Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

Defender · 2026-02-02 18:13:51

I have a Dell laptop with a Ryzen7 and AMD graphics. It runs Devuan Daedalus ok. I downloaded and burned the devuan_excalibur_6.1.1_amd64_desktop-live.iso file in dd mode today. For some unknown reason it took a couple tries to run after booting to a boot menu, but on the 3rd try it did boot, came up, and I installed it including telling it to install the bootloader. There was no error, but evidently the bootloader did not install correctly because where I rebooted, it came up to the antiX grub menu. So I booted antiX and ran

sudo update-grub

and it added Devuan Excalibur to its boot menu. I then rebooted and selected Devuan Excalibur. Some text comes up as its booting and then the screen goes black. I did it a couple times with the same result, and then filmed it with my phone.

I can see it got errors right before the screen went black saying:

leds platform:micmute: Setting an LED's brightness failed (-5)

After that I can't tell if its still running or not, as the screen is completely black and the caps lock on/off and space bar don't light up any keys.

Does anyone know a way to get the screen to work? Maybe I need something extra in the grub boot string? Its unusual that it booted to the GUI desktop for the install, but after install didn't come up the same, but perhaps caused by the bootloader issue.

Could anyone suggest possible solutions, please?

Here is an inxi - zv7 run from antiX on the laptop which should help i hopeif there are questions about the hardware:

