Appearance of conflict between kernel 5.13 and my Graphics Processor

[antdesros]

Hello,

A few days ago, I upgraded my Kubuntu distro to 21.10 Impish. After rebooting, I saw Grub, then HP's logo, then Kubuntu's one, and then... nothing. I had to use the power button to turn my computer off.

I then tried to boot using Grub's "advanced options for Ubuntu" line to see what would happen if I used kernel 5.11 instead of 5.13. It was a success: the mouse's pointer appeared, then the logging screen and so on. I then copied the system information:
Operating System: Kubuntu 21.10
KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.86.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.11.0-38-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 2 × AMD A6-9210 RADEON R4, 5 COMPUTE CORES 2C+3G
Memory: 7.2 Gio of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD STONEY

Next, I tried the "kernel 5.13 (recovery mode)" option. It also worked:
Operating System: Kubuntu 21.10
KDE Plasma Version: 5.22.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.86.0
Qt Version: 5.15.2
Kernel Version: 5.13.0-20-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 2 × AMD A6-9210 RADEON R4, 5 COMPUTE CORES 2C+3G
Memory: 7.2 Gio of RAM
Graphics Processor: llvmpipe
But I noticed that the Graphics Processor was not the same.

As a last test, I rebooted my computer the normal way. After Kubuntu's logo, again a blank screen. I then managed to connect blindly to my user account and to launch with keyboard shortcuts my SuperTuxKart game, the music of which I finally heard, always without seeing anything. So it's a display problem.

I don't know if there's a link, but I got some warnings when I upgraded. These warnings also appeared when I did the linux-firmware update yesterday:

antoine@antoine-HP-Pavilion-Notebook:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Lecture des listes de paquets... Fait
Construction de l'arbre des dépendances... Fait
Lecture des informations d'état... Fait
Calcul de la mise à jour... Fait
Les paquets suivants seront mis à jour :
linux-firmware
1 mis à jour, 0 nouvellement installés, 0 à enlever et 0 non mis à jour.
Il est nécessaire de prendre 198 Mo dans les archives.
Après cette opération, 4 096 o d'espace disque supplémentaires seront utilisés.
Souhaitez-vous continuer ? [O/n] o
Réception de :1 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu impish-updates/main amd64 linux-firmware all 1.201.1 [198 MB]
198 Mo réceptionnés en 2min 12s (1 507 ko/s)
(Lecture de la base de données... 394522 fichiers et répertoires déjà installés.)
Préparation du dépaquetage de .../linux-firmware_1.201.1_all.deb ...
Dépaquetage de linux-firmware (1.201.1) sur (1.201) ...
Paramétrage de linux-firmware (1.201.1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.13.0-20-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/vangogh_gpu_info.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_ta.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_sos.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_rlc.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_mec2.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_mec.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_sdma.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sienna_cichlid_mes.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/navi10_mes.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_vcn.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/aldebaran_smc.bin for module amdgpu
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.11.0-38-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/vangogh_gpu_info.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sienna_cichlid_mes.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/navi10_mes.bin for module amdgpu
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.11.0-37-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/vangogh_gpu_info.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sienna_cichlid_mes.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/navi10_mes.bin for module amdgpu
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-5.11.0-36-generic
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/vangogh_gpu_info.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/sienna_cichlid_mes.bin for module amdgpu
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/amdgpu/navi10_mes.bin for module amdgpu
antoine@antoine-HP-Pavilion-Notebook:~$

In the reported bugs, I found this one which may have a link with mine:
Bug #1944397 “HDMI does not display anything with Impish RPi des...” : Bugs : linux-raspi package : Ubuntu

Is there something I should do next?

Thanks

[oshunluvr]

Recovery mode working would be expected. It's exactly for the situation you describe.

The "missing firmware" messages are usually harmless. It's more likely that you have not installed all the kernel modules. If you do have all the modules installed, you can search for and find the missing firmwares sometimes, but you may just have to stay with the older kernel until an update comes out that fixes it. Just make the 5.11 kernel the default in grub and test the newer kernel after every update until it works.

To check your modules to see if any are missing, you can compare the 5.11 to the 5.13 kernel. Try reviewing the output of:

dpkg -l | grep 5.11.0-38

to:

dpkg -l |grep 5.13.0-20

[oshunluvr]

Here's where the firmware is stored in case you need it or just want to try:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux...it/tree/amdgpu

Bonne chance.

[claydoh]

antoine@antoine-HP-Pavilion-Notebook:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Try using the correct apt command:
sudo apt full-upgrade
You might be missing some updates.

Also check the grub menu and see if you have more than one version of 5.13


When you use Recovery Mode, you do end up using a generic style driver

Graphics Processor: llvmpipe
But I noticed that the Graphics Processor was not the same.

lvvmpipe is normal for this mode

Also, I agree with Oshunluvr here on the firmware warnings. The only time you would need to worry is if you saw your graphics card there: Stony isn't one of them so you are good here.

[antdesros]

Thanks a lot

Here's the result of the suggested comparison:

antoine@antoine-HP-Pavilion-Notebook:~$ dpkg -l | grep 5.11.0-38
ii linux-headers-5.11.0-38 5.11.0-38.42 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 5.11.0
ii linux-headers-5.11.0-38-generic 5.11.0-38.42 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 5.11.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-5.11.0-38-generic 5.11.0-38.42 amd64 Signed kernel image generic
ii linux-modules-5.11.0-38-generic 5.11.0-38.42 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 5.11.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-38-generic 5.11.0-38.42 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 5.11.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

antoine@antoine-HP-Pavilion-Notebook:~$ dpkg -l |grep 5.13.0-20
ii linux-headers-5.13.0-20 5.13.0-20.20 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 5.13.0
ii linux-headers-5.13.0-20-generic 5.13.0-20.20 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 5.13.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-image-5.13.0-20-generic 5.13.0-20.20 amd64 Signed kernel image generic
ii linux-libc-dev:amd64 5.13.0-20.20 amd64 Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii linux-modules-5.13.0-20-generic 5.13.0-20.20 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 5.13.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-modules-extra-5.13.0-20-generic 5.13.0-20.20 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 5.13.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-tools-common 5.13.0-20.20 all Linux kernel version specific tools for version 5.13.0

Kernel 5.13 has more modules than 5.11, so it doesn't seem to have missing modules.

Also, sudo apt full-upgrade indicated that I have all updates. (but thanks, I will use this command from now on)
And double-checking the grub menu confirmed there's only 5.13.0-20-generic and 5.13.0-20-generic (recovery mode)

So I made 5.11 default and I will wait until a good update comes out.

Thanks again

[didier31]

Antoine, I have a similar problem with an Acer notebook Nitro-5 : blank screen after boot.

I find a solution in the Ubuntu forum.
I've modified the grub like this:

in configuration file /etc/default/grub , add "nomodeset" at the end of the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

like this: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

and update grub: sudo update-grub

and reboot

[antdesros]

Thank you didier31 for this solution. It's a pity that I forgot to activate Email notification. I saw your message only today, after upgrading to Kubuntu 22.04, which solved my problem.