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Topic: [SOLVED] Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia) (Read 685 times) previous topic - next topic
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[SOLVED] Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

I am getting blank screen booting ISOs. I have tried Base using both openrc and runit,  Plasma, and Community-QT.  I do not believe it is locking on boot because hitting the power button will initiate the shutdown sequence so it does not appear to be frozen. I attached to an external monitor and a portion of the boot process shows but the primary is forced to the laptop so I am unable to proceed further.

I have booted the ISO on another workstation and it boots properly. Any thoughts on what I can try? I assume something in the GRUB options may work but not sure what to attempt.

I have also tried using ctrl-alt-f2 to switch TTY's but no change is noticed.

Right now on this workstation I am running Arch so not critical, but am very interested in openrc as an option (for a variety of reasons). Any thoughts would be appreciated. If I am missing something in the wiki, please point me in the right direction!

Re: Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

Reply #2 –
I had seen that before, but the issues are very different. I am not having an issue getting to the GRUB menu, or initiating the boot after selecting the option in the GRUB menu. It is when it tries to use the laptop screen that the issue occurs. That's why I was wondering if there was something I could add to the GRUB menu to change maybe VGA modes, etc..

Also, just as an FYI, I am successfully booting with UEFI with Arch on this laptop right now so I don't think it is a bios setting. Could be, but there are few options related to graphics or boot options other than turning off secure boot, etc (which had to be done to get Arch to boot).

Re: Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

Reply #3 –
At the boot (GRUB) menu select "From CD/DVD/ISO", press <E>, move to "linux /boot/vmlinux-$2" line and append "nomodeset" after it. Press <CTRL-X> to boot.

Re: Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

Reply #4 –
Awesome! That allowed me to boot. Thank you!

Re: [SOLVED] Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

Reply #6 –
Apologies for not seeing exactly what you were referring to on that link (I did follow it). I have only been using Linux for about a month. I had used it a little about 10 years ago and remembered something like that with an older system I had but wasn't putting two and two together properly and instead focused on the UEFI portion in the link.

Thank you for your help, I do appreciate it.

Re: [SOLVED] Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

Reply #7 –
Quote from: hlothran – on
Apologies for not seeing exactly what you were referring to on that link (I did follow it). I have only been using Linux for about a month. I had used it a little about 10 years ago and remembered something like that with an older system I had but wasn't putting two and two together properly and instead focused on the UEFI portion in the link.

Thank you for your help, I do appreciate it.
Hope this time you stay with Linux for good.

Re: [SOLVED] Boot Issue - Dell G7 (Hybrid Intel/Nvidia)

Reply #8 –
I will be for sure.. I have been using Arch/AwesomeWM for a bit now and it is working really well from a workflow perspective but I agree quite a bit with suckless.org's philosophy so exploring that rabbit hole to see how deep it takes me. Having a hell of a time with openrc and this lovely laptop but hopefully I will get it soon. Tons of issues with the way the bios handles the hybrid graphics. Systemd seems to hide what it is doing to account for the issues so it is just a process of uncovering things little by little. I have been working through gentoos guides a bit on this setup and have gotten partially there, so baby steps is fine for now. I am learning a ton in the process so thats what matters.