Nvidia system unbootable after recent kernel/driver update

laurker

Hello Solus people,

I installed a Solus XFCE 4.5 ISO on a recently-acquired old laptop (Nvidia GTX 860M), about three weeks ago. Upgraded to 4.7, installed Nvidia drivers via DoFlicky, everything was perfect.

Today, installed a package via eopkg that required a kernel upgrade. I didn't check which kernel I was upgrading to or from, as I didn't expect to need that info. Now, upon restarting and selecting 6.15.6-321.current, which is the only option in the bootloader, I am left with just a black screen and blinking cursor.

Things I have tried:

setting nomodeset parameter in bootloader: no change
checking /boot partition is not full: plenty of space
tried to enter TTY (?) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F3 at the bootloader and blank screen: no response

I would kindly appreciate any pointers on how to proceed. I don't know how to systematically investigate or resolve these sorts of issues. It is not super important, since I can always clean install without losing much. However, I would like to avoid the same problem arising in future.

Thank you.

brent

laurker oday, installed a package via eopkg that required a kernel upgrade.

that seems odd; never heard of that. what package was that?
if you are left with one kernel to select from, this is a new bug they are aware of. you should have two.

laurker tried to enter TTY (?) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F3

try F2 as well. you need the terminal to go forward. between nvidia drivers, the nvidia card, and this kernel something apparently went boom.

You could always chroot into your xfce from a live iso and see if you could install the LTS kernel as a band-aid.

spitballing

laurker

brent I probably just hadn't updated in a while.
Thanks, one of those combinations seemed to work.
My driver version is 570.169. I will look into installing the LTS kernel from here, or manually starting X, or removing the Nouveau driver (I have seen a thread where it helped someone, though I don't think I am using it), and report back.
...
Ok, after checking, it was not the kernel that was updated, but systemd (254.24-173-1-x86-64 to 254.27-174-1-x86_64) and nvidia-glx-driver-common (570.169-573-1-x86_64 to 570.181-575-1-x86_64). Plus a bunch of other packages that I can't paste yet, but may not be relevant.
...
Attempting to boot the LTS kernel leaves me in the same situation: black screen, cursor flashing.

brent

little by little then
if you got the terminal it won't hurt to:
roll back the stuff you updated
or
sudo eopkg check | grep Broken | awk '{print $4}'| xargs sudo eopkg -y it --reinstall

laurker

brent Thank you for your help, @brent
I was able to boot the system after removing nvidia-glx-driver-common. nvidia-glx-driver-current and the LTS version were also removed as dependencies (however they hadn't been updated, so the problem seems to lie solely with nvidia-glx-driver-common).

Now I'll try to figure out if I can maybe make the system use the 470 drivers that are already installed? Not sure if that's the way to go, but it beats reinstalling the problem package and having the same thing happen again.

brent

gotta leave a few hours. hope someone here smarter (which is everybody here 🙂) steps up on this fine Sunday. good luck.

laurker

Ok, to wrap this up:

After a system update that included nvidia-glx-driver-common 570.181, my Nvidia system became unbootable.
I was able to use TTY to remove the offending package and Nvidia drivers, after which the system boots without issue.
However, after reinstalling the Nvidia drivers (incl. the offending package), the system continues to boot properly.
The initial system update upgraded the nvidia-glx-driver-common package to 570.181, but failed to upgrade nvidia-glx-driver-current and nvidia-glx-driver (both were still on 570.169), so the driver and common files were incompatible.
That seems to have been the cause of this issue. It is now resolved.

brent

laurker The initial system update upgraded the nvidia-glx-driver-common package to 570.181, but failed to upgrade nvidia-glx-driver-current and nvidia-glx-driver (both were still on 570.169), so the driver and common files were incompatible.

nvidia 181 was installed alongside two companion packages that were 169.
so that means those two packages were not updated.
you determined that is what borked the system (probably right).
You tore everything out including the kernel?
Rebooted.
Installed the 181 back with the two 169s and now it all works? Where before it wouldn't boot? --I've seen weirder. That is so Linux 🙂

What is the kernel situation? Got the newest one? Got two altogether?
and congrats

