Blank screen after choosing NixOS on LiveCD

[purefn]

I have been trying to get NixOS 14.12 on my computer where I'm currently running Arch Linux. It is an older Apple tower, with a GeForce 8800 GT video card.

I first tried the graphical live CD. It boots, gets to grub, then says "error: no suitable video mode found. Booting in blind mode."

I gave up on the graphical live CD and tried the minimal CD instead. Similarly, the grub menu displays and then tries to boot the kernel. But this time I just get a blank screen.

I was booting from a USB key and tried creating it with both unetbootin and doing the "alternative" grub install described on the USB install page. I also tried blacklisting the nouveau with modprobe.blacklist=nouveau. I tried other variations like nouvea.blacklist=1 and nomodeset after googling for similar issues. Nothing seemed to improved the situation.

At this point, I'm stuck.

[domenkozar]

Can you try 15.09 image? http://nixos.org/releases/nixos/15.09/nixos-15.09.453.dc18f39/

[purefn]

@domenkozar Very little change. I no longer see the message, "error: no suitable video mode found. Booting in blind mode." But after the boot menu I am still left with a blank screen, with both the graphical and minimal ISOs, whether I blacklist nouveau or not.

[vcunat]

IIRC we now blacklist nouveau and have nomodeset by default on ISOs.

[purefn]

I came back to this today and tried a few different things. Finally, I tried setting up the LiveCD in my existing Arch Linux install with grub as described here. Following those directions I was able to boot into the LiveCD.

I'm going to attempt an installation and see what happens.

[purefn]

The installation completed and I chose gummiboot as the boot loader, but the same thing happens. After choosing the latest NixOS generation, the screen blanks and nothing more happpens.

I tested with the Arch and Ubuntu LiveCDs and they both work, so I think that eliminates a problem with the system itself.

[chris-martin]

Same problem here. Minimal USB install of 15.09, I choose "Live CD", and immediately just get a black screen. Motherboard is ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, and I've removed my video card. Let me know if there's any more detail I can provide. I have no idea what to try now.

[chris-martin]

Also tested with the graphical install of unstable, got the same result.

[jcumming]

This sounds like modesetting gone awry. Try adding:

nomodeset i915.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0

To the kernel command line before exiting grub.

(source https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_mode_setting)

[chris-martin]

@jcumming How do I do that? All I get to is a screen that says "NixOS Live CD". Is that grub?

[chris-martin]

Ah, it's gummiboot, and the key is "e" to edit the command.

Didn't help, though :(

[vcunat]

I believe nomodeset is passed on ISOs by default (which disables nouveau completely).

[chris-martin]

@vcunat nomodeset is set by default, though that arch page says

For Nvidia Optimus dual-graphics system, you need to add all the three kernel parameters (i.e. "nomodeset i915.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0").

[jcumming]

The next step I would use is a serial console.

[chris-martin]

Is that hardware that people normally keep around?

[jcumming]

Serial ports aren't so common on consumer hardware these days. However, if the kernel is running you can probably use a USB serial dongle and concoct a grub command line to get the kernel and systemd to issue a console on it.

Video problems are difficult to debug -- you're blind to whatever the kernel is telling you. And it can be telling you a lot of things about hardware conflicts, BIOS bugs, missing drivers, etc.

[chris-martin]

Is there a way to get it to log to the boot media (a USB drive) or elsewhere?

[Profpatsch]

(triage) Is this still an issue?

[purefn]

I was able to get a working system using the NixOS unstable branch and using the latest kernel by specifying linuxPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_latest; as a package override. I'm ok with closing this issue at this point.

[Profpatsch]

cc @vcunat

[chris-martin]

Yes, this is still an issue.

[chris-martin]

@purefn

by specifying linuxPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_latest; as a package override

Can you clarify what this means? Where did you specify that?

[ilyaigpetrov]

Just out of curiosity. My notebook doesn't have serial port, so it's unlikely I could use serial console. Is it possible to look for UART connectors on motherboard and attach serial console to them somehow?

[bjornfor]

Yes, should be. Or attach usb-serial dongle.

[sorki]

Related to perl build issue (seems to be caused by unionfs) - NixOS/nix#1243

[P-E-Meunier]

I wanted to report that I've successfully installed NixOS on a Macbook Air (late 2011), which previously had the same issue. That wasn't easy: I booted an Ubuntu live cd, then followed @chris-martin 's excellent guide to install NixOS from there (https://gist.github.com/chris-martin/4ead9b0acbd2e3ce084576ee06961000).

My first attempt had the exact same result: I saw the system-boot menu, and then a blank screen.

Then I tried again, this time setting Grub2 as the boot loader (and disabling systemd-loader). It worked!

I suggest switching to Grub2 for the installation CD. Not sure how to do it though.

[ghost]

When I boot NixOS 17.09 or 18.03 live images in UEFI mode in VMWare Workstation 14 under Windows 10 the screen turns black while booting. Maybe other environments are affected too, I don't know, that's just the setup I have to work with. BIOS mode or other distros in UEFI mode work fine tough.
The last log message I can see is running udev..., but the system seems to boot correctly nevertheless, e.g. when I wait a few seconds, blindly type poweroff and hit enter the vm shuts down.
The recommendation to add nomodeset to the kernel parameters fixed it.

