Problem at system startup, login screen does not appear

I had installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers because I wanted to take advantage of GPU acceleration to test an AI through Docker.
After completing my tests, I uninstalled Docker and the Nvidia drivers, and reinstalled the open drivers. That’s when the problems started.
I rebooted and the system froze here;

by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, I rebooted the system and during boot, I started pressing F8 repeatedly because I thought that by doing so, I would enter the Grub screen where I could select a different kernel. Instead, to my great surprise, the system booted correctly and I reached the login screen.
Now, the only way to reach the login screen is to constantly press F8 during system boot.

mhwd -l -d

PCI Device: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.0 (0300:10de:1b81)
Display controller nVidia Corporation GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070]


INSTALLED:

NAME: video-linux
ATTACHED: PCI
VERSION: 2024.05.06
INFO: Standard open source drivers.
PRIORITY: 2
FREEDRIVER: true
DEPENDS: -
CONFLICTS: -
CLASSIDS: 0300 0380 0302
VENDORIDS: 1002 8086 10de

Can anyone give me advice on how to permanently resolve the issue without pressing F8?
Can anyone tell me what happens when I press F8?

Thank you all for the time you want to dedicate to me.

inxi -Farz

Summary
System:
  Kernel: 6.11.11-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.11-x86_64
    root=UUID=5a04b4a9-4044-44b2-9ac2-573de019c50f rw quiet splash
    udev.log_priority=3 amd_iommu=on iommu=pt
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.2.4 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.8.0
    wm: kwin_x11 with: plank vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: N/A v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 3 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Gigabyte model: GA-990FX-GAMING v: x.x serial: <superuser required>
    uuid: <superuser required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: F2 date: 04/06/2016
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD FX-8350 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Piledriver level: v2
    built: 2012-13 process: GF 32nm family: 0x15 (21) model-id: 2 stepping: 0
    microcode: 0x6000852
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 8 smt: <unsupported> cache:
    L1: 384 KiB desc: d-8x16 KiB; i-4x64 KiB L2: 8 MiB desc: 4x2 MiB L3: 8 MiB
    desc: 1x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2687 min/max: 1400/4000 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 2687 2: 2687 3: 2687
    4: 2687 5: 2687 6: 2687 7: 2687 8: 2687 bogomips: 64322
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT disabled
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; STIBP:
    disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nouveau
    v: kernel non-free: 550/565.xx+ status: current (as of 2025-01;
    EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Pascal code: GP10x process: TSMC 16nm
    built: 2016-2021 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s ports: active: DP-2 empty: DP-1, DP-3, DVI-D-1, HDMI-A-1
    bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1b81 class-ID: 0300 temp: 50.0 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.14 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.4
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa
    dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: DP-2 model: HP 27o serial: <filter> built: 2019 res:
    mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 82 gamma: 1.2
    size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes:
    max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau x11:
    drv: nouveau inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.3 vendor: mesa v: 24.2.8-arch1.1 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NV134 device-ID: 10de:1b81 memory: 7.79 GiB
    unified: no
  API: Vulkan Message: No Vulkan data available.
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info
    x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia vendor: Gigabyte
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com.
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:10f0
    class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.11.11-1-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.7 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2400 Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte
    driver: alx v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000
    bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:e0a1 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, smbd, systemd-timesyncd
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) driver: btusb
    v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-2:2
    chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 4.0
    lmp-v: 6 status: discoverable: no pairing: no class-ID: 7c0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 937.11 GiB used: 257.98 GiB (27.5%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD7501AALS-00J7B0 size: 698.64 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s tech: N/A serial: <filter> fw-rev: 0K05
    scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Crucial model: CT256MX100SSD1
    size: 238.47 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: MU01 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 78.44 GiB size: 76.65 GiB (97.72%) used: 34.51 GiB (45.0%)
    fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb5 maj-min: 8:21
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 30.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 50.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0
Repos:
  Packages: 1535 pm: pacman pkgs: 1519 libs: 408 tools: pamac,yay pm: flatpak
    pkgs: 16
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://manjaro.mirror.garr.it/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://ct.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    3: https://ba.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.58 GiB used: 3.64 GiB (23.4%)
  Processes: 283 Power: uptime: 2d 15h 56m states: freeze,mem,disk
    suspend: deep avail: s2idle wakeups: 5 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown,
    reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 6.2 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
    power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Compilers: clang: 18.1.8 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 default: Bash
    v: 5.2.37 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.37

Mod note: Added code </> formatting.

Please write more details about how you did this

:footprints:

I used ‘Manjaro Settings Manager’

and went where it said ‘Nvidia driver’ installed, and I right-clicked and selected ‘Remove’
and then on ‘Video-Linux’, I right-clicked and selected ‘Reinstall’.

This may be unrelated (or part of the problem)

Your kernel is EOL since December 5, 2024

Please switch to a supported kernel (suggestion is 6.12 LTS) :footprints:

And please change the title of this thread from some random text to something that describes your problem, otherwise you may not get a response from anyone.

1 Like

Neither the grub boot loader nor anything in systemd responds to the F8 key during the boot process, but what I remember from what Windows users have told me, then it’s the hotkey to bring up the Windows boot loader screen, in order to be able to boot into “Windows Safe Mode” — whatever that is; I don’t use Windows.

The hotkey for bringing up the grub menu when the menu is set to hidden, is Esc.

2 Likes

Ah, okay, it’s esc…tnks
But what happens when I press F8?.. why does the system boot correctly when I press it?"

If this is a bare metal installation, then I’m guessing that the hardware — i.e. the UEFI firmware — intercepts that hotkey. If it’s a virtual machine installation on the other hand, then it’s probably being intercepted by the virtual machine monitor or hypervisor. :man_shrugging:

1 Like

Installed the new kernel, problem gone… thanks to both of you for your time!! :heart_hands:
I still have the doubt about why pressing the F8 key made the boot problem disappear.
I’ve changed the title of the post, so maybe it will be helpful to others

2 Likes

 

3 Likes

Ahh…ok…sorry… I’m new to the forum and I’m an old-school boomer :joy:

1 Like

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