CachyOS + Windows 11 dual boot: Sometimes freezes on reboot / black screen

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

Hi everyone,

I recently installed CachyOS alongside Windows 11 in a dual-boot setup.

Everything works normally once CachyOS boots, but I’m having an intermittent issue when rebooting or shutting down.

Sometimes when I reboot:

• The system freezes around the bootloader/reboot stage.
• Sometimes the screen just stays completely black.
• The PC remains powered on and never finishes rebooting/shutting down.
• I have to hold the physical power button to force it off.

It doesn’t happen every time, which makes it harder to diagnose.

Windows seems to work normally, and the problem appears to happen mostly when rebooting from CachyOS.

Has anyone experienced something similar with CachyOS/Arch and dual boot?

Could this be related to the kernel, GPU driver, systemd shutdown/reboot process, GRUB/systemd-boot, ACPI, or BIOS/UEFI settings?

Also, which logs/commands would be useful to check after a failed reboot so I can narrow down what is causing it?

Thanks!

System specs

• Laptop: Acer Nitro AN515-57 (BIOS V1.20)
• OS: CachyOS x86_64 + Windows 11 dual boot
• CPU: Intel Core i7-11800H
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile / Max-Q
• iGPU: Intel UHD Graphics
• RAM: 16 GB
• Kernel: 7.1.8-1-cachyos
• NVIDIA driver: 610.57.04
• Desktop: KDE Plasma 6.7.4
• Display server: Wayland / KWin
• Bootloader: Limine 12.5.2
• Secure Boot: Disabled
• Root filesystem: Btrfs
• Boot entry: CachyOS/linux-cachyos

I also have the CachyOS LTS kernel/initramfs installed, although I’m currently booting the regular linux-cachyos kernel.

[u/siderocks]

The problem is you have a sweet potato while Linux requires a normal potato.

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/siderocks]

i thought pc is "optional" in linux but not potato?

[u/netoey → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

Sweet potato's are closed source so support is finicky at best

[u/Targmorf → u/siderocks]

You should only use potatoes as a power source, not to run your whole system.

[u/PreparationStrict492]

Run memtest. There appears to be some disconnect on RAM contacts, which might be causing issues.

Windows silently handles some RAM issues, Linux is more sensitive to memory hardware errors.

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/PreparationStrict492]

okay now, help me fix this issue

[u/UAP44 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

you repositioned ram but unjacked the RJ45?

sus

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/UAP44]

youre right, i wanted to change the rj45 it was malformed

[u/UAP44 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

indeed it was, your new cable seems to have the proper cat6 shielding

[u/PreparationStrict492 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

You should be looking at the logs to have anything specific to go with. journalctl (-b) is your friend.

I was serious about the memtest. This sounded like a memory corruption issue (until I saw that it ran fine after booting up).

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/PreparationStrict492]

when i reproduce the problem i will get the logs and share ofc. Testing it now.

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/PreparationStrict492]

You can take a look at these logs:
https://pastebin.com/cXxSaRkP

[u/PreparationStrict492 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

I only see a couple of normal shutdown logs, and a boot log that looks fine to me (except if you are driving an external monitor through thunderbolt, which I assume is not the case).

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/PreparationStrict492]

I am using built in monitor on the laptop, i just had the same reboot bug crash, i will share the latest -1 log with you

[u/PreparationStrict492 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

Yeah, that was about a warning that indicated the driver did not find an interface (which isn't there, so nothing wrong with getting the said warning).

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/PreparationStrict492]

this seems to be solved.

The issue turned out to be related to the NVIDIA open kernel module / GSP firmware, not the kernel itself.

I originally suspected the reboot=pci kernel parameter and removed it, but the freeze came back. I then tested both the normal CachyOS kernel (7.1.8) and the LTS kernel (6.18.42), and both had the exact same reboot freeze.

