Fresh Slackware Current Lenovo X13 No Video on Boot with LUKS/LVM

tramtrist · 06-13-2021, 06:32 PM

I have a Lenovo X13 (AMD Renoir) which has LUKS/LVM on the nvme
When using elilo on boot I can see the vmlinuz and initrd load and then the screen seems to "hang" however I know from experience the boot continues to the luks password input. If I put the password into the blank screen and continue I can successfully boot to the framebuffer initialization and then the screen comes back to command prompt.

I've never been able to figure out how to fix this in elilo so I'm using refind instead.
I thought I'd report it since others may have the issue in the future. This has been happening from 5.10 kernel forward.

This is a fresh install of current form June 11th.

Linux.tar.gz · 06-18-2021, 07:44 AM

The classic lilo can set up the screen resolution between the lilo prompt + kernel loading until something that I believe to be the drm initialization.
Maybe try to set that with elilo ?

tramtrist · 06-18-2021, 05:44 PM

I've searched high and low to find the proper vga or video options to input. I can find tons of information on lilo but not elilo
Any hints would be helpful!

biker_rat · 06-18-2021, 06:21 PM

https://sourceforge.net/projects/eli...s.txt/download
RTF release notes.

tramtrist · 06-18-2021, 07:20 PM

Yep.. used the video= settings from there though they dont apply to BEFORE the LUKS prompt only after I enter it in blindly on the blank screen.
EDIT: My point really is after install and first boot noone is going to know they're at the prompt.. it just looks like the machine froze

slac-in-the-box · 06-18-2021, 07:21 PM

lilo, elilo, grub, all have kernel append lines in their configs, where kernel parameters can be customized, including video parameters -- so the same parameters, once you know what they are for your hardware, are valid in all three boot loaders--just find the append line, and insert additonal kernel parameters between the quotes. The parameters for video on my pinebook are "video=eDP-1:1920x1080@60 video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080@60 vga=current" which I supply to u-boot via a kernal append line in a file called /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf--yet another boot loader, but same old kernel append line.

metageek · 06-24-2021, 12:59 PM

could it be that you need the video driver module compiled into the kernel or added to initrd? I need this on a Lenovo X1.

tramtrist · 06-24-2021, 10:49 PM

Well metageek, adding in amdgpu into the initrd did fix it. No penguins but at least I get a prompt for LUKS password.
This probably isnt something that can be included in a default install but I guess someone looking to do a luks/lvm install with AMD may come across this thread and it may help them out.

Thanks for your suggestion!

walecha · 06-25-2021, 04:24 AM

Maybe PV should consider adding these to kernel config:

Code:

Bus options -> CONFIG_X86_SYSFB=Y

Device drivers
 -> Graphics support
  -> Frame buffer devices
   -> Support for frame buffer devices
    -> CONFIG_FB_SIMPLE=Y

https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/X86_SYSFB.html
https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/FB_SIMPLE.html

I'm using it in my self-compiled kernel

tramtrist · 06-25-2021, 05:36 PM

I recompiled the kernel with those options with stock initrd and.. no joy.
I should also say with fbdev added in initrd also no joy
Adding amdgpu to this particular laptop allowed the display

wainamoinen · 06-26-2021, 08:15 AM

I had a similar behavior with my Laptop Lenovo Ideapad 5, with CPU AMD Ryzen and GPU Radeon. I couldn't find a way to make it show the kernel boot messages after boot. I fould out (I don't remember the forum), that eLilo dones't support it.

The solution that worked for me is to use Syslinux as boot loader (https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/...04-pre1.tar.xz)

The contents of "/boot/efi/EFI/Slackware/" is:
syslinux.efi
ldlinux.e64
vmlinuz.huge
syslinux.cfg

And the contents of "syslinux.cfg" is:

Code:

default slackware
prompt 1
timeout 3

say | Slackware

label slackware
        kernel vmlinuz.huge
        append root=/dev/nvme0n1p4 ro

I don't use initrd, but you can use it.

With this everyting boots normaly and I see a penguin for each CPU.

pchristy · 06-26-2021, 08:47 AM

Sounds similar to an issue I had here: https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-installation-40/howto-prevent-installation-hangs-on-recent-hardware-4175671086/"]https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...re-4175671086/[/URL]

In my case (and several others) we couldn't get the install media to boot, and if you did manage to get it installed somehow, elilo did some strange things during the boot (no penguins, etc).

The solution was to use grub, which worked perfectly! I now also use grub on the install media, as it was the only way I could get my laptop to boot the install disk!

I've now switched all my machines bar one (non-UEFI) over to grub. It was a bit of a learning curve, but Slackware makes it fairly easy.

--
Pete