[ilyaigpetrov]

Still an issue for nixos-graphical-18.09pre149415.8395f9aa85e-x86_64-linux.iso.
I appreciate @P-E-Meunier's revelation that grub2 may fix the issue, though haven't tried it myself.

[samueldr]

Oh, uh well, @P-E-Meunier , @ilyaigpetrov I have #33686 which (in this case coincidentally) changes the UEFI bootloader to grub.

Could any of you having the issue try with an installer image built from that PR and report back?

(It's going to be merged anyway for 18.09 I'm pretty confident, but having such a report could be useful to track another pro for switching to grub.)

EDIT: pinged the wrong ilya*.

[P-E-Meunier]

@samueldr: if you point me to the instructions to do so I can try.

[samueldr]

♥ thanks for volunteering for the test.

The instructions are just now added to a comment; I additionally have rebased on the latest nixos-unstable. The iso image is used like any other nixos iso image, which is why I haven't added dd instructions.

[ilyaigpetrov]

I've found a workaround:

1. Get graphical iso (nixos-graphical-18.03.133157.fde20125199, e.g.).
2. Boot the default entry from the menu.
3. Get your black screen and give it time to load. The idea is that there is no error, NixOS is loading, you are just blind (thanks @BenKerry ). USB pen drive with R/W-indicator is helpful here.
4. After some time blindly enter command: systemctl start display-manager and give it some time again.
5. If you are lucky you will get KDE Plasma shell, otherwise hit enter and try repeating the previous command.
   You should be able to install NixOS from this shell, but I'm not sure if it will boot.

[samueldr]

By making the graphical image always boot to the display-manager, or by adding an option to the bootloader enabling/disabling the display-manager by default could allow working around this issue. (Noting this here, for a future improvement.)

[RSully]

Just wanted to drop a message here saying I am trying NixOS for the first time in VMWare and could not get the minimal CD to boot. I found this reddit post with a link to here, and those options worked. Not a great experience for a newcomer.

[nornagon]

I hit this when trying to install nixOS 18.09 on a NUC8i7. What worked for me was to try a newer kernel (4.19.9, which i got here) and boot with modeset, i.e. not using the nomodeset option. Hypothesis: GRUB seems to leave the video card in a bad state, but once the i915 driver kicks in it fixes things up.

I saw this in dmesg which looks suspicious:

efifb: invalid framebuffer address

It shows up with or without nomodeset, but when nomodeset is present on the command line, the video card never properly boots up and it stays on black screen forever. Without nomodeset, the screen goes black immediately after pressing Enter on the GRUB screen, but starts showing things after about 10 seconds.

This launchpad bug might be relevant? https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1785033

Note: once nixos is actually installed, there don't seem to be any issues. Must be just an issue with the livecd.

NB: if you try this method, make sure you use linuxPackages_latest when you install!

[jamescostian]

One more data point: I tried to install NixOS on a Dell Inspiron 9571 for a very long time. I switched from RAID to AHCI and disabled secure boot, but neither were good enough.

First I tried with the graphical live cd, and was unable to get past grub, even with nomodeset, debug, and acpi=off, as well as different combinations of them - no errors or anything, it just would not work. Next, I tried with the minimal installer - no dice. Combinations of nomodeset, debug, acpi=off didn't help either.

After all of this, I tried using the gist posted above to install using Ubuntu (very good stuff, aside from a few mistakes). I was surprised that Ubuntu's live CD worked out of the box, while nix's didn't.

[freeman42x]

I am also getting a black screen as soon as I log in to NixOS KDE. And based on messages above it might be related to UEFI boot used inside VirtualBox.

[freeman42x]

I am getting the same black screen after login when I am using GRUB (BIOS) boot.

[freeman42x]

This is how the black screen issue manifests itself:

[freeman42x]

The solution was to disable 3D acceleration.

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[MMesch]

I just hit this as well when booting the graphic live USB NixOS on a 2009 Samsung E252 with Core 2 + ATI Radeon HD4330. After selecting various options in the boot loader it just says:

error: no suitable video mode found.
Booting in blind mode

[Fang-]

Had a similar problem booting off a minimal live USB on a ThinkPad X1 gen 3. Selecting the default option in the bootloader would start up fine, but suddenly give a blank screen ~10 seconds after startup completed.

Booting with nomodeset worked perfectly though.

[MMesch]

I just want to add that recent Ubuntu live had the same issue on my old laptop. nomodeset didn't work, videoinfo shows no modes either. All of this happens in grub-efi which doesn't have all options available afaiu (I am new to the grub world). I succeeded booting an Ubuntu 12 finally but no NixOS.

[stale]

I marked this as stale due to inactivity. → More info

[samueldr]

Closing this specific issue. This is becoming bogged-down with similar, but not actually the same issues. It thus becomes impossible to "fix" or do anything about.

If you (yes you, person who is reading) is having a similar issue, e.g. "Blank screen after choosing NixOS on LiveCD", please open a new issue with the problems you are observing, the hardware configuration you are using, and what you have tried.

Feel free to link to this issue when doing so.