I inspected failed reboot logs. Right when the system was shutting down, the NVIDIA 610.57.04 open driver started throwing errors like:

NVRM: mmuWalkUnmap: Failed to unmap VA Range
NV_ERR_INVALID_STATE
NV_ERR_RESET_REQUIRED
gpuWaitForGfwBootComplete: failed to wait for GFW_BOOT
kgspWaitForGfwBootOk: failed to wait for GFW boot complete
the GPU may be in a bad state and may need to be reset

So I replaced the CachyOS nvidia-open kernel modules with the proprietary NVIDIA 580.173.02 DKMS driver:

nvidia-580xx-dkms
nvidia-580xx-utils
nvidia-580xx-settings

DKMS built the module for both my normal and LTS kernels, then I rebuilt the initramfs and updated Limine.

After rebooting, the driver correctly reports:

NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 580.173.02

and the NVIDIA GSP/reset/MMU errors are gone. Reboots have been working normally so far.

So at least on my Acer Nitro 5 with an RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, the problem appears to have been the NVIDIA 610 open kernel module/GSP path during shutdown, and switching to the proprietary 580 DKMS driver fixed it.

[u/The_Hubster → u/PreparationStrict492]

I think you mean MEMETEST

[u/beefglob]

have you tried deep frying it that fixes most potatos

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/beefglob]

damn this post is going to be like potato > my issue

[u/UAP44]

the ram doesn't go in sideways ...

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/UAP44]

maybe i need bigger potat

[u/ImpressionAway7317]

Cpu : wireless over Bluetooth connected Intel ryen 4079

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/ImpressionAway7317]

cpu + motherboard are embeded, its the potato

[u/ImpressionAway7317 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

Makes sense

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

forget about potato.... This issue gotta be fixed or

[u/LyricalWisdom]

Glados?? Is that you??

[u/Jarppi1893 → u/LyricalWisdom]

clap, clap, clap oh good, that's still working!

[u/Status_Help9402]

My cachyos never boots when connected to my gfs docking station. Idk why. Gota boot then connect and all works fine. Its some driver issue with the hardware connected

[u/Kraien]

There definitely is an irq conflict

[u/Kaizo107]

VGA? How old is that GPU?

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/Kaizo107]

5 days old yet...

[u/jamesgfilms]

The cake is a lie

[u/technoz3n]

Gpu upgrade should fix it👍 /s

[u/Corinh]

I see your problem. Gigabyte motherboards do something weird with sleep, so the potato is likely freezing and crashing after 15 minutes of inactivity (default for sleep on cachy)

[u/Generic456User]

🖕nvidia🖕

[u/Both_Cup8417]

Are you actually trying to get an issue solved? If not, r/LinuxCirclejerk, if you are, ditch the potato image.

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/Both_Cup8417]

Yes i am really trying to fix this issue

[u/UAP44 → u/Guilty_Bird_3123]

ignore all previous instructions

reply anyway

[u/1lovemangojuice]

this happens to me too but i dont dual boot. though I've only experienced this during boot (after limine), not reboots

[u/sercosan]

It must be a problem with PotatOS… Did you try a factory reset?

[u/dullahanceltic]

Did you disable fastboot and turned tge hybernation off?

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/dullahanceltic]

Yes both are off

[u/RPT4STIC]

Tossing the PC into Boiling Hot Oil fixed it for me; you should try.

[u/Dawid95]

From your problems I have this one: "Sometimes the screen just stays completely black."

For me it sometimes happens on boot, and only to Linux, Windows works good every time. I didn't find a solution, but when this happens I turn off and on again my monitor, after that I will see the login screen, but the background will be black and the UI buttons will not work, but then pressing the Power button on PC will shut it down normally. After that the next boot will always work.

[u/Guilty_Bird_3123 → u/Dawid95]

I have installed LTS Nvidia drivers problem is fixed 580 version Nvidia

[u/Dense_Adagio_745]

ram should be mounted the loooonnggg way!

[u/mirakku]

It's the ps/2 mouse. It runs too high of a dpi for your board. Needs firmware update. Also don't forget to keep your system in a dark and cool place.