Hello,

(Skip first paragraph to meat of problem) I have used Linux for a little over a year and a half now. I started with Manjaro for a few months then moved on to Arch and used that for a year. I have tried moving over to Debian with Buster a few months ago but ran into issues even getting past the partition step and then when I swapped GPUs, I couldn't even get anything on my screen. It was a few weeks until Bullseye came out so I just waited for the newer hardware support.

Hardware:
Ryzen 5900x CPU
Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master Mobo, secure boot and CSM are off
AMD 6700XT GPU
16GB 3600MHz RAM
1TB NVME

I am trying to install Debian 11 with encrypted LVM on a UEFI system and then setup a minimal KDE desktop much how I would when I ran Arch Linux. With the new hardware support offered by Debian 11, I can complete all of the installation steps. However much like how I ran into issues with Debian 10 with SDDM, I am now having issues running SDDM with Debian 11. I tried using a different DM and was able to get into a plasma session, but I was locked to 4:3 1024x768. I would like to have the full resolution of my screens (2160p) and not be forced to use a different DM.

UEFI is force and the NVMe SSD has the following partitions:
1Gi ext2 mounted at /boot
1Gi ESP
529Gi LUKs (though I might change this to be 33% since I might leave more room for other distros)

The LUKs partitions is setup as the following:
32Gi ext4 mounted at /
32Gi ext4 mounted at /usr
32Gi ext4 mounted at /var
32Gi ext4 mounted at /tmp
72Gi swap partition
Rest ext4 mounted at /home

For the tasksel during setup, I would only select SSH server and Standard Utilities (so I can install the minimal KDE package later). After the install process I do the following:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/ssh_config (set PermitRootLogin no; PasswordAuthorization no, PermitEmptyPasswords no)
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list (comment out cdrom sources;add contrib non-free to all mirrors)
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ntp mlocate ufw netselect-apt micro puppet unbound lynis clamav git wget htop arpwatch sysstat libpam-pwquality auditd
sudo systemctl enable unbound.service --now**
sudo ufw default deny
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24
sudo ufw deny ssh
sudo ufw allow deluge
sudo ufw enable
sudo ufw status verbose
sudo systemctl enable ufw.service --now
sudo freshclam
sudo systemctl enable freshclam.service --now*
sudo systemctl enable auditd.service --now
netselect-apt
sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup
sudo mv sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo micro /etc/apt/sources.list (fix as necessary, see above)
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo reboot
sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop plasma-nm install build-essential dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo reboot

Upon reboot, I will get stuck on tty1 with the last text shown as kvm: blocked by bios. I swapped to a different tty to see if I could try a different DM. Freshclam will fail to start since something is locked (I am attempting to get back to this, I usually shred drives as I reinstall).

What can I do to fix these issues?

1024x768 usually means X is trying to run on a limited functionality fallback driver (fbdev or vesa). Gnome, GDM, Plasma & SDDM are demanding of services unavailable in this condition. Reasons why X has fallen back include, but are not limited to:

1. nomodeset or amdgpu.modeset=0 or radeon.modeset=0 has been included on the kernel command line (the lines beginning with linu in /boot/grub/grub.cfg). If any of these are present in /boot/grub/grub.cfg, they need to be removed from /etc/default/grub, and grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg needs to be run to put the change into effect, starting with a reboot. It/they can be removed on a temporary (per-boot) basis at the grub menu by striking the E key and using editing keys to remove before proceeding with boot.
2. required firmware for the GPU is is not installed, not infrequently because the GPU is too new for Linux support in the selected distro. In Debian, enabling backports in /etc/apt/sources.list may enable new enough kernel (linux-image* and firmware-linux-free) and/or firmware (firmware-amd-graphics) and/or X components to be installed if support is not automatically included.
3. a config file, /etc/X11/xorg.conf or various files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, is/are blocking use of an appropriate X driver, which with OP's GPU is either amdgpu (provided by xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu; preferred) or modesetting (included by default in the Xorg server package).
4. An NVidia GPU was previously installed, and proprietary NVidia drivers installed for it are incompletely removed.
5. Incorrect proprietary Amdgpu drivers have been installed.
6. Problem with the graphics cable to the display.
7. Bad EDID information being supplied by the display.
8. Dual GPUs.
9. BIOS setting inappropriately selected for discrete GPU and APU.

If you run the following command and post the resulting URL here, someone here may be able to suggest an appropriate path to a solution:If this results in a file not found error, try this instead:Output from might provide additional clues to finding a solution.

I have no idea whether 6700 XT support is included in OOTB Bullseye. It's only about 5 months older than the release. Backports might be required.

Recommended reading about drivers here.

