I’m trying to install arch for the first time and I’m using an old laptop i had lying around.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this laptop’s dgpu is dead as i get video output up until the OS initializes. (With arch I can’t get past choosing the installation medium, with windows I don’t get any output when the os should start loading the login screen) The screen goes black but doesn’t turn off and in windows the keyboard’s rgb lights respond to fn presses (though this doesn’t happen in arch)
I’ve been searching for a way to prioritize the igpu as a way to circumvent the hardware failure, though I’m starting to think this may not be possible in the kernel parameters.
Edit: managed to get through posting windows by turning off turbo boost. gonna try and disable the dgpu once i get arch set up as i think it’s a power issue
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If it’s a hybrid Nvidia laptop this is all you really need to do. Blacklist nouveau and a couple of other minor drivers for the hardware and don’t install the Nvidia dkms package and you’re off to the races.
Damn that’s not the easiest problem. I dont have any solutions unfortunately but have you tested any distros with graphical installers? I’m curious if any of them solve this or if they behave the same as windows.
Have you checked in the bios to see if you can turn it off ?
I managed successfully to make it work with udev rules in the past. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Hybrid_graphics#Fully_power_down_discrete_GPU
Can you disconnect the dGPU physically?
If software methods won’t help, you can google smth along the lines of “$laptop_model uma”; usually disabling dgpu in hardware is quite simple, like lifting one coil
It’s probably the other way around, the dedicated GPU is problematic (needs reballing most probably) and the onboard one (on the CPU) is OK. Try to find a hacked BIOS for the laptop that completely disables the dedicated GPU. There were some models that just needed a modded BIOS for this. Others required some hardware intervention as well.
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Unfortunately I’m now unconvinced the GPU is the issue. I disabled it completely and turned my CPU’s turbo mode back on but it still gave me the same issue.
Dunno what to do now, but my laptop works without turbo mode so it’s a fine trade off.
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