System:
Kernel: 6.6.119-antix.1-amd64-smp arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
v: 12.2.0 clocksource: tsc
Desktop: IceWM v: 4.0.0 dm: slimski v: 1.5.0 Distro: antiX-26_x64-full
Stephen Kapos 28 January 2026 base: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 16 5625 v: 1.21.0
serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 v: 1.21.0
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 0J9C2M v: A00 serial: <superuser required> part-nu: 0B7F
uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: 1.21.0 date: 02/07/2025
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 47.8 Wh (100%) condition: 47.8/54 Wh (88.6%) volts: 16.6
min: 15 model: BYD DELL WV3K822 type: Unknown serial: <filter> charging:
status: full cycles: N/A
Memory:
System RAM: total: 16 GiB available: 14.98 GiB used: 1.98 GiB (13.2%)
Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
Array-1: capacity: 64 GiB slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None
max-module-size: 32 GiB note: est.
Device-1: Channel-A DIMM 0 type: DDR4 detail: synchronous unbuffered
(unregistered) size: 8 GiB speed: 3200 MT/s volts: 1 note: check
width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: 80AD000080AD
part-no: HMAA1GS6CJR6N-XN serial: <filter>
Device-2: Channel-B DIMM 0 type: DDR4 detail: synchronous unbuffered
(unregistered) size: 8 GiB speed: 3200 MT/s volts: 1 note: check
width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: 80AD000080AD
part-no: HMAA1GS6CJR6N-XN serial: <filter>
CPU:
Info: 8-core model: AMD Ryzen 7 5825U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
type: MT MCP smt: enabled arch: Zen 3 rev: 0 cache: L1: 512 KiB L2: 4 MiB
L3: 16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1791 min/max: 1600/4547 boost: enabled cores: 1: 1791
2: 1791 3: 1791 4: 1791 5: 1791 6: 1791 7: 1791 8: 1791 9: 1791 10: 1791
11: 1791 12: 1791 13: 1791 14: 1791 15: 1791 16: 1791 bogomips: 63878
Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm adx aes aperfmperf apic arat avic avx avx2 bmi1
bmi2 bpext cat_l3 cdp_l3 clflush clflushopt clwb clzero cmov cmp_legacy
constant_tsc cpb cppc cpuid cqm cqm_llc cqm_mbm_local cqm_mbm_total
cqm_occup_llc cr8_legacy cx16 cx8 de debug_swap decodeassists erms
extapic extd_apicid f16c flushbyasid fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr fxsr_opt
ht hw_pstate ibpb ibpb_exit_to_user ibrs ibs invpcid irperf lahf_lm lbrv
lm mba mca mce misalignsse mmx mmxext monitor movbe msr mtrr mwaitx
nonstop_tsc nopl npt nrip_save nx ospke osvw overflow_recov pae pat
pausefilter pclmulqdq pdpe1gb perfctr_core perfctr_llc perfctr_nb
pfthreshold pge pku pni popcnt pse pse36 rapl rdpid rdpru rdrand rdseed
rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sep sha_ni skinit smap smca smep ssbd sse sse2
sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 stibp succor svm svm_lock syscall tce topoext
tsc tsc_scale umip user_shstk v_spec_ctrl v_vmsave_vmload vaes vgif
vmcb_clean vme vmmcall vpclmulqdq wbnoinvd wdt xgetbv1 xsave xsavec
xsaveerptr xsaveopt xsaves
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Barcelo vendor: Dell
driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15e7
class-ID: 0300 temp: 46.0 C
Device-2: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_FHD driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-4:2 chip-ID: 0c45:6a1b
class-ID: 0e02
Display: server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0.0
screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920×1200 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x317mm (20.00×12.48″)
s-diag: 599mm (23.57″)
Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: eDP model: BOE Display 0x0a59 res:
mode: 1920×1200 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 141
size: 345x215mm (13.58×8.46″) diag: 407mm (16″) modes: max: 1920×1200
min: 640×480
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11:
drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.7-2 glx-v: 1.4
direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi renoir ACO DRM
3.54 6.6.119-antix.1-amd64-smp) device-ID: 1002:15e7
Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Renoir Radeon High Definition
Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Audio Coprocessor vendor: Dell
driver: snd_rn_pci_acp3x v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 04:00.5 chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio
vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 04:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.6.119-antix.1-amd64-smp status: kernel-api with: apulse
type: pulse-emulator
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.2 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
vendor: Foxconn driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:7961 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
IP v4: <filter> type: secondary dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
broadcast: <filter>
IP v6: <filter> scope: link
WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Foxconn / Hon Hai Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB
rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-3:2 chip-ID: 0489:e0c8
class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: stopped
rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: <filter>
Logical:
Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 968.21 GiB used: 9.03 GiB (0.9%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: KBG50ZNS1T02 NVMe 1024GB
size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 11200105 temp: 31.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: USB 3.2Gen1 size: 14.34 GiB
type: USB rev: 3.2 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 tech: N/A serial: <filter>
fw-rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
ID-1: /live/boot-dev size: 14 GiB used: 2.18 GiB (15.6%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda1 label: antiX-Live-usb
uuid: a8f900c7-b7c0-4023-a5cd-88c543595c72
ID-2: /media/ANTIX-UEFI size: 48.2 MiB used: 12.4 MiB (25.6%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/sda2 label: ANTIX-UEFI uuid: DD88-7D3D
ID-3: /mnt/antiX size: 39.08 GiB used: 6.83 GiB (17.5%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 label: rootantiX26
uuid: 086e0fe3-cad4-4732-9e61-214606765851
ID-4: /mnt/antiX/boot/efi size: 98.4 MiB used: 4.9 MiB (5.0%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 label: EFI-SYSTEM uuid: BB44-EA8B
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 14.98 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 32767
dev: /dev/zram0
Unmounted:
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1p2 size: 16 MiB fs: <superuser required> label: N/A
uuid: N/A
ID-2: /dev/nvme0n1p3 size: 171.79 GiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
uuid: A05E444B5E441C82
ID-3: /dev/nvme0n1p4 size: 725 MiB fs: ntfs label: N/A
uuid: 0A9C10059C0FEA51
ID-4: /dev/nvme0n1p5 size: 46.88 GiB fs: ext4 label: rootantiX23
uuid: da5dd565-bfa7-4475-ad7d-dd2fb345a6a2
ID-5: /dev/nvme0n1p6 size: 46.88 GiB fs: ext4 label: N/A
uuid: 32f0357d-b5ec-496c-b9c2-1797437fc61c
ID-6: /dev/nvme0n1p8 size: 40 GiB fs: ext4 label: N/A
uuid: eb21f134-6dfc-4eb2-acd1-f2f578fed31b
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-4:2 info: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_FHD type: video
driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1
power: 500mA chip-ID: 0c45:6a1b class-ID: 0e02
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 2-2:2 info: SanDisk 3.2Gen1 type: mass storage
driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 3.2 speed: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1
power: 896mA chip-ID: 0781:5597 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 4 rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 3-3:2 info: Foxconn / Hon Hai Wireless_Device type: bluetooth
driver: btusb interfaces: 3 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA
chip-ID: 0489:e0c8 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
Device-2: 3-4:3 info: Shenzhen Goodix USB2.0 MISC type: <vendor specific>
driver: N/A interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 power: 100mA
chip-ID: 27c6:639c class-ID: ef00 serial: <filter>
Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
lanes: 1 chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 59.2 C mobo: 35.0 C sodimm: 39.0 C gpu: amdgpu
temp: 47.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0
Info:
Processes: 372 Power: uptime: 28m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: s2idle
wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform Init: runit v: N/A runlevel: 2 default: 5
Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2003 Compilers: gcc: 14.2.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.37
running-in: roxterm inxi: 3.3.39
demo@antix1:~
$

