Have just started getting a black screen following a reboot with nothing but the mouse cursor visible.

PC boots up through its normal process, enters GRUB, then displays the Solus logon screen (with alpine lake background). Enter password then after a second or two the screen goes blank and except for the mouse cursor, nothing is visible on the screen and no further processing is possible.

The PC has been running Solus/Budgie for a couple of years without issue. Updates were last applied nearly a week ago (all available) and the PC had been running several days since the previous restart.

The blank screen would not appear to be related to the last updates or recent reboots as the PC has run OK since those. What I did notice just prior to the last reboot (and subsequent black screen) was the following:

  • Memory use displayed in Conky gradually increasing over time
  • Memory consumption by Budgie displayed in process monitor also gradually increasing, but not other processes
  • Memory allocation to Budgie at 2.5GB just prior to the last reboot (reason for rebooting)
  • CPU consumption increase to constant 30-40% for all cores with nothing extra running
  • Fan speed increases (to cool CPUs)

PC is an MSI GT780 with i7-2630QM, 8GB RAM and Nvidia GTX560M.

    Exactly the same problem, seems to be an issue with the NVIDIA driver update.

    Troubleshooting (https://help.getsol.us/docs/user/troubleshooting/) helped me bring up the console:

    Boot failure
    If Solus partially boots, you can generally get to a TTY using Ctrl+Alt+F2 to login and be able to run commands just like using a terminal. This enables you to run some commands to identify or resolve the issue.

    Then I followed the steps in the History and Software Rollback (https://help.getsol.us/docs/user/package-management/history-and-rollback/) to undo the update that broke my installation.

    Booted up successfully.

    I subsequently ran "Hardware Drivers" under "System Tools" on the menu which I people confusingly refer to as "DoFlicky" to make sure I was using the correct NVIDIA drivers.

    I did not re-run the update yet, but at least it's working now and I know how to fix it if it breaks again.

    It would be nice to not risk rendering the system unusable when running what looks like a minor update the system nags you to do. It happens very infrequently, but when there is a problem it winds up being a major PITA on a distro that otherwise consistently knocks it out of the park.

    I suggest adding this problem to the known issue list and having some control in place, e.g. don't update the NVIDIA drivers if safe conditions haven't been met, or give a warning, or just auto-execute DoFlicky? Not sure what is possible.

    Hope this helps.

      r3laps3 which I people confusingly refer to as "DoFlicky"

      That's because that's what it's called behind the scenes https://github.com/getsolus/doflicky and also the "binary" name /usr/bin/doflicky-ui (it's Python, so not an actual binary)

      r3laps3 I subsequently ran "Hardware Drivers" under "System Tools" on the menu which I people confusingly refer to as "DoFlicky" to make sure I was using the correct NVIDIA drivers.

      So you didn't have the proprietary NVIDIA drivers installed before? What driver do you have installed now (what's the output of eopkg li | grep nvidia) and what's your GPU?

      b23 Do you have the proprietary NVIDIA drivers installed?

              Followed steps suggested above and retraced about 8 upgrades (out of 158) but ran into errors with the message that repo item llvm-32bit could not be found. Advanced until I found one upgrade that ran through without errors. Had no effect however, and Solus still does not load past the logon screen.

              Output from eopkg li | grep nvidia is

              nvidia-470-glx-driver-modaliases
nvidia-glx-driver-modaliases

              GPU is an Nvidia GTX 560M (about 15 yrs old)

              I can't recall installing any Nvidia drivers - PC has always run just fine!

                b23 Yeah, seems like you don't have the proprietary drivers installed. I'm seeing a number of people having issues with NVIDIA GPUs this week, mostly those not using the proprietary drivers. Unsure what exactly is causing these issues.

                  Staudey

                  Thanks for coming back on this Staudey!

                  Staudey That's because that's what it's called behind the scenes https://github.com/getsolus/doflicky and also the "binary" name /usr/bin/doflicky-ui (it's Python, so not an actual binary)

                  Yes, understood. Just wasn't "in the know" and had to figure that out.

                  Staudey So you didn't have the proprietary NVIDIA drivers installed before? What driver do you have installed now (what's the output of eopkg li | grep nvidia) and what's your GPU?

                  I honestly don't know. When I originally installed the 1080Ti into this box years ago, I feel like I did install the proprietary drivers when I was playing around with it. Don't know if Steam/games would have worked without the drivers but also haven't been playing games on this machine for a while.

