Black screen when installing NVIDIA proprietary drivers

Support Graphics & Display
1

Hello,
I’ve been installing NVIDIA drivers on fresh Manjaro systems for a long time without any problems. In the last few days, however, I’m getting black screens or installation failures after running the normal command on a fresh install:

sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300

Hardware:

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (hybrid setup: Intel iGPU + NVIDIA dGPU)
Setup: Laptop connected to an external monitor (HDMI)

What I’ve already tried:

  • Multiple fresh installs + the mhwd command above → black screen or install failure
  • Tested the exact same hardware on CachyOS → drivers installed perfectly and the screen worked without issues (so it’s definitely not the GPU itself)
  • Used an older Manjaro ISO from SourceForge and installed the drivers before updating the system → same black screen / failure
  • Switching the kernel from 618 to 66 and installing the driver → black screen or install failure
  • I’ve disabled the iGPU and installed the dGPU driver → black screen or install failure

I’ve now exhausted all the options I can think of and it really looks like something specific to current Manjaro.

Thanks in advance!

2

So you’ve tried those options?

3

Yes, I’ve also tried switching the kernel version to 66 from 618 with this command:

sudo mhwd-kernel -i linux66 rmc

And I’ve tried installing the ISO with the 66 kernel built into it and I still get the black screen after installing the driver on this kernel.

4

Can you add which desktop environment you are on? When you see a blinking cursor it is not necessarily the driver itself. Some login managers seem to have compatibility issues with nvidia drivers currently.

5

I’m on GNOME, and I’m not seeing a blinking cursor, I’m seeing a black screen after installing the proprietary driver. The Nouveau driver works fine, and the proprietary drivers on CachyOS (GNOME) work fine, it’s only on Manjaro that this issue is cropping up. This is also only a very recent occurance, just a few days ago, everything was fine and dandy on Manjaro.

6

Can you quickly try and start a Gnome shell from tty? Should be something like

gnome-shell --wayland

(this is a best guess; Maybe someone with more Gnome background can describe it better)

In the unlikely case this actually works you can workaround your issue by installing a different login manager until that is fixed in GDM (or login from tty until the issue is fixed).