Last edited by Defender (Yesterday 15:47:12)

Defender · 2026-02-02 18:58:28

BTW: I looked up the error message via Google and it suggested to try adding nomodeset to the boot string, which I did, but there was no change, still a black screen, non-responding.

greenjeans · 2026-02-02 19:02:01

Just spitballing here, but I always have some issues with my AMD machines until I install firmware-amd-graphics.

Defender · 2026-02-02 19:05:26

I saw it might be ACPI related, so I tried adding acpi=off, and that worked, but I fear it could affect things like power mgmt, etc.

Anyway, I found another ACPI related setting, which sounded more focused, and tried it, and it seems to be working. I haven't tested other ACPI functions. Not sure what I need to test.

acpi_backlight=vendor

Comment for it was: If the black screen is due to backlight issues, edit /etc/default/grub, add acpi_backlight=vendor to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT, run sudo update-grub, and reboot.

Last edited by Defender (2026-02-02 19:06:43)

Defender · 2026-02-02 19:08:58

greenjeans: Now that it comes up, I can take a look at that, thanks...

Defender · 2026-02-03 00:29:54

Got the suggested firmware package installed. Unfortunately, the acpi_backlight=vendor isn't a reliable fix. Now trying acpi_osi=Windows. So far, so good.

Defender · 2026-02-03 02:09:21

That wasn't reliable either. Many failures for every one time it boots. I had to go back to acpi_backlight=vendor. It has booted correctly 2 times in a row, now. Its very flaky deciding whether or not to boot. The last line on the screen before it fails is the AMD GPU, and then the screen goes black, and either it shuts off or comes up with another scrolling text screen if it does work, so it looks to be graphics related. According to the google stuff I found, its trouble with the BIOS, Firmware or Kernel, so its nothing I'm going to be able to fix other that getting lucky finding how someone else solved it, or by tripping over a kernel that works or a BIOS patch or fixed firmware. If anyone hears of someone else with similar issues,please put a post in here so I get notified.

Thanks

chris2be8 · 2026-02-03 17:09:36

Do you have another system? If you do can you log on to the laptop via ssh to see what log messages etc it puts out? Being able to do that is a good reason to have more than 1 system.

Defender · Yesterday 14:57:56

I don't know how to use SSH, but don't think it would help because the machine looks to be powering off when it goes to the black screen. Only the power button works at that point. I did a flash update with a newer BIOS from Dec 2025, but that didn't help.

Since Devuan 5 works fine, and antiX 23 and antiX 26 work, but Devuan 6 won't boot at all except with acpi=off. I seem to recall that setting causes other issues with things like power management and input devices, but haven't noticed anything, yet. Is there a way to find out what really might be wrong with it?

PS: Is there something I could add to the boot string that would get it to log the error to the USB or screen so I could look at it after trying to boot? I tried taking a video but can't get the camera to cover the whole screen and it just flies by.

PSS: For unknown reason, now it booted from Devuan 6 USB without any cheat codes added. I looked at dmesg and there were some complaints, but I don't understand from them what I need to do to get it to boot reliably. I will try to put the dmesg into a file. Is there anything else I should copy to go with it that would help diagnose the issue? The Dell Laptop involved is the the laptop I use to screencast to my living room TV, and that only works with Devuan, So I'd really like to make it work with Excalibur so I can move to the newer version.

Last edited by Defender (Yesterday 15:46:02)

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#1 2026-02-02 18:13:51

Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#2 2026-02-02 18:58:28

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#3 2026-02-02 19:02:01

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#4 2026-02-02 19:05:26

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#5 2026-02-02 19:08:58

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#6 2026-02-03 00:29:54

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#7 2026-02-03 02:09:21

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#8 2026-02-03 17:09:36

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

#9 Yesterday 14:57:56

Re: Momentary errors then Black screen booting installed Excalibur 6.1.1

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