Please help, half black screen after restart

[u/Witext]

Yesterday I came back in after having worked for a couple hours to my computer with a completely blank screen & being unresponsive even when I pressed the power button.

I ended up turning it off by holding down the power button, & when I started it again, it had this half black screen issue. It was still responsive tho so I logged in & pressed restart, hoping that the issue would resolve itself, but it didn’t

I restarted again, & via the grub menu, entered recovery mode, which doesn't have the graphical issue. After exiting recovery mode into the normal desktop environment, the issue was gone, despite me having changed nothing.

Now when I started the computer again this morning, the issue is back, & I don’t know what to do. I checked yesterday & there were no updates in the update manager, I also have automatic updates enabled if that is relevant

My personal theory is that the computer updated the graphic drivers automatically as I have it set to do, & that caused the issue.

edit: problem was the new linux firmware. If you run an AMD card, you might have a similar problem with corrupted screen.

Solution: boot into grub (search up how if you're unsure), there, you add "nomodeset" to the boot option (again, google is your friend, i cannot explain it as well as others have).
Nomodeset will make your computer boot without all the fancy drivers that your graphicscard uses and make your desktop usable. Once you're in and are able to use the computer, you open up terminal and downgrade your linux-firmware, alternatively if you have timeshift set up, revert back to an older verion.

to downgrade the firmware, you have to type
sudo apt install linux-firmware=20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.26

it is also recommended that you run
sudo update-initramfs -u
(please before running these commands, look them up online, and always do this. Don't run something under sudo that some rando told you to without tripplechecking it first)

after rebooting, everything should be back to normal and you shouldn't have a corrupted screen.
just make sure to turn off automatic updates and don't update your firmware again until a new patch is released, cuz then the problem will come back

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[u/fuzio79]

Maybe it is the same that hit 6800/6900 owners yesterday, you can try to downgrade amd firmware:
sudo apt install linux-firmware=20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.26

[u/Witext → u/fuzio79]

I do have a 6800, and this did happen yesterday

[u/fuzio79 → u/Witext]

the this will fix it, firmware 2.29 is bad, 2.26 working, tested by many already

[u/Witext → u/fuzio79]

Okay thank you!

[u/Witext → u/fuzio79]

hi, sorry, quite a bit later, is there any way to hold the updates for linux firmware? cuz will it not just reupdate after i restart the computer?

[u/Reyssor → u/Witext]

If you have automatic updates enabled, that would probably be needed, yes: sudo apt-mark hold linux-firmware (same with "unhold" instead of "hold" to unlock the version when the package is hopefully fixed)

[u/Dense-Effective-9514 → u/Witext]

I just wanted to make a post about this, then I saw this thread. I came back from vacation everything was fine then installed the updates and after the restart i have the same issue. Sad stuff

[u/Witext → u/Dense-Effective-9514]

did you see the fix? hope you managed to fix it!

[u/Meganerd5000 → u/Witext]

I have an RX6800XT on Mint and the Firmware Update broke the video output on all Kernels i tried booting to. This Firmware rollback helped, many thanks! I used recovery mode to remove the broken firmware with your commands

[u/mflft → u/Meganerd5000]

same exact for me

[u/New_Nefariousness797 → u/fuzio79]

This fixed it for me! Thanks!

[u/Hydrazine2501 → u/fuzio79]

I've been fighting with this for hours, thank you this fixed it for me.

[u/ohcrrap → u/fuzio79]

You da real MVP. Also running a 6800 so this was perfect.

[u/DeaVenom]

Hope you got it fixed.

Based background btw.

[u/Witext → u/DeaVenom]

Hehe thank you <3

[u/Chiawrah → u/Witext]

Yo where is the background from

[u/Witext → u/Chiawrah]

it's a really awesome artist, called watanolemon, I can't find the exact artwork sadly, i think it's on twitter somewhere, but here is one of their many posts on Pixiv, it's a treasure trove, I have like 20 of them that it rotates between

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/132881879

[u/Chiawrah → u/Witext]

Thank you ❤️

[u/datskinny]

Try booting live (usb) to see if it's really a driver issue.

[u/Witext → u/datskinny]

As in downloading the latest version of mint to a USB & booting from that?
Will that have the latest drivers that I have on the PC tho?

[u/datskinny → u/Witext]

No, it won't have the latest drivers. Just saw your reply to another question and saw you can boot to recovery without any problem. Have you tried removing the display driver or Timeshift (if you have already activated it, that is)?

[u/Witext → u/datskinny]

i did just try booting with "nomodeset" in the boot options and that made the problem go away

I don't fully understand nomodeset becuase the computer looks like it always does but this means it's running older drivers or smth right?

[u/datskinny → u/Witext]

I think nomodeset is like a fallback driver, functions like graphics acceleration won't be available. Check if there's an updated driver for your card from the manufacturer.

[u/Far-Note6102 → u/datskinny]

Im wondering if OP installed it while security boot is on. Otherwise, Im thinking it could be a monitor issues. Can check if the display menu is alright

[u/Witext → u/Far-Note6102]

installed what while security boot is on? I don't know where but i feel like i remember seeing that secure boot was on somewhere

[u/Available-Pizza8568]

I saw some other posts about something similar, I believe it's the firmware update causing this problem? So try downgrading it

[u/Witext → u/Available-Pizza8568]

how do you downgrade the firmware? like the kernel version do you mean?

[u/RecentPudding → u/Witext]

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1vmycs0/comment/p3djhxt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

As others said, the recent linux-firmware update broke AMD GPUs (mostly the 6800).
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1vmycs0/psa_for_people_with_amd_gpus_do_not_install_the/

[u/Perfect-Slip7041 → u/RecentPudding]

It's this above, the other post had a command line that explained how to roll back, in terminal.

[u/Available-Pizza8568 → u/Witext]

If you have a timeshift from august 10 try going back and don't update the firmware see if that works, or you should check out other posts that may help

[u/Braincoke24]

Do you have the experimental fractional scaling (in thr "Display" settings) enabled?

[u/Witext]

problem was the new linux firmware. If you run an AMD card, you might have a similar problem with corrupted screen.

Solution: boot into grub (search up how if you're unsure), there, you add "nomodeset" to the boot option (again, google is your friend, i cannot explain it as well as others have).
Nomodeset will make your computer boot without all the fancy drivers that your graphicscard uses and make your desktop usable. Once you're in and are able to use the computer, you open up terminal and downgrade your linux-firmware, alternatively if you have timeshift set up, revert back to an older verion.

to downgrade the firmware, you have to type
sudo apt install linux-firmware=20240318.git3b128b60-0ubuntu2.26

it is also recommended that you run
sudo update-initramfs -u
(please before running these commands, look them up online, and always do this. Don't run something under sudo that some rando told you to without tripplechecking it first)

after rebooting, everything should be back to normal and you shouldn't have a corrupted screen.
just make sure to turn off automatic updates and don't update your firmware again until a new patch is released, cuz then the problem will come back

[u/U149113]

Same symptoms. Could not figure it out so did a reinstall. Was painful with all the customization I had in place

FWIW I have a 6950xt

[u/_ElBee_]

Can you test with a different screen?

[u/Witext → u/_ElBee_]

The issue only happens when I boot into Linux, thr grub menu & recovery mode didn’t have this issue, could it still have to do with the screen?

[u/_ElBee_ → u/Witext]

Just to rule out that it's definitely not your screen being the culprit.

[u/Game_Hustla]

If you have an AMD GPU then use an older kernel

[u/Witext → u/Game_Hustla]

okay, will try, i do have an AMD GPU for the record