Tried messing with drivers, now can't start X server

[JS0007]

I am forced to alt+f2 to get to the shell after pacman locked up during a driver reinstall and I was forced to restart. I tried removing the drivers, reinstalling them, tried different versions, tried resetting the x configuration file, tried so many things to the point where I can’t even remember what I’ve tried. It doesn’t help that I have extremely limited knowledge when it comes to the X server and Nvidia on Linux which makes it difficult for me to even know where to begin debugging this. Any help on guiding me where to begin diagnosing and fixing this is appreciated.

[Mirdarthos]

Hi @JS0007,

To begin, you’d have to CTRL+ALT+F2 to a TTY and check, or get, the logs:

sudo journalctl -b -1

If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to boot from installation media and chroot into your system. From there, you’ll have to inspect the logs with the above command, and provide it in this thread. In fact, that might be better, because from the live ISO environment, you can also provide proper information to help you better.

[JS0007]

I have the logs here, this appears to be where rhe error occurred

[Hanzel]

Could you elaborate on how you reinstalled the drivers, have you used the cli or gui?
eg what does
mhwd output? That would give an idea on what is installed, for nvidia you need video-nvidia installed for nvidia supported cards.

See the mhwd --help for options to remove and install
Documentation for installing graphics cards

Hard to read the log

There is a mention of fb this is probably not correct, but I hope a more knowledgeable user will confirm.

edit: the type of card would be usefull for troubleshooting, depending on the type the install differs between the nvidia supported drivers and the not supported drivers.

[cscs]

This can be helpful to you

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[JS0007]

I have a 1070 Ti, I reinstalled them by using pacman/pamac (not the installer on the nvidia site)

I was able to fix it by running sudo mhwd -r video-nvidia after identifying my driver installed via mhwd -li and then reinstalling the drivers by running sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300. It seems to be working properly now, hopefully I didn’t jinx it there

[cscs]

@JS0007

hopefully I didn’t jinx it there

Given your anecdotes it sounds like you either A)have an older nvidia card not supported by the latest [always defaulted to blasse “nvidia”], or B)have a dual-gpu setup with a little intel plus an nvidia gpu and thus couldnt boot with just the secondary driver. Either of which is fixed by the automation provided by mhwd. So, no worries, it should not be jinxed unless you go and knock it over again.

edit … 1070ti … so probably not A.
You can check with something like

xrandr --listproviders

[JS0007]

It couldn’t be option B either since this system has a non-G Ryzen processor

[cscs]

Those are becoming more common nowadays.
Maybe I should stop assuming its the old optimus problems.

If you care to show your inxi as in one of the above links we would actually know your hardware and not guess