Cannot start GNOME desktop, freeze + CapsLock key blinks

Issues related to hardware problems
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dr01
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Joined: 2019/03/22 17:48:49

Cannot start GNOME desktop, freeze + CapsLock key blinks

Post by dr01 » 2019/03/22 17:54:49

I'm posting here because, based on what I read around, my problem looks like a bad driver for the graphic card.

I have installed CentOS 7 on dual boot on an 10ish-year-old Toshiba Qosmio laptop which came with Windows 7 installed. This laptop has a nVidia GEForce GTX 560m. I did the minimal install, yum update, then installed the "GNOME desktop" group package and started GNOME via startx. It worked for some seconds, then it froze when I selected the options for power management.

After reboot, it asks the LUKS password, it shows the GNOME prompt to select the user, then the screen stays black while the CPU fan turns like mad. After a few minutes the CapsLock key light starts blinking and the system freezes.
Booting GRUB with a previous kernel version has the same effect, except for the CapsLock key light.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

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TrevorH
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Re: Cannot start GNOME desktop, freeze + CapsLock key blinks

Post by TrevorH » 2019/03/22 18:58:12

The capslock lights blinking mean you had a kernel panic.

What version of CentOS did you install (the exact filename of the iso image). Have you run yum update to make sure you are up to date? Does it work if you interrupt the boot process at the grub menu and append a space followed by the digit 3 to the end of the kernel command line?
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

dr01
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Joined: 2019/03/22 17:48:49

Re: Cannot start GNOME desktop, freeze + CapsLock key blinks

Post by dr01 » 2019/03/23 11:00:37

Hi, thanks for your answer.

The CentOS version installed is from CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-1804, and a yum update was run afterwards.

In the meantime I have diagnosed the issue as a wrong Nvidia graphic driver. I disabled the "nouveau" driver (adding nouveau.modeset=0 in the kernel options) and installed the correct driver, as explained in https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install- ... os-7-linux . I also set the system to boot to multi-user.target.

Now when I run startx the screen goes black for a split second and then outputs the following error:

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xauth:  file /home/dr/.serverauth.6309 does not exist


X.Org X Server 1.20.1
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System:  3.10.0-957.1.3.el7.x86_64
Current Operating System: Linux hackbox 3.10.0-957.10.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Mar 18 15:06:45 UTC 2019 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.10.0-957.10.1.el7.x86_64 root=UUID=3a27c3be-ea50-4548-92db-53879292b3aa ro rd.luks.uuid=luks-fac75b1c-2869-4923-8ff1-0e7e7e868dd3 rd.luks.uuid=luks-735bf876-be70-40a4-ac81-f6c6ab46b542 rhgb quiet nouveau.modeset=0
Build Date: 14 March 2019  10:37:36AM
Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.20.1-5.3.el7_6
Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sat Mar 23 11:40:25 2019
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(II) modeset(0): Initializing kms color map for depth 24, 8 bpc.
xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.
Here are the relevant lines from /var/log/Xorg.0.log, reporting only the lines with warnings or errors:

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(...)
[   409.722] (II) modeset(0): using drv /dev/dri/card0
[   409.722] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
[   409.722] (II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw"
[   409.722] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[   409.722] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/libfbdevhw.so
[   409.723] (II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   409.723]    compiled for 1.20.1, module version = 0.0.2
[   409.723]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 24.0
[   409.723] (EE) [drm] Failed to open DRM device for (null): -2
[   409.724] (II) modeset(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
        "Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
[   409.724] (==) modeset(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
[   409.724] (==) modeset(0): RGB weight 888
[   409.724] (==) modeset(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[   409.724] (II) Loading sub module "glamoregl"
[   409.724] (II) LoadModule: "glamoregl"
[   409.725] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module glamoregl
[   409.725] (EE) modeset: Failed to load module "glamoregl" (module does not exist, 0)
[   409.725] (EE) modeset(0): Failed to load glamor module.
(...)
[   409.766] (II) Initializing extension GLX
[   409.766] (EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)
(...)
and the output of lsmod | grep nvidia:

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nvidia_drm             39676  0
nvidia_modeset       1108588  1 nvidia_drm
nvidia              14368631  1 nvidia_modeset
ipmi_msghandler        56032  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia
drm_kms_helper        179394  3 i915,nouveau,nvidia_drm
drm                   429744  6 ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper,nouveau,nvidia_drm

dr01
Posts: 4
Joined: 2019/03/22 17:48:49

Re: Cannot start GNOME desktop, freeze + CapsLock key blinks

Post by dr01 » 2019/03/23 12:01:42

Found something new. As per https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/cen ... econd.html , glamoregl is part of the ATI driver framework and does not work with Nvidia. So I uninstalled xorg-x11-glamor (and reinstalled xorg-x11-server which was deleted as a dependency).

Now startx starts Gnome but it is unresponsive: it doesn't accept any keypress, and the mouse pointer doesn't move. The system isn't frozen or crashed though, because the clock in the upper right corner works.

dr01
Posts: 4
Joined: 2019/03/22 17:48:49

Re: Cannot start GNOME desktop, freeze + CapsLock key blinks

Post by dr01 » 2019/03/28 16:59:12

The X log reported errors about missing fbdev and vesa drivers, so I installed xorg-x11-drv-fbdev-0.5.0-1.el7.x86_64 and xorg-x11-drv-vesa.x86_64.
I also installed xorg-x11-drv-nouveau.x86_64 and reenabled it from the kernel options in GRUB.

Nothing changed, GNOME still doesn't accept any key or mouse input. However it is working, becaused I can run commands on it by ssh'ing to the laptop from a different computer and launching GUI programs by specifying the target display, e.g.:

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DISPLAY=:3 gedit
which opens the Gedit application on the laptop screen.

What puzzles me is that the X log doesn't contain errors anymore, only a warning:

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[   197.636] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
Any hint on what should be tried now? Thanks.

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