Greetings to the KaOS community,
I'm a user of this distro since one year (using it in addition of another 2 operative systems) and I've been experiencing an issue since 11 days ago, whenever i try to boot using the stable kernel it shows me a sequence of static images on the screen like this one (seems like if the screen of my computer doesn't have video signal or its working out of frequency) between the execution of the menu entry on grub and the login screen of the display manager (without going to advance to the last part).

Firstly I thought it was some issue when I applied the recent updates (from the day 13th of this month) with some modifications I had done when I've reinstalled kaos last month (using the image KaOS-2016.06-x86_64.iso) so I decided to backup the directories etc, home, root and var and proceeded to restore the system using a clonezilla image I've created after I did the fresh install with the packages updated for that moment.

Then I've tried again to apply the pending updates, but when I decided to reboot the system it shows me again the same sequence. Since then I been restoring the system many times trying to resolve it on my own and searching on the issue tracker of different repositories from the GitHub page of KaOS, on the forum and searching on the web using information from the log of September 14th in journalctl and even using the last available iso (but it shows me the same problem when I boot the live iso), only to end with no idea of the problem until I decided to install the package linux-next (currently 4.8RC7-1), trying to boot using this kernel and finally the problem disappeared.

So in the end I would appreciate to finally know if the problem is related with the kernel or with some other component, since i don't know if using the linux-next can occur problems with some programs (or maybe not 🙂 ), so I leave a few gist with info:

  • generated with octopi Sysinfo
  • Output log from the day it started the issue (in the morning and afternoon respectively)
  • And from today in the morning when I tried to boot using the stable kernel

If you see the same issue on the KaOS 2016.09 ISO then it certainly is an issue with your hardware/filesystem and the 4.7.3 kernel.
journalctl does show a major drm error though in your SysSinfo, there it shows that you run the 4.6.4 kernel, while the pacman log shows the last kernel installed is 4.7.3, so no idea how you did manage to run a different kernel then installed. This is the error showing in a few of the logs:

[drm:intel_enable_lvds [i915]] ERROR timed out waiting for panel to power on

Is it correct you use the BTRFS filesystem? How come the log shows a different kernel in inxi, then installed? When does the screen corruption occur? Before GRUB? After GRUB when the kernel starts loading? Or do you get the SDDM login screen and when ksplash should start you see this?

Linux-next is no issue to use, it rarely has any stability issues, plus it is always good to have the option to boot in 2 different kernels. If it is in fact linux 4.7.3 only that causes issues with your hardware, it would be good to figure what the exact error is. But if you still have 4.6.4 in your cache, better install that one and add "linux" to the ignore packages in /etc/pacman.conf
If you want to try and debug this more, then use the September ISO in Live mode to do so, not your stable installed system.

I forgot to say all but the log of this morning where dumped without applying the last updates (since the clonezilla image I've created was from 4 weeks ago), the last log was dumped after I restored, installed the linux-next package and updated the system. And the problem occur after the kernel start, in the lapse between loading the systemd units and when is supposed to show login screen.

About using the september iso, I think i can't debug in any form on the live system because of the newer kernel shipped on it, since I'm unable to enter in console-mode with ctrl-alt-f2 (another thing I've forgot to tell earlier), only possible to do that on the installed one.

The BTRFS filesystem belongs to an partition with openSUSE Leap installed, and I will try to install the old kernel and see if works fine as before

Already done the downgrade of the kernel and disappeared the issue 😃
Now I have the doubt if in future updates of some packages that depends on the 4.7 series will give me the same behaviour (like the graphic stack) for keeping retained the kernel package to 4.6.4 😥

You can enter in console with Live mode, it is adding a bit to the kernel line in syslinux . (At the start of live mode add 3 to the kernel line, that way it will start in console mode. Login with live/live.)

Nothing on your system depends on the kernel for graphics, that is just nvidia non-free. And if linux-next does not give you any issues, best to run that anyway.

    demm How can I do that?, since I added that value this morning on the live iso at the begin/end of the Boot Options and nothing happened, I've tried using several keyboard shortcuts hoping to see some output from syslinux (I'm not so used to know about tweaking bootloaders)

    Only I succeeded to get the console (adjusting the Video Mode to Text mode and Kernel in Safe Settings) but it doesn't show me any errors with journalctl.

      a month later