How to add "nouveau.modeset=0" to boot settings in Qubes 4.x? (ASUS ROG GL552VW-DM141 laptop)
@LeeteqXV (Twitter & Mastodon.technology)
Hi all. I initially thought to save some time and cleared a reply to an existing thread to do a new post, but that did not work. Sorry about the wrong post. Reposting it here now. Thanks for the reply and pointing it out, Yuraeitha.
See my reply + follow-up question at the bottom, below the quoted
posts:
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My original post, incl. a reply by "Yuraeitha" below..:
********************
"I am considering Qubes 4.x for an ASUS ROG GL552VW-DM141 laptop
with NVIDIA graphics and built-in/onboard "fallback" Intel
graphics.
In order to get for example Ubuntu Mate installed onto it, to get
past the installer incompatibilities with NVidia, it is necessary
to edit the boot menu and add "nouveau.modeset=0" to the startup
command. Then Ubuntu boots fine.
Can this be done with Qubes 4.x?
How/where to affect such boot commands; can that be done from the
boot media/USB stick directly, as we do with other Linux live USB
sticks?
Thanks,
"
-- https://mastodon.technology/@LeeteqXV/ ################################### Reply from "Yuraeitha" on Feb. 19th..:
"@LeeteqXV
It's probably best you start a new thread, this thread is
about a whole different issue altogether.
But since this is an old thread, I'll briefly answer
you.
This what you seek, directing a GPU directly into an
AppVM, or any other work arounds, can currently be done in
Qubes 3.2. nor Qubes 4.0.
However, it is planned for Qubes 4.1, which may reach release. Just don't get hyped yet, things can change, 4.0. is barely finished and 4.1. is currently only on the drawing board. Look here for quick information about 4.1. https://github.com/rootkovska/qubes-roadmap you can see the GTX passthrough ability on the map.
Also, you don't really need Ubuntu for these kind of things, it can easily be fixed up in both Debian and Fedora. You can use Intel graphics just fine for 4k videos, you don't need nvidia for stuff like that on modern motherboard/CPU systems. You may need powerful graphic cards for gaming and high end graphics, but this too isn't possible, at least before Qubes 4.1. anyway. If you didn't need these in Qubes 4, then it will likely make no difference to you to use Intel graphics. Also Qubes dom0 frequently has nvidia graphic issues and may require a full properitary driver download/install, with a manual install.
To get a bit back on-topic, it saves you whole lot of hassle if you get adjusted to not be depending too much on Ubuntu and others that give everything on a silverplate. Although DVM protected content is never stable regardless of the Linux distribution, unless you download the Google Chrome browser from Google (Not Chromium), which usually always have working DVM videos in any Linux. Issue being, that Firefox and others, often loose the ability to play the video, especially Microsoft silverlight videos, which the work-arounds frequently break.
Essentially you can play the codecs fine, HTML5 is for example extremely easy to install in Fedora through enabling the RPMFusion repositories, which can easily be done in Qubes fedora template (best make a copy first). But it does not include HTML5-DVM.
Essentially, DVM is so messed up, you ma/y just want to download the Google Browser specifically for these videos, and just be done with the crapware copyright protectors throw at us. It's not like they care about Linux anyway, so why would changing to Ubuntu make any difference? Ubuntu is just as unstable in this regard of protected content due to lack of developer support of protected contents.
However, Fedora+Firefox+RPMFusionRepositories+ffmpeg+Firefox's own DVM = Netflix and all HTML5 videos on youtube, and similar modern websites, works smoothly without issues.
Try not to get too dependent on a system, really it makes little difference if you adjust yourself to it.
Also install Qubes with LegacyBIOS/Grub and press the E
key during the Grub menu, then add after or before "quiet"
on the module code-line. Or just temporarily disable
nvidia in your UEFI, works too, more or less does the same
as nouveau.modeset=0."'
###########################################
The final part of Yuraeitha's answer is relevant for my case as it is about installing Qubes itself, not inside a VM..:
Also install Qubes with LegacyBIOS/Grub and press the E key during the Grub menu, then add after or before "quiet" on the module code-line. Or just temporarily disable nvidia in your UEFI, works too, more or less does the same as nouveau.modeset=0."
So; 1. That (ASUS ROG GL552VW-DM141 laptop) AMI BIOS does not have any function to disable NVIDIA for UEFI (or anything about disabling graphics at all), as far as I can see.
