No DE available with the latest kernel

Desktop Environments Plasma
1

Although I am a beginner, I’ve just installed EOS Plasma after trying several other distroes. My PC is a Dell Inspiron with Mesa Intel graphics only, which I’m using with an external monitor.

Everything seems to be working fine, except that past the login information screen nothing is displayed on the monitor, only a background image and I can’t do nothing (I can only open the menu with the mouse right button).

Only by restarting EOS and choosing the LTD kernel I’m able to access the Plasma DE. Would you please suggest what to check?

Thank you!

2

it is a laptop ? you might try sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

to look if that works.

but it is a laptop or a desktop ?

3

It’s a laptop with an external monitor attached.

4

internal monitor is disabled ?

5

Yes, the laptop monitor is disabled (The external monitor is set as primary monitor and is enabled.) By the way, I’m using X11 (Wayland not installed yet).

More precisely, when I cannot get to the Plasma KDE upon starting with the latest kernel, the blank background image appears on both the laptop monitor and the external monitor. This is not the background image that I set in Plasma, but one of the standard login background images, which I haven’t chosen.

Should I try installing Wayland?

6

wayland would not make anybetter

would atleast a start…

7

image resolution is ok ? on latest kernel ?

8

Thanks! This is the hardware information:

bash: /home/mario/.bashrc: Permesso negato
[mario@mario ~]$ inxi -Fxxc0z --no-host | eos-sendlog
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 3795 0 24 100 3771 37 5941 --:–:-- --:–:-- --:–:-- 5976
https://clbin.com/R47lN

and this is the boot log:
[mario@mario ~]$ journalctl -b -0 | eos-sendlog
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 225k 0 24 100 225k 19 185k 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:–:-- 185k
https://clbin.com/HA4tx

Image resolution is ON with the latest kernel too.

9

this is strongly looking like an hybrid optimus GPU…

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:1616
  Device-2: NVIDIA GK208BM [GeForce 920M] vendor: Dell driver: nouveau
    v: kernel bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1299
  Device-3: Suyin Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 2-5:3 chip-ID: 064e:920b
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.21.1.3 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
    loaded: intel,modesetting alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa
    resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz s-dpi: 96
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 21.3.5 direct render: Yes
10

Sorry, I had no idea. Does it mean that I should install Nouveau?

But, I was about to write that I’m having the above explained behavior with the LTS kernel too.

Would you please suggest me what to do?

Many thanks

11

i am not sure but i think it will need to switch on nvidia GPU to be able to use external display?

12

Using outputs on discrete GPU

If the second GPU has outputs that aren’t accessible by the primary GPU, you can use “Reverse PRIME” to make use of them. This will involve using the primary GPU to render the images, and then pass them off to the secondary GPU. In the scenario above, you would do

$ xrandr --setprovideroutputsource nouveau Intel

https://wiki.freedesktop.org/nouveau/Optimus/

13

Actually for me installing the Nvidia driver makes things work… The Nvidia kicks in when I connect an external monitor. Of course my hardware is different but also hybrid.

The OP seems to be still using nouveau (by the way this one is installed by default and is the open source driver).

Edit is that a GeForce 920 that needs the legacy driver 470xx-dkms via AUR?

14

nothing is not exactly what is happening here.
Actually, since right-click menu works, Plasma is running active.
The panels are missing and the wallpaper is set to default, because plasma thinks there’s a new unconfigured monitor. This happens because of the different monitor names that Intel and nouveau produce.

I suspect that if you create new panel and configure your desktop again, it should stick (if this is going to be a permanent workspace layout and not removing/adding monitors again).

Depending on what you need, you may want to clean your plasma .config/ settings files, as per Archwiki/kde tips.

This plasma/kde deficiency is a known issue as The Multi Monitor Wall :sweat_smile:

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