DELL Precision 3650 + EndeavourOS + SDDM incompatible?

Desktop Environments Plasma
1

After 3 half days of trying to install EOS Artemis (22_6) with Plasma/KDE using default options, I am still unable to use EOS with SDDM. When I booted the new install, the expected GRUB menu was displayed. So far, so good. But when the desktop was displayed, I found the following problems:

  • Blurry text and “vibrating” windows; yet the live demo was razor-sharp & rock-solid
  • Most options on most menus are unresponsive
  • Each of the 4 app icons near the applications button on the panel bar partly overlap the other 3
  • System Settings were not responsive/viewable
  • Sometimes there is a very light pink hue or “wash” over much of the screen
  • The location of the panel bar can be changed; but the panel-bar size cannot be changed
  • Some keyboard options – such as Ctrl+Alt+t – do not work
  • At one point, the entire screen displayed “No Windows” – I could not reproduce this
  • No apps can be run, no screenshots are possible, and the CLI is unreachable
  • All the above issues were under SDDM … everything seems to work OK with the other 3 DMs

To me, this suggests Plasma/video issue. But what? I found “sddm 0.19.0-8” as well as “sddm-kcm 5.25.2-1” both installed. My 2nd and 3rd re-installs made no difference. And, yes, the CRC was good before I made the USB flash drive for installation.

The system info below was obtained by running “inxi -FAZ --no-host | eos-sendlog” from the live demo.

System:
Kernel: 5.18.5-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce v: 4.16.0
Distro: EndeavourOS
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Precision 3650 Tower v: N/A
serial:
Mobo: Dell model: 0NDYHG v: A01 serial: UEFI: Dell
v: 1.9.2 date: 02/24/2022
CPU:
Info: 6-core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
cache: L2: 3 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 916 min/max: 800/4800 cores: 1: 901 2: 901 3: 1089
4: 901 5: 900 6: 901 7: 900 8: 901 9: 901 10: 901 11: 901 12: 901
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel RocketLake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 750] driver: i915 v: kernel
Device-2: NVIDIA TU117GLM [Quadro T1000 Mobile] driver: nouveau v: kernel
Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.3 driver: X: loaded: intel,modesetting
gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (RKL GT1) v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.2
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-H HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: NVIDIA driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.18.5-arch1-1 running: yes
Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.52 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM driver: e1000e
IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full
mac: 00:be:43:8f:8e:68
Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: b6:a3:7b:4e:fd:10
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb
Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 state: up address: 2C:33:58:74:1B:47
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 11.41 TiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: PM9A1 NVMe 512GB
size: 476.94 GiB
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM004-2CV104 size: 3.64 TiB
ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1ER164 size: 1.82 TiB
ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EZRZ-00Z5HB0
size: 1.82 TiB
ID-5: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk size: 29.3 GiB
ID-6: /dev/sde type: USB vendor: Western Digital
model: WD My Passport 25E2 size: 3.64 TiB
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 10 GiB used: 1.9 MiB (0.0%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
Swap:
Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 40.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 2745
Info:
Processes: 270 Uptime: 5m Memory: 31.08 GiB used: 1.26 GiB (4.1%)
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.18

2

Try to disable the compositor. The first option in the compositor window.

kde-compasit

If that doesn’t help, from a terminal
$ pacman -Q xf86-video-intel

If it shows installed, try to uninstall it and reboot
Pudge

3

You also have nouveau as the Nvidia card driver, it may be a suboptimal choice. Likely the proprietary nvidia driver works better.

See EndeavourOS wiki or Arch wiki for more info about the nvidia drivers.

1 Like
4

I agree with removing xf86-video-intel and installing nvidia drivers. I think i would try both of these before disabling the compositor. That may be required also.

5

Thanks to all 3 of you for your ideas. It seems my best action would be to disable or remove the intel and nouveau drivers, add the proprietary nvidia driver, and (maybe) disable the compositor.

As you recall from my earlier description, I cannot open Konsole / CLI to enter commands. All the Systems Settings I tried are unresponsive. I’m thinking that either from my fully functional Manjaro on another partition or maybe from the EOS live demo on a USB flash drive, I could use the CLI to make the driver removals and NVIDIA driver addition in the directories of the limited-functional EOS. But to do that, I would need to know which files and directories. Does this strategy make sense, or am I barking up the wrong tree? Or maybe I should try those driver changes from one of the other DMs in the installed EOS with the SDDM issues. So far, my limited testing shows the other DMs function as expected.

6

Are you able to boot and get into a TTY?

Edit: If not you could boot on the live ISO and Arch-chroot

https://discovery.endeavouros.com/system-rescue/arch-chroot-for-efi-uefi-systems/2021/03/

1 Like
7

Thank you for the link. I am able to boot into SDDM GUI (via GRUB) as is, but most of the desktop menus, links, panel bar options, etc. are not usable in SDDM. Other 3 DMs seem fine. I won’t be able to try your suggestion until late tomorrow (Sunday) but will let you know the results when I do.

8

It was suggested to install the nvidia drivers and remove xf86-video-intel and reboot.

9

Gentlemen…thank you! Your analysis and solution to my problem of EndeavourOS being unusable with sddm (Plasma/KDE) was exactly right. Video drivers were the cause of the malfunctions.

Since I don’t know diddly about downloading, removing, and installing video drivers, your assistance, some Googling, and trial & error were required to get a fully functional installation of 22_6. I am impressed by Forum members’ quick and knowledgeable responses, which means I won’t need to find an alternative to EOS.

The actions I took to resolve the video drivers problem were:

  1. After booting EOS into unusable sddm, on Welcome Screen, switch dm to fully functioning gdm
  2. In Konsole / CLI, type: pacman -Q xf86-video-intel
  3. Type: sudo pacman -R xf86-video-intel
  4. Type: pacman -S nvidia-installer-dkms
  5. Type: nvidia-installer-dkms
  6. Switch dm from gdm back to sddm
  7. Reboot to restart EOS under sddm

No changes to the compositor settings were required.

Today I begin installing & configuring applications and look forward to great times with EOS.

2 Likes
10

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