Librem 11 PopOS install issues

Hardware Librem 11
1

Hello,

I’m trying to install PopOS and on boot I get a loading bar on the top of a black screen and it just hangs there.

Could I get some help with getting the install media to properly boot?

Thank you

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2

If I had to wager a guess, it would be because the appropriate drivers are not available in the 22.04 LTS version of Pop!_OS. I am able to boot into a live USB session with Fedora 39. Perhaps when Pop!_OS 24.04 is available, that version will work. I tried Ubuntu 23.10 and while it took some time to boot, it did eventually load.

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It looks like Pop!_OS 22.04 has Linux 6.6, which has a regression preventing boot on Jasper Lake. I just submitted the patch for this yesterday: [PATCH] drm/i915: Do not match JSL in ehl_combo_pll_div_frac_wa_needed() - Jonathon Hall

Jani Nikula from Intel already reviewed it, and we’ve CC’d the stable list, so this should make its way to distributions eventually, but it takes some time to get all the way through.

In the meantime, it’s possible to boot in framebuffer mode by disabling the i915 module, so you can install. After install you should be able to install a 6.5 kernel and boot that until a fixed 6.6 kernel is available.

To boot in framebuffer mode from PureBoot:

  1. Go to a recovery shell (Press a key during boot to go to the menu > Options > Exit to recovery shell)
  2. Edit /tmp/config: vi /tmp/config
  3. Press i to enter insert mode
  4. Find export CONFIG_BOOT_KERNEL_ADD="" and change it to export CONFIG_BOOT_KERNEL_ADD="module_blacklist=i915"
  5. Save and exit vi: press Esc, then type :wq, press Enter.
  6. Run usb-autoboot.sh from the recovery shell

Then you should be able to install. It’ll be a bit slower on framebuffer graphics, and there will be a black screen for about 30 seconds as the desktop loads, please be patient.

After install, to boot 6.5 by default from PureBoot Basic (I did not test this part, please reply if you need more help):

  1. Install a 6.5 kernel: sudo apt install linux-image-6.5.0-25-generic linux-headers-6.5.0-25-generic
  2. Remove module_blacklist=i915 from the Linux command line in /etc/default/grub and run sudo update-grub
  3. In PureBoot, interrupt boot, go to Options > Configuration settings > Disable automatic default boot option (so you can boot 6.5 by default), confirm
  4. Still in the config menu, choose Save the current configuration and confirm, let it save and reboot
  5. Interrupt boot again, go to Options > Boot Options > Show OS boot menu, select the 6.5 kernel and make it your default

This should generally work for any OS that’s on 6.6+ but has a 6.5 or earlier kernel available.

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4

Thank you for your detailed reply and help.

I got stuck after step 6 after rebooting on a black screen. Where should I go from here?

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It took about 30 seconds to start showing the desktop in my test, so give it a minute or so to make sure it’s frozen (you probably already have, but just to make sure :slightly_smiling_face: )

Then I would try again and make sure the kernel command line in step 4 is exactly correct. It sounds like it still tried to load the i915 module, meaning the module blacklist didn’t work, which could be due to a typo in that step.

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6

Hello,

I tried it again and verified that I had typed everything correctly. After successful installation and on reboot I just get a black screen. I cannot install a different kernel because I cannot boot into the desktop. The only thing that is on screen on boot is a dotted line on the top of the screen that slowly goes from left to right. I left the tablet sit like this for over 30 minutes and nothing posted to the screen. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

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7

That,s too much and harder for a gnu baby user, could be a lot easy on a True Gnu Payload. :wink:

Whatever on a Lnx Payloads, try on black screen, pressing ALT + F8 to maybe get: Framebuffer

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This did not work for me.

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I was able to get around my original problem by booting the OS in recovery mode and then installed the appropriate driver. I then removed the blacklist from grub and updated. After that the default kernel was set to the 6.5 one. Unfortunately it still only booted a black screen like before. It does however boot into recovery graphics mode fine. How do I fix this?

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11

Wanted to chime in on this thread as I took advantage of a lazy rainy day to try upgrading my L11 from Debian 12 stable to Sid and found the same issue with the 6.7.9 kernel. Fortunately i’m still able to boot to the original 6.1 kernel but wanted to pass on the info in case others attempt to get as brazen as me. :slight_smile: I’ll continue to track Sid to see if this fix ever makes it into newer kernel updates.

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I’ll try downgrading the kernel to 6.1 like you and see if that allows me to run the tablet.

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13

Hope that works for you. Pureboot doesn’t seem to want to remember my Default Boot options, so word of caution that yours may continue to try to boot the new kernel even if you set it to Default. I may be spending my Sunday rebuilding because of that as I am also facing a hard lock pretty consistently with Sid, and I dislike having to grab the the keyboard to get it to boot the right kernel every time.

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