Acer Nitro 5 graphics drivers problems [SOLVED]

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feralhound
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Acer Nitro 5 graphics drivers problems [SOLVED]

Post by feralhound »

I'm somewhat puzzled by this. My daughter just purchased an Acer Nitro 5 laptop, and I obligingly installed Linux (Mint 20.2) on it. However, I could only install using "Compatibility Mode", and after installation I had to alter the grub file to continue this. However, after installing the Nvidia drivers (through the drivers panel) the machine would not display the login screen after boot. All that appeared was a non-blinking cursor in the upper left of the screen. I could use ctrl-alt-F2 to get to a console, installed openssh-server, and went through several cycles of sudo apt purge nvidia* (after which the computer would boot normally) and upgrading the kernel, etc.

I would be confident that the hardware is just too new except that I finally succeeded in installing Ubuntu 20.04 Mate on the machine, and then installing the Nvidia drivers.

inxi -Fxz from the working Ubuntu install is as follows:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.11.0-34-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Console: tty 0 Distro: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (Focal Fossa)
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Nitro AN515-44 v: V1.04 serial: <filter>
           Mobo: RO model: Stonic_RNS v: V1.04 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.04 date: 02/04/2021
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 56.4 Wh condition: 56.4/57.5 Wh (98%) model: LGC AP18E8M status: Full
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: AMD Ryzen 5 4600H with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen rev: 1
           L2 cache: 3072 KiB
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 71867
           Speed: 1397 MHz min/max: 1400/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1397 2: 1397 3: 1602 4: 1624 5: 1397 6: 1397 7: 1397
           8: 1397 9: 1382 10: 1397 11: 1391 12: 1397
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: nvidia v: 470.63.01 bus ID: 01:00.0
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: amdgpu v: kernel
           bus ID: 05:00.0
           Display: server: X.org 1.20.11 driver: amdgpu,ati,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa tty: 191x55
           Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1
           Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Raven/Raven2/FireFlight/Renoir Audio Processor vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
           driver: N/A bus ID: 05:00.5
           Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel
           v: kernel bus ID: 05:00.6
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.0-34-generic
Network:   Device-1: Realtek vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 03:00.0
           IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 04:00.0
           IF: wlp4s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.14 TiB used: 10.10 GiB (0.9%)
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-256G-1014 size: 238.47 GiB
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM049-2GH172 size: 931.51 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 680.09 GiB used: 10.04 GiB (1.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.5 C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
           GPU: device: nvidia screen: :0.0 temp: 38 C device: amdgpu temp: 37 C
Info:      Processes: 348 Uptime: 4m Memory: 15.08 GiB used: 1.36 GiB (9.0%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0
           Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38
I would need to attach an external drive to play around with this any more at this point, since my daughter is content to use Ubuntu, but my personal preference is for Mint, and I'm puzzled as to why I could get it to work with Ubuntu but not with Mint.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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SMG
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Re: Acer Nitro 5 graphics drivers problems

Post by SMG »

feralhound wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:59 am I'm somewhat puzzled by this. My daughter just purchased an Acer Nitro 5 laptop, and I obligingly installed Linux (Mint 20.2) on it. However, I could only install using "Compatibility Mode"
This sounds like you used the "regular" LM20.2 ISO with the 5.4 kernel instead of the Linux Mint 20.2 "Uma" - Cinnamon (Edge, 64-bit) ISO with the 5.11 kernel.

The 5.4 kernel does not have the AMD Renoir graphics drivers (Device-2 under graphics) because Renoir had not yet been released when the 5.4 kernel was released.
feralhound wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:59 am I would be confident that the hardware is just too new except that I finally succeeded in installing Ubuntu 20.04 Mate on the machine, and then installing the Nvidia drivers.
The hardware being too new is exactly the issue. The data you posted for Ubuntu 20.04.3 shows the computer is using the 5.11 kernel.

Try the Edge ISO in a live session and I expect you will not have to use Compatibility Mode.
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A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
feralhound
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Re: Acer Nitro 5 graphics drivers problems

Post by feralhound »

So, I guess I don't understand why it didn't work in Mint after updating the kernel. I will go ahead and download the Edge release and at least see what the Live version does...
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SMG
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Re: Acer Nitro 5 graphics drivers problems

Post by SMG »

feralhound wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 4:12 pmSo, I guess I don't understand why it didn't work in Mint after updating the kernel.
Did you update the 5.4 kernel version or did you upgrade to the 5.11 kernel?

The 5.11 is a short term release kernel (good through February 2022), so the system would not automatically upgrade you from the long-term-releases 5.4 to the 5.11. You would have to manually change to the 5.11.

There will be a newer supported kernel released before February, so do not be concerned about the February end-of-life date.

Edited to fix typo in kernel end of life date.
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A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
feralhound
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Re: Acer Nitro 5 graphics drivers problems

Post by feralhound »

I had a long post here, but then my session timed out.

I did finally get things working. I think the main things I was missing were:

1. remove nomodeset from the /etc/defaults/grub file after installing the Nvidia driver, and
2. remember to run sudo update-grub after doing that

Thanks @SMG for all your help.
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