Staudey

Sounds like the check for upgraded dependencies that runs when you install a package when updates are available correctly identified nvidia-glx-driver-common as a reverse dependency of the kernel packages and thus updated it when the kernel was updated, but for some reason did not also pull in the reverse dependencies of nvidia-glx-driver-common in turn.
A full system update is always preferable but I'm still surprised that those packages weren't updated at the same time either way. I'm not sure whether this is a full-blown bug, or a known limitation of this mechanism.

brent

Staudey but I'm still surprised that those packages weren't updated at the same time either way. I'm not sure whether this is a full-blown bug, or a known limitation of this mechanism.

it is a surprise and a strange one

laurker

Staudey I don't suppose it would have anything to do with this?
Note nvidia-glx-driver-current is named as a reverse dependency of the repository package, but not the installed version. Is this normal? I don't understand it, as they are the same version. Perhaps it's just because I am on the LTS kernel now, so not using nvidia-glx-driver-current?

Anyway, here is the full eopkg history log from the update prior to things breaking:

Operation #17: install
Date: 2025-08-17 09:01

    * qt5-websockets 5.15.17-39-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * libnspr is upgraded from 4.36-24-1-x86_64 to 4.37-25-1-x86_64.
    * libnss is upgraded from 3.112-72-1-x86_64 to 3.114-73-1-x86_64.
    * libnspr-32bit is upgraded from 4.36-24-1-x86_64 to 4.37-25-1-x86_64.
    * libnss-32bit is upgraded from 3.112-72-1-x86_64 to 3.114-73-1-x86_64.
    * fluid-soundfont 3.1-5-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * systemd is upgraded from 254.24-173-1-x86_64 to 254.27-174-1-x86_64.
    * systemd-32bit is upgraded from 254.24-173-1-x86_64 to 254.27-174-1-x86_64.
    * libxml2 is upgraded from 2.13.8-55-1-x86_64 to 2.13.8-56-1-x86_64.
    * libadwaita is upgraded from 1.7.5-30-1-x86_64 to 1.7.6-31-1-x86_64.
    * gnome-online-accounts is upgraded from 3.54.4-59-1-x86_64 to 3.54.5-60-1-x86_64.
    * liblo 0.31-4-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * python-pyliblo3 0.16.3-1-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-tools 5.15.17-52-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-sensors 5.15.17-38-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * stk 5.0.1-10-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * python-pyqt5-sip 12.17.0-11-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-serialport 5.15.17-37-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-webchannel 5.15.17-39-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-svg 5.15.17-41-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-connectivity 5.15.17-42-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-xmlpatterns 5.15.17-38-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * qt5-location 5.15.17-59-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * python3-qt5 5.15.11-56-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * carla 2.5.9-28-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * libgig 4.4.1-7-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * sndio 1.10.0-9-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * fltk 1.3.9-5-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * lmms 1.2.2-27-1-x86_64 is installed.
    * at-spi2 is upgraded from 2.56.3-49-1-x86_64 to 2.56.4-50-1-x86_64.
    * firefox is upgraded from 140.0.4-367-1-x86_64 to 141.0.3-370-1-x86_64.
    * nvidia-glx-driver-common is upgraded from 570.169-573-1-x86_64 to 570.181-575-1-x86_64.
    * thunderbird is upgraded from 140.0.1-233-1-x86_64 to 140.1.1-235-1-x86_64.
    * at-spi2-32bit is upgraded from 2.56.3-49-1-x86_64 to 2.56.4-50-1-x86_64.
    * bind-utils is upgraded from 9.20.7-36-1-x86_64 to 9.20.11-37-1-x86_64.
    * libxml2-32bit is upgraded from 2.13.8-55-1-x86_64 to 2.13.8-56-1-x86_64.

Staudey

laurker Note nvidia-glx-driver-current is named as a reverse dependency of the repository package, but not the installed version. Is this normal? I don't understand it, as they are the same version. Perhaps it's just because I am on the LTS kernel now, so not using nvidia-glx-driver-current?

Yeah, the first set of infos only lists reverse dependencies that are actually installed, while the second one lists all reverse dependencies in the Solus repository. That's perfectly normal.

The eopkg history looks normal too, at a glance (apart from not installing the other nvidia-glx-driver packages, of course)