Plymouth theme breaks boot to black screen

[zeknoss]

Hello everyone,
My system received update notifications and I repeatedly tried to receive them with no avail.

The update completes, I reboot my system and grub boots into linux-zen kernel.
The loading screen right before the login screen appears and then the system starts waiting / retrying.

The small progress bar advanced just a little bit, then the screen goes black (it's still on, but nothing is visible). I can only revert back to a snapshot to make the system operational again.

Any help is appreciated.

Kind regards

---

Here's the output for garuda-inxi:

System:
Kernel: 5.19.11-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=0b0ccf7c-2ae1-4253-866e-aa7335167ed0 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet quiet splash rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0
resume=UUID=b401ef11-11ad-4502-8196-a5d3f922e4ce loglevel=3
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.25.5 tk: Qt v: 5.15.6 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1
dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: X300M-STX serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: P1.60 date: 04/29/2021
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Craft Advanced Keyboard
serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
status: discharging
Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech G604 Wireless Gaming Mouse
serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
status: discharging
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G with Radeon Graphics bits: 64
type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2 gen: 3 level: v3 built: 2020-22 process: TSMC n7
(7nm) family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x60 (96) stepping: 1
microcode: 0x8600106
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 384 KiB desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 6x512 KiB
L3: 8 MiB desc: 2x4 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 3556 high: 4284 min/max: 1400/4307 boost: enabled
scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: performance cores: 1: 3460 2: 3700
3: 3700 4: 2859 5: 3700 6: 4262 7: 3285 8: 3147 9: 3700 10: 3700 11: 4284
12: 2884 bogomips: 88628
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities:
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: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT enabled with STIBP
protection
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:
always-on, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Renoir driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5.1 code: Vega-2
process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2018-21 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s ports: active: DP-1 empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1
bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:1636 class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 677x381mm (26.65x15.00")
s-diag: 777mm (30.58")
Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DisplayPort-0 model: Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD
serial: <filter> built: 2019 res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 107 gamma: 1.2
size: 609x355mm (23.98x13.98") diag: 705mm (27.8") ratio: 15:9 modes:
max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
OpenGL: renderer: AMD RENOIR (LLVM 14.0.6 DRM 3.47 5.19.11-zen1-1-zen)
v: 4.6 Mesa 22.1.7 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 3-1.1:4 pcie: chip-ID: 0d8c:01c2 gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
class-ID: 0300 lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 04:00.1
chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: ASRock
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 04:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
class-ID: 0403
Device-3: C-Media USB Advanced Audio Device type: USB
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.19.11-zen1-1-zen running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.58 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
vendor: ASRock driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: br-0ca90fe015be state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-2: br-709df83858de state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
mac: <filter>
IF-ID-3: br-77569aea319c state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-4: br-8ee6606c2530 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-5: br-91b816c559f6 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-6: br-c8d79df13909 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
mac: <filter>
IF-ID-7: br-ee99a481b2fa state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-8: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-9: veth1c53142 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
mac: <filter>
IF-ID-10: vethe76d5c1 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
mac: <filter>
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.56 TiB used: 709.44 GiB (44.3%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Seagate model: FireCuda 510 SSD
ZP1000GM30031 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: STPSC014
temp: 31.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 maj-min: 259:3 vendor: Corsair model: Force MP300
size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
speed: 15.8 Gb/s lanes: 2 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: E8FM12.0
temp: 35.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDA480G
size: 447.13 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 70RL scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 207.82 GiB size: 207.82 GiB (100.00%) used: 115.68 GiB
(55.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:5
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 592 KiB
(0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme1n1p1 maj-min: 259:4
ID-3: /home raw-size: 207.82 GiB size: 207.82 GiB (100.00%) used: 115.68
GiB (55.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:5
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 207.82 GiB size: 207.82 GiB (100.00%) used: 115.68
GiB (55.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:5
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 207.82 GiB size: 207.82 GiB (100.00%) used: 115.68
GiB (55.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme1n1p2 maj-min: 259:5
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 13.53 GiB used: 1.8 MiB (0.0%)
priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 14.96 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme1n1p3 maj-min: 259:6
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 36.6 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 32.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 303 Uptime: 5m wakeups: 4 Memory: 13.53 GiB used: 3.81 GiB
(28.2%) Init: systemd v: 251 default: graphical tool: systemctl
Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 clang: 14.0.6 Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1988
libs: 534 tools: octopi,paru Shell: fish v: 3.5.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.16
running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.21
Garuda (2.6.7-1):
System install date:     2022-04-02
Last full system update: 2022-09-28
Is partially upgraded:   Yes
Relevant software:       NetworkManager
Windows dual boot:       Probably (Run as root to verify)
Snapshots:               Snapper
Failed units:            bluetooth-autoconnect.service

[BluishHumility]

Hi @zeknoss, welcome to the community. This resource is a great place to start for this kind of issue:

Computer doesn’t boot, boots to a black screen, or stops at a message

While there are many potential reasons why your installation doesn’t boot to a desktop, the primary reason is that the graphics drivers haven’t loaded correctly so your login/display manager (DM) doesn’t start. This is why you get a “black screen” or stuck at an [ OK ] Started some service message. The normal reason for this is that you have the incorrect driver version for the kernel. This can happens when the mirror you are updating from is not fully synchronised, or times out, and so y…

Update the thread with your notes as you work through the suggestions so we can take a look if you get stumped.

[zeknoss]

Hello again,
First of all let me thank you for pointing me in the right direction. The link helped me a lot.

It turns out, the issue lied with a Plymouth theme I applied a few months ago. There must be some sort of compatibility with the latest update.

How I resolved the issue can be summarized as follows for those who may suffer the same thing as well:

1. I waited in the Plymouth screen until display turns black. This means it finally dropped retries and my keyboard commands will work
2. Pressed CTRL+ALT+F2 for tty login
3. Logged into my user
4. Typed startx and was finally able to see my DE again
5. Opened up the Garuda Boot Options and changed the theme to something else (I chose spinner)

Now everything is back to normal.

Hope it helps someone