                  When I run eopkg li | grep nvidia it yields:

                  It's plausible I didn't have the drivers installed, maybe there was another problem along the way where the fix was to disable or remove them. I know the proprietary drivers have been a source of many problems for a while.

                  I did complete the outstanding update and fortunately everything seems to be working great.

                  b23 Followed steps suggested above and retraced about 8 upgrades (out of 158) but ran into errors with the message that repo item llvm-32bit could not be found. Advanced until I found one upgrade that ran through without errors. Had no effect however, and Solus still does not load past the logon screen.

                  That's a bummer. I saw the driver version update from 560 to 565 in the most recent upgrade and so rolled that upgrade back. Maybe try going to TTY and running sudo eopkg it nvidia-glx-driver-current then sudo eopkg it nvidia-glx-driver-common and sudo eopkg it nvidia-glx-driver-32bit? Perhaps someone more skilled can suggest the best way to install the missing proprietary drivers or suggest other troubleshooting steps.

                  • b23 replied to this.

                            r3laps3 Maybe try going to TTY and running sudo eopkg it nvidia-glx-driver-current then sudo eopkg it nvidia-glx-driver-common and sudo eopkg it nvidia-glx-driver-32bit

                            Ran the commands and output from eopkg li | grep nvidia was the same 5 lines as above.

                            Loading still failed to progress but rather than a blank screen with a mouse, was left with just a blank screen and text-based cursor. So not sure if that is progress or not!

                            Created 2 x live USB drives, 1 x Tails, a Debian-based distro that apparently doesn't like Nvidia, and 1 x Solus/Budgie using the latest download. Tails fired up and ran without any issues, as did Solus from the live USB but I noticed during the Solus startup, a message flash on the screen prior to the initial display (alpine lake) along the lines of:
                            failed-to-start[flatpak-enabled-flathub-service] Add Flathub flatpak repositories

                            I run Librewolf as a flatpak on the PC having the issue so not sure whether this could be related. Startup on the PC does not seem to progress to this point.

                                The next sync will include a kernel update, hopefully that helps with some of these issues.

                                b23 Ran the commands and output from eopkg li | grep nvidia was the same 5 lines as above.

                                Loading still failed to progress but rather than a blank screen with a mouse, was left with just a blank screen and text-based cursor. So not sure if that is progress or not!

                                You should uninstall the nvidia driver packages, your GPU is too old for any of them. Sorry, I should've read your original post closer before I first asked, and realized that it's a 500 series card.

                                sudo eopkg rm nvidia-glx-driver-common

                                b23 failed-to-start[flatpak-enabled-flathub-service] Add Flathub flatpak repositories

                                That error can be ignored, just a minor issue with the service responsible for automatically enabling the flathub repository, which hasn't been fully figured out yet (but has no negative consequences apart from that message showing up)

                                      Staudey You should uninstall the nvidia driver packages,

                                      Ran and now left with the 2 x 'driver-modaliases' entries as originally shown.

                                      Also ran sudo eopkg up which applied over 1GB of changes so up to 4.6 Convergence (6.12.5-311.current). After rebooting, and immediately after logging in, PC displays a blank screen so is back to the initial problem with a blank screen and the (movable) mouse cursor.

                                      To power down, I have to hold the PCs power button, although I can power off from the top right of the logon screen before logging on. All functionality seems to be available, and everything looks as it was previously, up to when I log in. The blank screen with mouse then appears and nothing further is possible.

                                        If after logging in is a problem, maybe the fault is with your profile. I suggest creating a new user in TTY and log in to him.

                                          pomon I've tried this and the problem continues.

                                            Staudey but has no negative consequences apart from that message showing up

                                            That, and a very long timeout before the boot continues. I'll be glad when it's sorted out.

                                              Well, still:

                                              1. Show eopkg li | grep mesa and Make sudo eopkg it --reinstall mesalib mesalib-32bit
                                              2. Install linux-lts and switch to it.
                                              3. Show how it looks after logging in. Make a screen with a phone.
                                              4. Uninstall NVIDIA drivers if you haven't done it yet.
                                              5. You need to search the logs, e.g. journalctl -p err -b -1 orjournalctl -b -1 | grep err. You must read about journalctl.

                                              Ps. And actually I don't know who the problem @b23 or @ASDTT

                                                pomon grep li mesa gives mesa-demos, mesalib and mesalib-32bit. Drivers were uninstalled since 390 was deprecated, and grep nvidia only shows the modaliases.


