Black Screen issue (similar to Win blue screen but without text)

General system
1

Greetings EOS community.
I randomly get a green screen on my monitor after some time of using EOS and I don’t know where to start troubleshooting the issue. Here are the specifications:

OS: EndeavourOS rolling rolling
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.16.0-arch1-1
Uptime: 38m
Packages: 1166
Shell: zsh 5.8
Resolution: 1920x1200
DE: KDE 5.90.0 / Plasma 5.23.5
WM: KWin
GTK Theme: Flat-Remix-GTK-Green-Dark [GTK2/3]
Icon Theme: breeze-dark
Disk: 1.3T / 2.3T (57%)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS with Radeon Graphics @ 16x 3GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 with Max-Q Design
RAM: 2900MiB / 15477MiB

I ran memtest86 (4 runs) and it did not find any memory related issue. I read somewhere that it might just be related to the monitor, but I don’t know how to find the cause. Any advice would be appreciated.
Hardware information: https://clbin.com/MO5lf
Boot log: https://clbin.com/F0odM

❯ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 953.87 GiB, 1024209543168 bytes, 2000409264 sectors
Disk model: WDC PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-1T00-1002          
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 6DC157F9-A954-9A4B-B804-31D732EC6F7D

Device           Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1    4096    1052671    1048576   512M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 1052672 2000397734 1999345063 953.4G Linux filesystem
GPT PMBR size mismatch (4035411 != 31283199) will be corrected by write.
The backup GPT table is not on the end of the device.


Disk /dev/sda: 14.92 GiB, 16016998400 bytes, 31283200 sectors
Disk model: USB Flash Drive 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 31323032-3830-4632-B230-303331313431

Device       Start     End Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1       64 3834043 3833980  1.8G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda2  3834044 4034747  200704   98M EFI System
/dev/sda3  4034748 4035347     600  300K Microsoft basic data

❯ systemctl status systemd-fsck-root.service


○ systemd-fsck-root.service - File System Check on Root Device
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-fsck-root.service; enabled-runtime; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
  Condition: start condition failed at Fri 2022-01-14 22:42:12 CST; 23s ago
             └─ ConditionPathIsReadWrite=!/ was not met
       Docs: man:systemd-fsck-root.service(8)

I have noticed that I have file system issues. So I have done sudo fsck -f /dev/... as well as sudo fsck -p /dev/... But those did not work. Any ideas why and where to start?

EDIT: Before yesterday, I was using the laptop with my monitor only, and after couple of updates (which included the kernel 5.16) I started getting frequent green screens on the monitor (at least one per day). Yesterday I have experienced an identical issue on the laptop, when it was not connected to the monitor, but this time it gave me a black screen, so I decided to change the title to avoid confusion, because they are the same issue. It seems as if the computer is still on (the fans continue working with the same manner), but hanged. I also cannot access the terminal. One time it happened when I was watching youtube, and instead of black/green screen, the screen got frozen with the picture and the audio stopped (or maybe it went into a short loop but because there was no sound at that point, I can’t tell).

Overnight I ran memtest86, the free version that runs 4 tests, but no issue was found.

I have just changed the kernel to lts. Hopefully that will help.

2

Check this first to see if it helps.
https://www.google.com/search?q=green+screen+on+my+monitor+on+Linux&ei=iJ7iYZ6CGM6M9u8P1IeJwAs&ved=0ahUKEwie5pL8wrP1AhVOhv0HHdRDArgQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=green+screen+on+my+monitor+on+Linux&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQghEKABOgcIABBHELADOggIIRAWEB0QHjoHCCEQChCgAUoECEEYAEoECEYYAFCyCljoNmDNOWgBcAJ4AIABjgGIAZoWkgEEMy4yM5gBAKABAcgBCMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

3

Which one is it? Or is it both?

Did this start happening recently, e.g. after updating to kernel 5.16?

4

Thanks for the question. I have added these details in the Edit.

1 Like
5

OK, if it started happening after updating to kernel 5.16 then install linux-lts and try that (it’s currently 5.15). If this works correctly then it’s likely a regression that will be fixed over the next few point-releases.

The other potential issue may be with NVIDIA 495xx as it has a known memory leak issue: PSA: bug in Nvidia driver causes dbus spam

1 Like
6

Do you think my file system issue has something to do with it?
I keep getting this error:

❯ systemctl status systemd-fsck-root.service


○ systemd-fsck-root.service - File System Check on Root Device
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-fsck-root.service; enabled-runtime; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
  Condition: start condition failed at Sat 2022-01-15 11:38:40 CST; 33min ago
       Docs: man:systemd-fsck-root.service(8)
7

Jan 14 22:20:28 asus kernel: Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux-g14 root=UUID=42afd766-0dbf-4cbb-90b2-2e9326d700d6 rw quiet loglevel=3 nowatchdog

is the https://gitlab.com/dragonn/linux-g14 in use or you was using it and changed back to default kernel?

8

In my (limited) experience, green screens are the result of video card driver oopsies. These can be caused by interactions with the kernel version, or by a wrongly specified driver. Nvidia has a number of ways to cause a black screen too!

When the machine is apparently stopped, have you tried to get a console window to operate? If not available - have you enabled and are you using the the REISUB shutdown procedure, rather than hard power off to escape? Highly recommended if not happening, as hard power off is likely to cause disk issues (which could be the source of the fsck complaints). Search of the forum here will give you instructions for enabling and using the REISUB procedure, or it should also be searchable on the net (can’t find my link right now!).

9

Yeah I was using linux-g14 (and linux), but now it’s the linux-lts.

10

Thanks for the response. Do you know how I can solve the disk issues?

And no, I could not open console window. And I was not using any REISUB shutdown procedure. I’ll do some research on that.

11

After running a fsck (which tries to correct problems it finds) and NOT hard powering down, the problems should not reappear. I did a quick check here, and this is the result:

Well worth having as another string to your bow!

BTW - another way to remember the sequence is BUSIER - backwards!

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12

I have done fsck, but the problem did not disappear. I still see system file issues on the boot log. Will reformatting help? Idk. Not that it affects my work, but it’s just annoying to know something is wrong in the log.

Thanks for the tip on reisub! Very helpful!

13

Are you referring to this?

If so, that’s not an error, the service is saying that it didn’t start because a start condition was not met (e.g. the number of mounts is not yet sufficient to trigger an at-boot fsck).

1 Like
14

The lts ketnel did not solve the issue. Trying the Nvidia workaround…

15

I don’t know what it was. Neither trying different kernels nor the nvidia-fake-powerd solved the issue. I still got the black/green screens randomly. Reinstalled with the same drivers and kernel, and works fine.

16

I remember it from a buddy of mine years ago. Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring

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