Dell Precision 5520 boots to the wrong VT (black screen)

[Robert Johnson]

I have several Dell Laptops model Precision 5520. Ubuntu LTS 20.04.2 seems to run fine without issues. After do a software update which appears to update to LTS 20.04.3, the laptops no longer boot properly. I end up at a black screen with an underscore cursor blinking at the upper left. If I then hold the Alt key down and click the right arrow a few times followed by the left arrow a few times, eventually I see the normal GUI login screen and I can log in.

Please let me know if there is anything that can be done to avoid this problem. I have tried on several Dell laptops and I get the same behavior on all of them. There seems to be something broken in Ubuntu 20.04.3 for these lapotops.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.13.0-28.31~20.04.1-generic 5.13.19
Uname: Linux 5.13.0-28-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.gpu0: Error: path was not a regular file.
.proc.driver.nvidia.capabilities.mig: Error: path was not a regular file.
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0000.01.00.0: Error: path was not a regular file.
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend: suspend hibernate resume
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend_depth: default modeset uvm
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 510.47.03 Mon Jan 24 22:58:54 UTC 2022
 GCC version:
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.21
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Feb 14 14:37:36 2022
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, if not too technical
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation HD Graphics 630 [8086:591b] (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Dell HD Graphics 630 [1028:07bf]
   Subsystem: Dell GM107GLM [Quadro M1200 Mobile] [1028:07bf]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2022-02-14 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20210209.1)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f3:24a0 Elan Microelectronics Corp. Touchscreen
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp.
 Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0c45:6713 Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Dell Inc. Precision 5520
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.13.0-28-generic root=UUID=58eb98db-d059-4fbb-8a18-0c258fd3ab72 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
Title: Xorg freeze
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/21/2020
dmi.bios.release: 1.20
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1.20.0
dmi.board.name: 0R6JFH
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A00
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 1203062
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvr1.20.0:bd07/21/2020:br1.20:svnDellInc.:pnPrecision5520:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0R6JFH:rvrA00:cvnDellInc.:ct10:cvr:sku07BF:
dmi.product.family: Precision
dmi.product.name: Precision 5520
dmi.product.sku: 07BF
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.107-8ubuntu1~20.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 21.2.6-0ubuntu0.1~20.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.13-1ubuntu1~20.04.2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20200226-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sounds like a variation of bug 1878838.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

XorgLogOld.txt is showing that Xorg crashed. If that's a recurring issue then it might explain this bug.

It looks most likely to be bug 1811023 which is also the most common Xorg crash globally for Ubuntu right now. It also seems to mostly affect Nvidia users.

Please reproduce the issue a few more times and if you keep seeing Xorg crashes like:

[ 4.932] (EE) Backtrace:
[ 4.932] (EE) 0: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (OsLookupColor+0x13c) [0x55ac57b32aec]
[ 4.933] (EE) 1: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (funlockfile+0x60) [0x7f2b8ea073c0]
[ 4.933] (EE) 2: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (gsignal+0xcb) [0x7f2b8e84418b]
[ 4.933] (EE) 3: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (abort+0x12b) [0x7f2b8e823859]
[ 4.934] (EE) unw_get_proc_name failed: no unwind info found [-10]
[ 4.934] (EE) 4: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (?+0x0) [0x7f2b8e823729]
[ 4.934] (EE) 5: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (__assert_fail+0x46) [0x7f2b8e834f36]
[ 4.934] (EE) 6: /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg (dixRegisterPrivateKey+0x239) [0x55ac579efb39]
[ 4.934] (EE) 7: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libglamoregl.so (glamor_init+0xcf) [0x7f2a0961b37f]

or log messages like:

privates.c:384: dixRegisterPrivateKey: Assertion `!global_keys[type].created' failed.

then this is bug 1811023.