Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

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LucasK12
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Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by LucasK12 »

Hi all,
I recently plugged in my qhd monitor to a desktop with geforce 570 gtx and couldn't set the resolution to qhd (which as I later found out is just not possible on this graphics card by a simple hdmi). I have Linux Mint 64-bit Cinnamon.

To fix that I tried changing drivers from nvidia to nouveau and after rebooting the screen was black with a lighter horizontal strip on the bottom. When I blindly type my password and hit enter it goes black completely, but the system logs in as I can hear the sound.

I tried fixing that in recovery mode in root. I tried uninstalling the nouveau drivers (I don't remember what command I used) and installing the nvidia from a driver.run file on a usb drive. Still nothing, the screen is still black, the system works underneath, but I can't do anything, because I can't see it :(

Does anyone have an idea what I could do to fix this?
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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kc1di
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by kc1di »

Hello LucasK12,
Welcome to Linux Mint forums.
If you reverted to the nouveau driver you would need to place the nomodeset parameter in the grub boot line
See here https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_ulyssa_cinnamon.php Scroll down to the section on Solving freezes during the boot sequence and follow the instructions there.
good luck.
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LucasK12
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by LucasK12 »

Thanks so much, I can see the screen again, but when I enter the Driver Manager I no longer have the options to choose the driver. It says "Your computer does not need any additional drivers.
When I type inxi -G I get:

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF110 [GeForce GTX 570 Rev. 2] driver: nvidia v: 390.143 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.143 
Should I install nvidia drivers from a file and then change the nomodeset to quiet splash again?
Or can I just stay on the nomodeset?
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by kc1di »

according to your inxi readout you are already running the correct nvidia driver for your card. driver: nvidia v: 390.143

enjoy!
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by LucasK12 »

But when I reboot the computer and it automatically changes to "quiet splash" it still doesn't work.
From what I understand the "nomodeset" makes it so the drivers are not loaded?
Should I change it to nomodeset in the grub file?
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by kc1di »

if it is booting using nomodeset I would leave it there.
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by SMG »

LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 8:57 amFrom what I understand the "nomodeset" makes it so the drivers are not loaded?
Correct. You do not want to be booting with nomodeset. The inxi -Gx info you posted earlier in the thread indicates the Nvidia-390 driver is installed and appears to be installed correctly.
LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 8:57 amBut when I reboot the computer and it automatically changes to "quiet splash" it still doesn't work.
What exactly does this mean? Please give more of a description of what is happening.
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by LucasK12 »

Ok, so after I write "nomodeset" manually as in the instructions mentioned earlier and boot the computer everything works.
Then I reboot the computer and if I press "e" when in grub menu I can see that it is "quiet splash" again and if I boot with this "quiet splash" I have black screen again. Even though I even reinstalled nvidia drivers again just to be sure. Everything "behind" the blackness works, I can type in the password, press enter and then I hear the turning on sound, but I can't see anything.
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by SMG »

LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 11:47 amOk, so after I write "nomodeset" manually as in the instructions mentioned earlier and boot the computer everything works.
You mean you get a graphical display? That may or may not mean "everything works". What is the inxi -Gx output when that happens?

We do not normally recommend to mix methods of installing Nvidia drivers. We recommend using Driver Manager. There are slight differences between the files installed when you install using Driver Manager versus using drivers from the Nvidia website.

If I understand the situation correctly, you originally had the Nvidia drivers installed and they were working? You then switched to a different resolution on the monitor and had problems so that is when you started making changes and the problems started.

Did you take a Timeshift snapshot of the system when it was working?

If the system was never really working, does it work properly if you boot to a live session of Mint?

Black screens can be the result of hardware issues as well as driver issues. Using nomodeset disables all graphic drivers (ie. does not use the Nvidia hardware), but that does not always mean the driver is the problem. I've seen cases where a monitor connection was the issue causing a black screen.

Edited to remove extra word.
Last edited by SMG on Thu May 06, 2021 12:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by LucasK12 »

I'll try to explain everything once more maybe. Sorry if I'm still not clear.
Before I started doing anything with the drivers everything was fine and dandy.

