Arch Troubleshooting
Upgrade to 5.10 Kernel Breaks Graphics Drivers
This applies to upgrades of installs prior to Dec 2020.
This will almost certainly apply if you use the nonfree Nvidia graphics drivers.
What Happens
When updating your system, you'll get a warning about Nvidia packages. If you ignore the warning and proceed, then the update will likely seem to work fine, with no issues.
However, as of rebooting, you'll be stuck at a black screen/terminal, with an error. The system will be unable to boot back into normal desktop.
The reason is that the 5.10 kernels were incompatible with how Nvidia drivers were previously done. So they need to be manually repaired to work again.
The Fix
Do the following, in order:
- First, use the software updater to search for and uninstall all packages that reference
nvidia. - Once all Nvidia-related packages are uninstalled, run a standard system update, using the software updater.
- When updates are complete, open a terminal and run the following to install current Nvidia packages:
sudo pacman -S mhwd sudo mhwd -a pci nonfree 0300 sudo pacman -S linux-latest linux-latest-nvidia sudo pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils xorg-server-devel opencl-nvidia
At this point, you should be good to restart your system. If the above did not fix the issue, then reference the links below for further troubleshooting.
References for Further Troubleshooting
Official Manjaro forum page for issue: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/stable-update-2020-12-30-kernels-kde-cinnamon-libreoffice-python-3-9-mesa-20-3-1/45364/2
Other links: