what it says.

If the prior boot cycle was one which you attempted but failed due to the error, what is the output of

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journalctl -b -1 | grep -i "error\|memory"

My last boot was successful so I can't provide that info. I have had plenty of failed boots but I've Timeshifted to fix them. I found something that works though!! If I make all the changes to initramfs.conf in the Ubuntu thread:
MODULES=dep
COMPRESS=xz
RUNSIZE=16G

And then install the 470 driver, it gets my initrd image down to just over 100mb and I can boot with no out of memory error whatsoever. I wish I understood why the newer drivers made the image so huge and why having the image be too big causes the boot to fail even though it's much smaller than my available RAM, but at least I have something that works! Is there any correlation between initrd image size and the size of the ESP partition? Mine is only 150mb so maybe that's part of the problem?

[SMG]

I found something that works though!! If I install the 470 driver and make all the changes to initramfs.conf in the Ubuntu thread:
MODULES=dep
COMPRESS=xz
RUNSIZE=16G

Glad you found something which works. I went back through the thread and I don't see anyone mentioning that combination.

It gets my initrd image down to just over 100mb and I can boot with no out of memory error whatsoever. I wish I understood why the newer drivers made the image so huge and why having the image be too big causes the boot to fail even though it's much smaller than my available RAM, but at least I have something that works! Is there any correlation between initrd image size and the size of the ESP partition? Mine is only 150mb so maybe that's part of the problem?

I'm sorry, but I do not know.

[Sylnox]

Thanks so much for all your help! Since I found a solution of sorts I'm going to mark this as solved. If that's not appropriate let me know and I'll change it back.