2. I add the modeset to the startup, then get to the actual startup GUI first page, but then cannot proceed. I manage to restart the installer in TEXT mode, which actually lets me install the whole thing. The installer does finish, and I reboot.
After rebooting post-text-install, roughly "5" screenfulls of startup messages flashes past the screen (with green OK on all but 1 which passes too quickly to see what it is about), and then it stops after 28 messages related to "audit: type=1130" / "audit: type=1131" .
IN CASE i have a USB HP mouse attached , it starts connecting and disconnecting that device "indefinetely".
If I do NOT connect that mouse, it just stops after those ~28 audit messages. The first 3 of those 28 lines states "fails", and most of the rest of them seems to be "success".
(The first 3 are "unit=qubes-memman", "unit=qubesd
comm="systemd"" and "unit=qubes-core comm="systemd"". The
25 lines after those first 3 are success/failures all
related to systemd (differetnt from, number 3, they read
"unit=qubesd comm="systemd")), and they are all of type
1130 or 1131.) It looks like it is the output of a log
file, those 28 lines. All happening within the startup of
the x.org x.server.
Since the Qubes Grub entry is so different from the other
entries, it lacks "quiet splash" etc., I have no idea
where or how (or if) to put the "nouveau.modeset=0" into
it somewhere. I have tried a couple of variants, but no
luck. (I boot several other Linuxes successfully by adding
that nouveau Grub argument manually. If I do not, none of
them boots.)
Any tips highly appreciated.
Regards,
Leeteq
Yuraeitha
The screen stays the same, except now the boot parameters appear at the bottom of the screen. Try use keyboard errors to identify where the keystrokes will appear, it's at the end of the text. Move it back to the far end of the command string, and press the "space" key to add a space, and then put your nouveau.modeset=0 there. It should essentially allow you to install in graphic mode by using your Intel graphics instead of the nvidia graphics. Just like on your Ubuntu.
Once installed, you probably need to do it again for the installed operation system, but this time grub will look like normal, with "e" key to change the values. You should know what to do from here on out. Ask again if you face problems with this.
Also remember to make it permanent, you're familiar with updating grub settings permanently? But first things first, gotta get a successful install through first.
@LeeteqXV
At first glance they looked different,
and what I tried did not work atm.
I think I must have made a mistake.
Now that I tried again, it worked, and another
differenxe occurred too:
The first time I got as far as to install
via the text installer, only the first GUI page
with the language selection showed up, then
it could not proceed with "continue",
but shifted to text install interface instead.
Now, the second attempt with exactly the same
iso/version and hw, I suddenly got to use
the gui installer perfectly, no errors.
Very strange.
It is now successfully installed.
I have installed Qubes many times, no clue
what triggered the text installer which then
subsequently failed.
A note, though:
I was not given the same manual partition
selection options in the text installer.
Was very different and confusing.
Shouldnt it fir example let me see the list
of the partitions, choose/manage/select
"fdisk-style" etc.?
Thanks for the assistance.
Yuraeitha
Maybe make a direct disc clone backup, just in case you have to re-install Qubes 4 in the future for another reason, as to avoid this issue again.
It should indeed allow you to change partitions, it's odd that you didn't get that chance. I've encountered similar issues in the past in other Linux installations. For example there was this one time when it just skipped a couple of configuration steps and went ahead and installed without confirmation. This wasn't the Qubes installer though, but it shares the same installer bed "fedora" as Qubes does. Simply put, the fedora installer acts a bit strange and at times very badly. I'm also a bit concerned about this. It's not a Qubes issue, but an upstream fedora issue. Hopefully they can get that fixed so we can reliably install Linux.....
It does sound very odd that it's so random in its behavior. The Qubes code may not always detect the hardware, especially if the firmware (UEFI/BIOS, etc.) is buggy, and there is not always an update available to fix it either. It could be the UEFI/BIOS behaved a little different, resulting in the Qubes code responding differently. The question is what triggered it though, or how it could happen in the first place. It's way out of my league to try analysis something as advanced as that, I can only gist at it and speculate.
It could also be a bug/glitch in the Fedora installer in combination with UEFI/BIOS bugs/glitches, fedora which the Qubes installer is based on. You could try make a search on your motherboard model name and Linux in the search engines, and see what is being discussed about your motherboard and Linux's in general. There may be issues regarding your motherboard or its firmware, and there are many more Linux users on different types of hardware than there are Qubes users, but larger parts of Qubes is based on Linux right. It could be useful and insightful to find out what others say about your motherboard, if nothing else to avoid future issues with it.