WTF is going on? LG 27GL850 causing Kernel Panic, Boot Failure and more!

Software & Operating Systems Linux
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Hello Linux Wizards,

I’m a fellow Linux user, who unfortunately can’t seem to install ANY Linux Distribution on his PC due to the Display, weirdly enough.

I’m going to try to explain my issue here and how I came to the conclusion that the LG display is somehow at fault here. Specs will be at the bottom.

I have two LG 27GL850-B displays connected via DP, while using Windows both of them work fine and show no defects what so ever.

However I found myself frustrated while trying install Fedora 33 to the system since it would loose DP signal during boot, Kernel panic or it would get stuck during boot, all sorts of errors really.
I thought it was a Fedora 33 issue but I had similar, if not the same issues with Pop_OS 20.04 & 20.10, which made be believe that the USB I used might be faulty but 2 USB’s later it was clear it’s not the USB.
I also re-downloaded every ISO and flashed it with DD, Etcher, Rufus on Windows and macOS, same issue.

At this point I realised it had to be a hardware issue, something connected is causing all of this because a few months back, Linux was booting just fine.

Started with peripherals, nothing. Reset the BIOS to the default settings, nothing. Removed all PCIE devices except the Boot drive and GPU, nothing. Disabled FreeSync on both displays, nothing.

Then I disconnected my main LG27GL850 display and all of a sudden Fedora 33 was able to boot into the Live environment.

I was thinking that the DP cable might be faulty and somehow Linux was more sensitive to that than Windows, but it was not the cable it’s definitely the display itself.
Okey, maybe Linux doesn’t like two LG27GL850’s at the same time? Nope, with just my main LG display connected, I can’t boot anything Linux. Now I pretty much have conformation that it’s my main LG display since my secondary LG works fine with Linux over DP.

Just out of curiosity I tried the main (defective?) display over HDMI and it works like it should, except I am now limited to 99.95Hz instead of 144Hz.

So I managed to narrow it down to the DP of the main LG display. Cool, finally I am getting somewhere “it might be a Firmware issue” I thought and proceeded to try a Firmware upgrade, except for… I can’t.

LG’s utility for Firmware upgrades tells me repeatedly that the Firmware is up to date. So I assumed the newest Firmware version somehow bricked “Linux support”.
Since the other identical LG display is working it had to run on older Firmware if the not working one is on the latest right? No… since I also tried upgrading the working LG display, OSC (LG’s utility) told me it was also up to date, except it clearly showed me different firmware versions!

Now I am stuck, not able to upgrade Firmware and not knowing if the displays are actually up to date or not and why the hell one of the identical displays prevents me from installing anything Linux related.

Also in Windows the one who doesn’t like Linux is being recognised differently (LG ULTRAGEAR), they are identical displays and they are manufactured 1 month apart from each other!

DifferentName
DifferentName960×711 44.3 KB

Boot Error example #1

DSC01965
DSC019656000×4000 5.74 MB

Froze at this step, completely unresponsive

DSC01968
DSC019686000×4000 6.03 MB

Boot Error example #2

DSC01970
DSC019706000×4000 5.75 MB

Suddenly switching to the side display

DSC01972
DSC019724000×6000 5.7 MB

Main display loosing connection

DSC01974
DSC019746000×4000 5.31 MB

Fedora actually booting but totally broken

DSC01976
DSC019764000×6000 5.27 MB

Here is the Firmware version of the display which prevents me using Linux

NotWorking
NotWorking844×572 52.9 KB

Here is the Firmware version of the one who works with Linux, both apparently up to date?

Working
Working844×572 53.1 KB

The Specifications of the system I am having this issue with are:

  • Gigabyte X570 Master BIOS version F30

  • Ryzen 3900x

  • 32 GB Dominator Platinum

  • MSI RTX 2080 TI

2

Have had issues with two displays even on windows with things not working correctly. If you install with only 1 display connected then add the 2nd does it then allow it to boot after that? or are you just trying to use linux live boot?

3

On Windows there are no issues at all, installing Linux only with the working display also bricks as soon as I connect the main display to it

5

So after install and full patch / display drivers? What GPU

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Specs are:

Gigabyte X570 Master BIOS F30
CPU 3900x
RAM 32GB Dominator Platinum
GPU MSI RTX 2080 Ti

I am going to finish the main post up, since only 2 images can be imbedded by new users I have to edit a lot, sorry

7

Bumped your trust level

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Thank you, should I delete all answers and include all images in the main Post?

1 Like
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up to you, your thread I probably would put it all in the top one as easier to get a better picture in on post then across many

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Okey, I am cleaning it up but I got timed out because I performed too many actions. Thanks again

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Is there particular reason you’re not updated to F31j ?
Just anecdotal, but I’ve read that updating microcode fixed monitor issues.

Try something with newer kernel or systemV instead od systemd? like MX or Manjaro?

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As far as I understood BIOS versions with letters at the end are not final, that’s why I tried to avoid including even more variables but the update to F30j actually fixed the crashing. Seems like Gigabyte broke something in the F30 version.

I can now boot into Linux with both displays connected however the main display still refuses any display signal from Linux, gets constantly connected and disconnected with a black screen.

I am going to try Pop_OS now to confirm

Edit: Same issue in Pop_OS

Thanks so far!

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Okey, with BIOS F31j and Pop_OS with Nvidia Drivers preinstalled I am able to get signal on both displays.

So LG really updated the 27GL850 and something in that update is breaking noveau

I am going to call LG support and ask about this, if that’s true I’m getting a refund.

17

Nouveau has been super touchy with high resolutions, crashing Xorg itself, and completely throwing Kernel Panics on my 4K monitor. Nouveau is just trash. With grub, you should boot with nomodeset on Nvidia GPUs before installing the proprietary driver.

Nouveau being garbage is mostly to blame here, not your monitor. However if you wish to use multi-monitor, you might want to get a 6800 XT instead because at least AMD works properly with Wayland. Nvidia will always try to “special snowflake” Xwayland using EGLStreams, which has pretty much pissed everyone off.

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It’s not just noveau, I have 2x LG 27GL850’s and the older batch works fine. It’s just the newer batch, that gets recognized as “LG ULTRAGEAR” that gives me headaches. I haven’t gotten around to calling support yet but I will update this thread once I have.

1 Like
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I found an interesting reddit thread about a similar issue. The solution suggested that low quality DisplayPort cables often violate the specifications by having the DP_PWR pin be passthrough, and so the monitor and the computer try to power each-others ports. The solution he suggested was to apply a small amount of tape over the pin on one end:

cover-uncover-pin
cover-uncover-pin640×654 165 KB

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It’s not that, it’s definitely something with the new firmware the new batch of LG monitors ship

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UPDATE

For everyone stumbling on this thread, I talked to LG support and they were absolutely useless.

I returned all of my LG Monitors and went with the Samsung Odyssey G9, which exhibited similar behaviour but setting DP to 1.2 fixes the blackscreen issue enabling you to install Nvidia drivers upon which you can use DP 1.4.

The new LG 27GL850 is just not compatible with Linux, so I would advise against buying LG Monitors if you want to use them with Linux. Even setting the DP to 1.2 in the Monitor menu didn’t work.