I did not have the resolution I wanted though and thought, mistakenly, that maybe this is the drivers' fault.

So in driver manager I switched to nouveau. After a reboot the screen was black, but as I said, I could type my password, press enter and the system logged in. I even could open the terminal blindly and type in shutdown now so that the system shut down. But I couldn't see anything.

Then using the recovery mode and root terminal i uninstalled the nouveau drivers and installed nvidia from the usb drive.

Now in nomodeset I can see the gui, everything seems to be working correctly for me. But when I open driver manager there aren't the options which used to be there. That's also why I tried reinstalling the nvidia drivers using the file and not the gui driver manager.

When the nomodeset changes back to quiet splash everything is as it was earlier with the black screen.

This is the output of inxi -Gx

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF110 [GeForce GTX 570 Rev. 2] vendor: Gigabyte 
  driver: nvidia v: 390.143 bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.143 
  direct render: Yes
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by kc1di »

LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 11:47 am Ok, so after I write "nomodeset" manually as in the instructions mentioned earlier and boot the computer everything works.
Then I reboot the computer and if I press "e" when in grub menu I can see that it is "quiet splash" again and if I boot with this "quiet splash" I have black screen again. Even though I even reinstalled nvidia drivers again just to be sure. Everything "behind" the blackness works, I can type in the password, press enter and then I hear the turning on sound, but I can't see anything.
If it's working with nomodeset then you can make that permanent by editing the /etc/default/grub file.
enter this in a terminal

Code: Select all

xed admin:///etc/default/grub
enter your password when asked.
then find the line that looks like this

Code: Select all

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
change it to look like this

Code: Select all

[GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"

Save the file.
then go to the terminal and update grub like this

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub
reboot and nomodeset should be default.
good luck.
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by SMG »

LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:26 pmSo in driver manager I switched to nouveau. After a reboot the screen was black, but as I said, I could type my password, press enter and the system logged in. I even could open the terminal blindly and type in shutdown now so that the system shut down. But I couldn't see anything.
It is odd to have that happen with the nouveau driver. In fact, the nouveau driver installs by default with the LM20.1 ISO.
LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:26 pmNow in nomodeset I can see the gui, everything seems to be working correctly for me. But when I open driver manager there aren't the options which used to be there. That's also why I tried reinstalling the nvidia drivers using the file and not the gui driver manager.
Driver Manager can see when the driver files it uses are installed. However, you did not use the files from Driver Manager. You used the files from the Nvidia website which are not specifically designed to work with Ubuntu/Mint. They are generic for use with any Linux Distro. They can work with Ubuntu/Mint, but they do not have some specific key indicators in their files which Driver Manager looks for.
LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:26 pmWhen the nomodeset changes back to quiet splash everything is as it was earlier with the black screen.

This is the output of inxi -Gx

Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GF110 [GeForce GTX 570 Rev. 2] vendor: Gigabyte
driver: nvidia v: 390.143 bus ID: 01:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.143
direct render: Yes
That is what you want to see when the Nvidia-390 driver is installed properly. I actually do not understand why the nvidia driver is showing as loaded (the part I marked in blue) if you used nomodeset.

I suggest you try booting to a live session of LM20.1 and see what happens.
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by LucasK12 »

Ok. So I launched a live session and the screen has a black stripe on the bottom and above is a bit lighter and is flickering a bit. I'll attach a photo of the screen if it helps. It's very weird, I don't think it happened earlier when launching from a usb.
signal-2021-05-06-202735.jpeg
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Re: Black screen after changing drivers from nVidia to nouveau

Post by SMG »

LucasK12 wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 2:30 pm Ok. So I launched a live session and the screen has a black stripe on the bottom and above is a bit lighter and is flickering a bit. I'll attach a photo of the screen if it helps. It's very weird, I don't think it happened earlier when launching from a usb.
I suggest disconnecting both ends of the monitor cable and reconnecting and see if that makes a difference. If you have another cable, try it.

That image seems like there might be something hardware related happening.
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