I just got through installing PureOS on my system via the live installer iso and I’ve run into a problem. While I was able to get a GUI on the installer, my fresh install refuses to launch GNOME or any sort of login prompt. I can scroll to tty2-4 and log in through the console, but tty1 is just a black screen with a blinking “_” in the upper left-hand corner.
The system I installed the OS on is an AMD computer with a newer Radeon graphics card, I think the RX 560. While booting I do briefly see an error message complaining about Radeon firmware missing, however, I don’t understand why it won’t show me a GUI now when it had no problem doing so on the live ISO. Clearly, PureOS can run on my system if I was able to use the live ISO with no issues, right?
I guess I’m at a loss. Any help with troubleshooting this issue would be greatly appreciated!
The “Pure” in PureOS refers, at least in part, to the fact that it is all FLOSS software. With your graphics card requiring proprietary drivers, they aren’t there. I would think that could cause problems with using X or Wayland… using that logic, I would think that you would have issues with the live ISO, too.
Since you didn’t, the only things I could take a jab at are:
Hey, thanks for the reply. Yea, I knew I was going to be installing an OS that is free of proprietary software. I was under the impression though that ATI cards could function using the mesa software stack. Also, seeing how the live install displayed the desktop fine, I thought I was in the clear. I’ve tried all three of your suggestions with, unfortunately, none of them working for me. I’m still left with the same screen upon boot.
I wish there was a way to figure out what drivers are being utilized to display the GUI on that live install, maybe then I could replicate it on the actual system.
Thank you again for the suggestion! Actually, I was able to get my system working. Not exactly the way I wanted, but it’ll be fine. I couldn’t help but think that maybe it had something to do with the radeon firmware, so I found an old Nvidia card and decided to install that and see if it’s friendlier with free software. Turns out, it was. I did a fresh install and everything seems to be working as it should. Maybe I never solved the mystery I was experiencing, but I was able to get a working system and that’s what matters.
Can you tell us which driver is in use now that it is working? e.g. use above lshw command
Maybe the nouveau driver?
It is indeed the nouveau driver. I don’t quite understand why NVIDIA has better support for non-proprietary software than ATI does considering how poor nouveau performs compared to Radeon, but alas, such seems to be the case. At least I don’t plan on doing anything graphically intensive on this machine.
HA ! well Linus Torvalds gave nVidia the middle finger some years ago on video ! and it’s better support for proprietary drivers not OSS. AMD radeon is by far the best OSS driver for 8-bit color out there (gaming performance is sometimes better on linux than on other OS)
