Nvidia-xconfig update booting to blank screen new install 20.04

[webheadjunky2]

Thanks for this
Secure boot was already disabled
Cheers
R

[webheadjunky2]

Perhaps I coukd try nouveau driver?

[webheadjunky2]

Sorry back to square one
Noveau did not work so returned to nvida
Then tried the suggested fix on this page:
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/...x-960/107501/2

I changed the nomodeset from 1 to 0 and now booting to cursor again

Is there a way I can boot to root and edit that file

Apologies - love this desktop and want to make it my main OS but unless I can get that second monitor working again, will have to stick to windows

[simon-webb]

If it doesn't eventually launch your desktop, and you can't get far enough through the boot process to shift to another tty (e.g. hold down CTRL-ALT-F3 to shift to tty3) and login as root from there, you can temporarily edit a line in your GRUB menu by pressing e...so you could just change that modeset option back, continue the boot, and then make the permanent change. If the worst comes to the worst and you don't have a backup "safe boot" line in your GRUB menu (always handy to have...leave something in there that you know will boot!), you'll just have to access the drive from another system (e.g. a rescue or install USB).

Intel's still the driver most likely to work "out of the box", simply because it's the most commonly used driver (out of your three options there). It tends to be gaming laptops/desktops or high-end systems that spend the additional money on NVIDIA hardware because they aren't happy with the (perfectly good for normal desktop use) graphics hardware built into Intel CPUs. All of them should work though (I've had lots of NVIDIA desktops and don't recall any problems with multi-monitor setups either on the nouveau or NVIDIA drivers); I'm just saying it's likely to involve the least fiddling to get it to work with your Intel chipset.

The modesetting is in some respects a different issue from your multi-monitor woes. Kernel modesetting is what enables your graphics hardware to use high-resolution graphics modes straight away, while your system's booting (without resorting to complicated framebuffer setups): with KMS and properly configured software you can have, for example, a nice high resolution console and/or a nice high resolution splash screen while you're booting, and then go smoothly from that to your X login...on some systems so smoothly that there's no discernible change or flicker (i.e. potentially the image you're viewing while the system boots remains on screen as the background image while you're prompted for a login, and then can even remain in place as your desktop background...the whole thing can feel very "seamless" with KMS). That's all very nice but it has little to do with multi-monitor desktops in X: you can have KMS or no KMS and X will still use whatever drivers you've told it to use.

I've got an NVIDIA card in this desktop so will grab another monitor and see how it works with the nouveau driver I'm using. I can probably try the other two options as well (I don't have an either-or setup like yours, but can simply plug the monitor directly into the motherboard to use the Intel driver) so will have a play and report back.

[simon-webb]

OK, I wasn't able to test the Intel dual-display setup as my motherboard's only display output (apart from the standard VGA) is Displayport and I don't have a Displayport cable or Displayport-to-HDMI adapter handy. However, I did test both the NVIDIA drivers that Ubuntu 20.04 uses by default (if you install the non-free stuff), and the nouveau drivers (it takes a little bit of fiddling to enable those, because it's no longer enough these days just to echo "blacklist nvidia" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, as the initrd will load before this and you'll be stuck with nvidia regardless...so you have to rebuild the initrd with update-initramfs -u -k `uname -r` as well). Anyway, first the bad news:

Everything works with no requirement for tweaking Xorg configs or anything like that. It "just works", out of the box, with both the NVIDIA and the nouveau drivers. So, I don't have anything to offer in the way of a setting change that might fix things for you.

On the other hand, some possible good news:

For a while I thought I'd hit the problem you're having: I could see the second monitor as "connected" via xrandr and the GUI tools (gnome-control-center and nvidia-settings); however, nothing would make that thing switch on. The software claimed it was working...but it just wasn't. Since you'd been having similar problems, I initally tried a few driver/settings changes to fix it...and it wasn't until nothing worked that I thought to check the hardware connection itself. HDMI cables are notoriously good at slipping out, and that's exactly what mine had done, just a tiny distance...it wasn't quite seated firmly all the way in. Pushing it firmly in solved the problem. I think the odds of your being so fortunate as to have us both encounter the same issue with the cables are extremely low...but still, it's worth checking just in case: with your docking station it sounds like you might have quite a few points of connection for HDMI cables, so make sure all of them are firmly plugged in.

Assuming that's not the issue, all I can say is that it doesn't matter on my setup whether I select the NVIDIA or nouveau drivers: both work (I didn't need nvidia-settings at all as the NVIDIA driver also worked perfectly with GNOME's built-in display settings tool...i.e. the one that you select from the little cog settings menu at the top right of the default Ubuntu 20.04 desktop...or via gnome-control-center from a terminal). If all else fails, maybe go back to Mint? Mint 20.1 is using the Ubuntu 20.04 base anyway, so it's essentially the same OS (third party Ubuntu 20.04 packages should work without problems) and is supported until 2025. Of course there's no guarantee that (current versions of) Mint will be any better, as its having shifted from the 18.04 to the 20.04 base could mean that it's introduced whatever issue you're experiencing...but I'd certainly give Mint 20.1 a try before downgrading to the old 18.04 setup that definitely works for you.

You really need advice from someone else with a similar hardware setup (one of those dual Intel/NVIDIA laptops and a docking station): I can't replicate your setup so can't really narrow things down any more. All I can say is that there doesn't seem to be any difference between the nouveau and NVIDIA drivers in this (dual display) respect: they both work out-of-the-box for me.

[webheadjunky2]

Many thanks for those comprehensive replies. I can rule out hardware as I am presently dual booting into Windows and everything works as it should


I attach a sceeen dump from my grub file for info

Thanks again

R