Low-latency kernel can't boot to desktop

[icaria36]

23.10 fresh install. Generic kernel boots without problems. lowlatency can't boot to desktop, it gets stuck and shows black screen with cursor blinking.

The same PC worked yesterday with 23.04 and low latency without problems. I have been running lowlatency kernel in this machine for a couple of years, no problems.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 23.10
Package: linux-lowlatency 6.5.0.10.10.10
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.5.0-10.10-generic 6.5.3
Uname: Linux 6.5.0-10-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.27.0-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Nov 14 12:25:24 2023
InstallationDate: Installed on 2023-11-13 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 23.10.1 "Mantic Minotaur" - Release amd64 (20231016.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
SourcePackage: linux-meta-lowlatency
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[icaria36 (icaria36)]

Booting in safe mode the system reaches the point where you can login and check journalctl. I didn't find any strange errors there, as in nothing red that isn't appearing on the generic kernel (which continues to boot without problems). I'm no expert, but it gives the impression that the system boots up normally and then stops before starting the graphical interface. I don't know how to debug from this point.

I wonder whether it has something to do with the fact that I am using an NVidia card (which works fine with the generic kernel boot).

[icaria36 (icaria36)]

Here is the boot log.

[icaria36 (icaria36)]

And here is another log from a new install in a new partition in the same system. I installed Ubuntu 23.10 in this new partition using the legacy installer and the installation process and first boot was very different. I hoped that perhaps lowlatency would work here but it still doesn't.

[Matthew Ruffell (mruffell)]

Hi icaria36,

Your configuration boots to nouveau instead of the nvidia driver when you boot into -lowlatency. As seen in the below Xserver logs:

...
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (==) Matched nouveau as autoconfigured driver 0
...
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (II) Module nouveau: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: compiled for 1.21.1.3, module version = 1.0.17
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: Module class: X.Org Video Driver
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
...
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (II) NOUVEAU driver Date: Sat Jan 23 12:24:42 2021 -0500
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: RIVA TNT (NV04)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: RIVA TNT2 (NV05)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 256 (NV10)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 2 (NV11, NV15)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 4MX (NV17, NV18)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 3 (NV20)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 4Ti (NV25, NV28)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce FX (NV3x)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 6 (NV4x)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 7 (G7x)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 8 (G8x)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce 9 (G9x)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce GTX 2xx/3xx (GT2xx)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce GTX 4xx/5xx (GFxxx)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce GTX 6xx/7xx (GKxxx)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce GTX 9xx (GMxxx)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: GeForce GTX 10xx (GPxxx)
...
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: xf86EnableIO: failed to enable I/O ports 0000-03ff (Operation not permitted)
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (EE) [drm] Failed to open DRM device for pci:0000:01:00.0: -19
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (II) modeset(1): using default device
...
Nov 17 11:59:24 quiet /usr/libexec/gdm-x-session[4036]: (EE) Unable t...

[icaria36 (icaria36)]

Thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction.

I have a GM204 [GeForce GTX 980] graphics card. I checked with "ubuntu-drivers devices" and the recommended driver was nvidia-driver-535, which is the one the default Ubuntu installation had already installed.

I thought ok, let's try another version. I installed 470. After this I could boot to desktop! All seemed to work well. Then I tried 525. Hurray, booting to desktop with this version as well! Then I thought... let's try 535 again. And... here I am typing this comment from Linux 6.5.0-10-lowlatency and nvidia-driver-535 without problems.

But this is the package installed in the first place, right? I don't know enough to understand why nouveau was selected instead of this installed driver, but maybe there is something in the installation process that can be improved?

Anyway, my problem is solved. Thank you very much for your indications.

[Henry C. Gernhardt, III (hcgernhardtiii)]

TL;DR: Something's missing an install hook, and I don't know what needs it.

I had this one bite me in the posterior just this morning. Here's what I've discovered seems to be happening. When installing the lowlatency kernel tree on a fresh install with NVidia drivers, the hook that triggers `nvidia-driver-*` to recompile its kernel module doesn't happen. I tried doing a `sudo apt install --reinstall nvidia-driver-535` to force it to do so on my system, but the hook still didn't seem to run.

I rebooted to the lowlatency kernel and worked from tty1. I installed `nvidia-driver-525` which pulled down `gcc-12-base`, `cpp-12`, `libgcc-12-dev`, `gcc-12`, and `dkms` as well as the`libnvidia-*` items needed for building the kernel module. It then proceeded to do so for the active kernels. Onde `dkms` had been called and the nvidia driver kernel module activated, the desktop came to life.

At this point, installing `nvidia-driver-535` resulted in a kernel module compilation and install. Everything now works fine.

I have no idea where this needs to go from here.

Thanks, all!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.