Blank Gray Screen on boot

Ask Fedora Ask in English
1

I installed a fresh version of Fedora 36 a couple weeks ago, and at some point my installation has stopped working. Now, when I try to boot into Fedora, I am met with a blank gray screen instead of a login page:

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43abd07eafdb8cc831b8c42d531b1cdba5463c8a.jpeg1920×2560 190 KB

I can’t find a way to login or anything. I was able to get to a console by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F3, and from there I was able to run sudo dnf update which didn’t seem to fix the problem.

I also am unable to get my live Fedora USB to work. I can boot into the live environment, but I am stuck on the desktop without any access to apps:

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I believe Fedora was working fine a few weeks ago. I’m also dual-booting Windows 11 on the same drive, and Windows is working fine.

2

What happens if you unplug and replug in the monitor when it’s in that state?

Which kernel version are you on? (uname -a )

I’ve got a similar issue but it appears to be fine in 5.17.12 but broken in 5.18.

3

I tried unplugging and replugging in my monitor(s), but that didn’t seem to change anything.

I’m on 5.17.13-300. I think I was on 5.17.5-300 before I ran sudo dnf update earlier, and I was still getting the issue then.

4

So I believe there is a way to boot into lower graphics mode to troubleshoot the graphics card/driver but I am having a hard time finding that resource online right now.
Hopefully someone else smarter than me will pipe in and assist.

1 Like
5

If you press shift during reboot and select an older kernel from the grub2 menu does it work correctly?

Can you post inxi -Fzx

Thanks

6

I selected 5.17.5-300 and it doesn’t work on this kernel either.

inxi -Fzx:

System:
  Kernel: 5.17.13-300.fc36.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 2.37-27.fc36
    Console: tty 3 Distro: Fedora release 36 (Thirty Six)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: A320M-S2H v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Gigabyte model: A320M-S2H-CF v: x.x serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: F53 date: 01/05/2021
CPU:
  Info: 6-core model: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 2 cache: L1: 576 KiB
    L2: 3 MiB L3: 16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2057 high: 3898 min/max: 1550/3400 boost: enabled cores: 1: 1564 2: 3898
    3: 1564 4: 1272 5: 1272 6: 2793 7: 1551 8: 3882 9: 1555 10: 1269 11: 1275 12: 2796
    bogomips: 81443
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere [Radeon RX 470/480/570/570X/580/580X/590] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 08:00.0
  Device-2: Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i2 Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio
    bus-ID: 1-5:3
  Display: server: X.org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.2 driver: gpu: amdgpu
    note:  X driver n/a - try sudo/root tty: 240x67 resolution: 1: 1920x1080 2: 1920x1080
    3: 2880x1440
  Message: GL data unavailable in console. Try -G --display
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Ellesmere HDMI Audio [Radeon RX 470/480 / 570/580/590] vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 08:00.1
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0a:00.3
  Device-3: Focusrite-Novation Scarlett 2i2 Camera type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio
    bus-ID: 1-5:3
  Device-4: Realtek USB Audio type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
    bus-ID: 3-2.2:4
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.17.13-300.fc36.x86_64 running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.52 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169
    v: kernel port: f000 bus-ID: 07:00.0
  IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: TP-Link UB500 Adapter type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-9:4
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 3.38 TiB used: 1.36 TiB (40.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Mushkin model: MKNSSDPE500GB-D8 size: 465.76 GiB temp: 36.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WD20EZRX-00D8PB0 size: 1.82 TiB temp: 34 C
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: A-Data model: SU650 size: 894.25 GiB temp: 40 C
  ID-4: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Generic model: STORAGE size: 239.08 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 227.18 GiB used: 11.6 GiB (5.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 1022 MiB used: 13.9 MiB (1.4%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 16.8 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 50.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1866
Info:
  Processes: 301 Uptime: 8m Memory: 15.53 GiB used: 1.1 GiB (7.1%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5
  Compilers: gcc: 12.1.1 Packages: 12 note: see --pkg Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 inxi: 3.3.14

Thanks!

7

Are you using a second monitor?

After a fresh reboot please post:
journalctl -rxb

Can you try restarting gdm.
systemctl restart gdm.service

8

Well, it looks like I’ve found a “solution” for my problem. I’ve had my Windows Mixed Reality headset plugged in (I’m dual-booting Windows for this), and I guess Fedora didn’t like that. When I unplug the headset, it seems to work fine. This isn’t ideal behavior, but I guess it is OK for now. Do you know where I might be able to report this bug/issue?

Anyway, here is the reply I was originally going to write before I found a solution:

Yes, I have two monitors and a VR headset plugged in.

Here’s journalctl -rxb: journalctl.txt · GitHub

Restarting gdm just brings me back to the gray screen.

Thanks for assisting me with this issue!

1 Like
9

You may want to have a look at Login Screen on wrong monitor - #4 by nightromantic