Reboot / shutdown leaves me with blank screen blinking cursor

Rocky Linux Tech Help
1

Hey Folks,

Ive installed Rocky a couple of times on my machine.
I’m starting with minimal installer then installed xfce desktop environment.
All seems to go well! Pretty sure ive even done a few reboots while setting up.
xfce working fine etc.
however when I return to machine after a shutdown. usually the next morning “not that that should matter, hah” I just get a blank screen and blinking cursor. In fact I must have successfully rebooted to get into xfce for the first time!

Machine is HPz840 workstation with an nvidia A6000 gpu. All enterprise kit.
Rocky 9.4 but have had same issues with 9.3 … I thought the 9.4 upgrade broke things for a minute but was just unfortunate timing that I was trying this install the night before the 9.4 release, and updating the system frequently

Here’s what I do after fresh minimal install, very basic setup,
This method “very similar anyway” used to work flawlessly on centos7,

Ive read it may be a nvidia / gpu issue? anything I should do here.
Also read secure boot, but thats off!

Also just confirming I can not get into another tty via ctrl+alt+F1-7

I can successfully ssh into machine from another laptop, when the blinking cursor blank screen is on the physical machines monitor/s

I’m using minimal install to make sure machine is as light as possible, same with xfce.
Also means I control everything that gets installed etc.

Any help / ideas, would be much appreciated!

sudo dnf install net-tools samba-client samba-common cifs-utils nfs-utils openssh-server openssh-clients autofs git wget python pip tmux tar unzip -y
sudo dnf pip install pyqt6 
sudo dnf install epel-release -y
sudo dnf --enablerepo=epel group
sudo dnf groupinstall "Xfce" "base-x" -y
sudo echo "exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session" >>  ~/.xinitrc
sudo systemctl set-default graphical
sudo dnf install mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel
2

Just the included Nouveau driver for A6000; no NVidia proprietary?
One or multiple monitors?

3

Its dual monitor…

Should I install the propriertry driver? whats the best way to do this on rocky 9?

I havnt installed any additional drivers.
Essentially just the commands above. and a “dnf update”
Thanks for the reply!

4

I do remember some system (but not recently), where install had no output as long as I had more than one monitor. However, you had “all good” before latest dnf up, so yours is a different issue.

Three things to check:

  • Look at logs. Do they have any hint of what fails?
  • Revert the default to multi-user.target Will that give text console?
    (One can then run sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target to start GUI on the fly.)
  • Disable Wayland – perhaps X11 does better?
5

Hey I have resorted to openbox window manager setup and installing the Xorg stuff one by one. no xfce DE
I just really need a working machine for now, with a desktop gui. This works fine no issues!
If I get time il try and recreate this issue!
However if open box works I may stick with it as lightweight is the goal here anyhow

So makes me believe there is something wrong with xfce or base-x packages.
I believe xfce comes from epel. however epel runs fine on the open box setup as I need it for a few bits on that too, so can probs rule Epel out…

Just editing here… as just saw the Wayland bit!!
Whats the deal with everything defaulting to Wayland now?
Ive heard a ton of conflicting stuff as to wether its even better in a lot of ways? Newer yes less code yes but better at everything… seems conflicting. I have no opinion as am pretty ignorant in the technical department , just what I have read
I didnt even realise xfce used it at all!
This could well also be Wayland!

6

It’s been the default since the release of RHEL 8.0

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7

The X11 is closer to 40 years old. When it had been in use for about 20 years, it was already apparent that its design was limited by “old ways” and work on “smarter” replacement did begin – the Wayland.
So now, when Wayland has been in development almost 20 years, it finally starts to take over.

If there is a de facto standard, then it is more economical for “everything” to use it (rather than cling to the legacy).

1 Like
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