                                                The screen after booting to 6.6.66-262-.lts and typing the password on login.

                                                As I said in the other post I first made, journalctl gives lots of budgie-session-binary[866]: WARNING: APPLICATION... then either or.gnome.SettingsDaemon.(XSettings...) or org.buddiesofbudgie.Budgie(Wm, Panel, Daemon,Polkit) and one Unrecoverable failure in required component org.buddiesofbudgie.BudgiePanel.despktop

                                                Exactly by applying your suggested command budgie-session-binary[1726]: Unrecoverable failure in required component org.buddiesofbudgie.BudgiePanel.desktop
                                                and
                                                gsd-power[975]: Error setting property 'PowerSaveMode' on interface org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfig: No se puede invocar al método; el proxy no tiene dueño para un nombre org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfigconocido y el proxy se construyó con la opción G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_DO_NOT_AUTO_START (g-io-error qurark, 0)
                                                and also
                                                gsd-power[1841]: Error setting property 'PowerSaveMode' on interface org.gnome.tter.Displayconfig: No se puede invocar al método; el proy no tiene dueño para un nombre org.gnome.Mutter:DisplayConfigconocido y el proxy se construyó con la opción G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_DO_NOT_AUTO_START (g-io-error-quark, 0)

                                                  11 days later

                                                  • Bb23

                                                    • Post #16

                                                    pomon You need to search the logs, e.g. journalctl -p err -b -1 or journalctl -b -1 | grep err. You must read about journalctl.

                                                    Returned just the one response:
                                                    Unrecoverable failure in required component org.buddiesofbudgie.BudgiePanel.desktop

                                                    BudgiePanel was the entry showing up in the system resource monitor whose RAM consumption increased over a few days from hundreds of MB to several GB while other processes (browser, VPN...) remained essentially constant.

                                                    Possibly a memory leak? Seems strange I can't restart, log back on and reuse as before as the reboot has cleared the memory use issue in the past.

                                                      7 days later

                                                      • Bb23

                                                        • Post #17

                                                        pomon Running from a live USB for testing - user "live".

                                                        Test 1

                                                        1. Ran Solus from a live USB with no issues running or performing tasks.
                                                          ![
                                                          ]

                                                        2. Ran System-Monitor to monitor memory use by budgie-panel as this was referenced in the only error from the installed version.
                                                          Unrecoverable failure in required component org.buddiesofbudgie.BudgiePanel.desktop

                                                        3. Memory use by budgie-panel increased significantly from about 65MB over a couple of days with little PC use.

                                                        4. Turned off all notifications. Memory in use by budgie-panel then stabilised at 624.1MB.
                                                          5, Shutdown the PC.

                                                        Test 2

                                                        1. Ran Solus again from the same live USB with no issues getting up and running or performing tasks.
                                                        2. Turned off all notifications except for disks and network.
                                                        3. Ran System-Monitor to monitor memory consumption. Memory in use by budgie-panel increased to over 100MB.
                                                        4. Turned off network notifications leaving only 'disk'. Memory in use by budgie-panel continued to increase although there were no notifications.
                                                        5. The main Budgie menu and running apps - System-Monitor, Terminal, Firefox - then became unresponsive. The budgie-panel process disappeared from the list of processes in System-Monitor (below in alphabetical order)

                                                          Will run further tests tomorrow using the live USB. There don't appear to be initial issues with this approach - no black screen with just the mouse cursor after logging on - although it is rather slow.
                                                          24 days later

                                                          • Bb23

                                                            • Post #18

                                                            Running nohup budgie-panel --reset --replace & (process above with increasing memory consumption) gave the following errors

                                                            (budgie-panel:1979): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:45:08.103: cannot open display:

                                                            (budgie-panel:2095): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:46:57.659: cannot open display:

                                                            Running xhost +localhost xhosts + gave the error

                                                            xhost unable to open display

                                                            The PC will run Solus/Budgie from a live USB without any issues (as has always done in the past) if I use the Solus-Budgie-Release-2024-10-14 iso but gives the black screen when running a live USB using the latest Solus-Budgie-Release-2025-01-26 iso. Both live USBs are on identical 8GB microSD cards through a card reader plugged into a USB port.

                                                            It seems a change occurring between the release of these 2 iso's is impacting the display of any outputs from the point where I log in and that's where I get to with the installed version.

                                                            Any ideas to help solve would be appreciated. as I would like to get the PC operational again.

                                                            8 days later