I use the MX Linux distribution (Debian-based) as my dual-boot. Recently, I’ve started building a new PC, the crux of which will be a Radeon RX 7900xtx GPU. Since it showed up before everything else, I crammed it into my current PC to replace a GTX970 to test and play around.

After some fun with the Dell BIOS not giving me any video out, I got it running great in Windows. However, when booting into MX Linux, the system simply hangs on a flashing cursor forever. If I press the power button, it shows the normal shutdown text of stopping services and shuts down fine, so I know it’s not a hard crash, just a silent hang.

I’m assuming this is related to the NVidia drivers being embedded in the kernel or something and it just can’t figure out how to initialize the Radeon card? I was using the NVidia proprietary drivers on my GTX970 before, installed through the MX Linux repos.

Any advice or guides you might have to get this install working again would be great! It would be no great loss if I had to reinstall it since I’ll be moving to a totally new PC anyway, but I’d like to try and save this install anyway.

  • OscarEnglish
    3•1 year ago

    When does it hang? If it’s after you log into your user, you could try to instead when on the login screen open a shell by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F2, uninstall Nvidia drivers and install mesa drivers. Or maybe at least investigate further.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      yeah it hangs way before the login screen. It basically hangs immediately after exiting GRUB and goes directly to a flashing cursor.

      elltee explained it above.. MX Linux’s stable distribution is on kernel 5.10 and I need kernel 6.x (part of their advanced hardware support release) to get AMD RDNA3 drivers. So I’ll most likely be doing a full reinstall unless you know how to replace kernels in place.

      • @INeedManaEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        I have no idea what MX is but maybe you could just compile your own? It’s not that hard. If you’re going to wipe the system anyway, it’s an opportunity to mess around a little and learn

        Just remember to

        1. backup old kernel AND initrd
        2. have a rescue usb in case it completely stops booting up
        3. choose modules that are used for your hard drive and filesystem as built into the kernel, just in case
        4. you should be able to copy the CONFIG of the old kernel in the repo and use it (as the wiki proposes)
        5. remember to sleep
        • @[email protected]OPEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          Not sure I’m feeling adventurous enough to be compiling my own kernel at this stage in the game. I might do that for some of my homelab machines as an experiment but my main computer really needs to be drop-in and go with full stability.

          • @INeedManaEnglish
            1•1 year ago

            Totally get it
            But I encourage you to try one day. Especially with MENUCONFIG it opened my eyes to how much and how little a kernel actually is

          • @[email protected]English
            1•1 year ago

            You should be able to boot into runlevel 1 easily and upgrade the kernel using the steps someone else already mentioned. No reason to reinstall the entire system.