Manjaro won't boot after trying to install drivers

I have been trying to install drivers for my GPU, NVS Quadro 4200M and have been having a lot of trouble. After following a tutorial on the manjaro wiki (it says I cannot include a link, sorry) and getting to where I need to reboot, manjaro won’t start anymore. All I get is a black screen and a flashing underscore in the top left, I can’t type anything either. How can I fix this?
Is there a way to install the drivers I need?

What did you, where is the link to this tutorial? Without telling us, we can’t tell you what you did wrong and how to fix it.

Also… Installing the correct GPU drivers on Manjaro is simple as 2 clicks. Open Manjaro Hardware Detection GUI (MHWD), and click on auto-install proprietary for NVIDIA cards.

I ran sudo mhwd -i pci video-nvidia-450xx into the terminal then rebooted, and then manjaro won’t start anymore.
Thank you for telling me how to install the proper drivers, as soon as my laptop is working again I will try that.

Didn’t realize how old this is. From 2011.

Does anyone know if the NVIDIA proprietary drivers even work for this GPU? Or does OP need to use the noveau (open source) drivers? If it’s the latter, it’d explain the black screen.

I have a NVS 4200M on my 2011 Dell Laptop. MHWD automatically selected nvidia 390 driver. It works well, both on Cinnamon and KDE.

Wouldn’t the open-source drivers be the safest bet with older hardware? Usually with Nvidia, the latest drivers leave old hardware out in the cold. I was having a similar problem with my GTX 1660TI and the nouveau drivers weren’t doing it for me. Once I installed the proprietary drivers, everything worked perfectly.

How can I install the open source drivers then? I am booting to a black screen where I can’t type anything.
Sorry for all the questions.

Safest, yes. But best? No. Because if there are NVIDIA proprietary drivers that do work, those would be preferred to get the best out of your GPU.


After some research, I found out that the NVS Quadro 4200M is NOT supported by NVIDIA 450 drivers, that is why you are getting a black screen.

You can try the NVIDIA 390 drivers as @falav uses.


Can you access the tty? CTRL+ALT+F1-F6

If you can, log into the tty, and type: mhwd -l --pci to find out which drivers are available for your system. If the 390 driver is available, you can install that.

Alternatively, type sudo mhwd -a pci free 0300 to get the open source drivers.

Okay thank you, I am able to use the terminal now. Will sudo mhwd -i pci video-nvidia-390xx install the correct driver? After that should I run sudo systemct1 enable lightdm.service to use xfce? I just want to make sure this is right so I don’t break anything else, thank you so much for the help.

I have the quadro 4200m on my old laptop, the last driver that is supported by is the 390. I ended up using the nouveau drivers with it, tbh it worked pretty well with nouveau

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sudo mhwd -i pci video-nvidia-390xx then reboot your computer (sudo reboot)

390xx are the NVIDIA legacy drivers, which are still supported and are still being updated iirc. I would assume that these drivers would work better than noveau in terms of how well the GPU preforms. I can’t verify as I don’t own one myself.

390xx did install but I still have no gui after rebooting. It came up under the ls too. Enabling lightdm.service hasn’t worked either.

Well, then try the free drivers.

sudo mhwd -a pci free 0300

Unless someone else here can help with more knowledge.

Did you uninstall the 450?

During the install of the 390 it mentioned uninstalling the 450, but maybe it didn’t. How can I make sure?

mhwd -li -d shows which drivers are currently installed

Okay, the 450 is still installed, what command can I use to uninstall it? Thank you for the help again.

sudo mhwd -r pci video-nvidia-450xx

That explains why you were still getting a black screen. It was still trying to load that driver.

I’m still just only able to use the tty. I have video-hybrid-intel-nvidia-390xx-bumblebee, video-nvidia-390xx and video-linux installed.

After trying some things, I now get the message: [FAILED] Failed to start Light Display Manager.
Is there anything I can do? This is making my head hurt at this point honestly, I just want to go to bed knowing my laptop isn’t broken.