1 members found this post helpful.

apt install firmware-amd-graphics

Here is what I checked:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log does not exist

~/.local does not exist

sudo journalctl -b | grep -i fail
kernel: iwlwifi: probe of 0000:0b:00.0 failed with error -110
audit: CONFIG_CHANGE op=set audit_failure=1 old=1 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj==unconfined res=1
augenrules[1059]: failure 1
augenrules[1059]: failure 1
augenrules[1059]: failure 1
kernel: uvcvideo: Failed to initialize entity for entity 6
kernel: uvcvideo: Failed to register entities (-22)
udisksd[1082]: failed to load module mdraid: libbd_mdraid.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
udisksd[1082]: Failed to load the module 'mdraid' libblockdev plugin
bluetoothd[1125]: profiles/sap/server.c:sap_server_register() Sap driver initialization failed.
ntpd[1261]: error resolving pool 0.debian.pool.ntp.org: Temporary failure in name resolution (-3)
ntpd[1261]: error resolving pool 1.debian.pool.ntp.org: Temporary failure in name resolution (-3)
freshclam[1287]: Wed Sep 8 -> ^Incremental update failed, trying to download daily.cvd
pipewire[1320]: Failed to receive portal pid: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner:* Could not get PID of name 'org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop': no such name

sudo dmesg | grep -i fail
iwlwifi: prone of 0000:0b:00.0 failed with error -110
uvcvideo: Failed to initialize entity for entity 6
uvcvideo: Failed to register entities (-22)

I have never read one of these before, but my thoughts are that the kernel does not support the card. This seems odd to me because I thought the 6000 series (outside the new 6600 XT probably) have support with the 5.9 kernel.

These make me suspicious that not all filesystems got/get mounted, or at least, /var/ wasn't when you tried to access Xorg.0.log. ~/.local is an alias to /home/username/.local, which IIRC gets created when you first log into any graphical desktop. If you were trying to use a root login, then it would be /root/.local, and but /var/log/ should still contain Xorg.#.log(s). If a display manager was running, attempting to login from a shell prompt instead should nevertheless have created /var/log/Xorg.1.log or /var/log/Xorg.99.log, unless opening one of the oddball sessions that put it in ~/.local/share/xorg/ instead.

Not only the GPU not supported, but it looks like neither the networking device(s). Without networking, to fix would require the installation or other media be booted with working network in order to chroot into the installed system to proceed with repair.

For Debian, I wouldn't attempt to install with a partition configuration like this one. I would have /tmp on tmpfs, and at the very least, no separate filesystem for /usr. I can't imagine a use for a 32G /tmp. I suggest starting over with a more normal disk space allocation at least WRT /usr.

I should have mentioned earlier, I started fresh using only the commands above. Thats why .local isn't in my home directory (I elected to not set a root password so I assume /root would be empty). I can see all partitions are mounted with lsblk. I saw that network adapter not working as well. I believe that is just my wireless adapter on the motherboard. I know Debian isn't fond of wireless adapters since most use proprietary firmware. I am connected to the internet with a physical wire and I know that from checking my ip. I will try a reinstall with a simpler lvm setup (/ and /home). Since it seems the kernel doesn't support the card I have my doubts. I imagine adding bullseye/backports wouldn't help since the distro just came out?

I imagine the contrary. Bullseye's versions were carved in stone sometime last spring, while it was released with a 5.10 kernel a month ago. A month ago, 5.13 was current. Now it's 5.14.

If that is the case, I should add backports to /etc/apt/sources.list, run sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade, and then try to install linux-firmware/bullseye-backports and linux/bullseye-backports? The only issue I see is that Debian likes to make multiple kernels available (at least from what I remember when I toying with buster). How would I know which kernel versions are available to install? apt search linux/bullseye-backports and apt search linux-firmware/bullseye-backports don't reveal any clues to me.

Imagination isn't necessary...However, the list of bullseye-backports packages does not include the kernel yet.

Probably because both testing (Bookworm)and unstable (Sid) are still on 5.10 kernel - only experimental has a newer kernel (5.14.1): https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?packages=linux

I'd try firmware if it's available from backports.

Have you thought about trying Tumbleweed? It has 5.14 kernel & 1.20.13 Xorg. It's even possible that CPU and GPU are supported by openSUSE Leap's old 5.3 kernel, as it's continually getting backports to support newer hardware. Another option: Fedora 35 is pretty well along the path to release next month and also has 5.14 kernel.

I added experimental and upgraded entire system using experimental repository (probably an iffy idea but eh for right now. It wouldn't let me do just the kernel). With nomodeset on, I can actually get to SDDM which I don't think I was able to before. Now the issue (which at least should be immediately obvious) is the resolution is capped at 1024x768.

One step further though, I can post xorg logs

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
https://paste.debian.net/1211306/

generally results from using nomodeset or amdgpu.modeset=0 or radeon.modeset=0, and/or from absence of needed firmware, or from absence of support from the kernel.

I should make it clear that my reference to Experimental was not a recommendation to use it, and would like to emphasize the following from the link:

(However, if you are going to use it, you may want to keep an eye on the changelog for any fixes/additions that looks relevant.)