Zorin OS Freezes at Boot Logo, but Boots with Specific Workarounds

[maskarit]

I am experiencing a frustrating boot issue with my Zorin OS laptop, which has an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU. I would appreciate any guidance or solutions you might have.

The Core Problem:

When I have the proprietary NVIDIA drivers installed (from the "Software & Updates" > "Additional Drivers" section), my laptop gets stuck at the Zorin logo splash screen during boot. It never proceeds to the login screen.

Successful Workarounds and Key Observations:

I have found a few workarounds that allow me to boot the system, and they provide some clues as to what might be wrong:

"F8 Spam" Method: If I repeatedly press the F8 key immediately after pressing the power button, the boot process changes. Instead of the graphical Zorin logo, a verbose, text-based boot sequence appears on the screen. After the text scrolls by, the system successfully boots into the desktop with the NVIDIA drivers fully functional. This seems to indicate that the issue is related to the graphical boot process (Plymouth splash screen) conflicting with the NVIDIA driver initialization.

Uninstalling NVIDIA Drivers: If I completely remove the NVIDIA drivers (e.g., using sudo apt-get purge 'nvidia'), the laptop boots perfectly every time without any intervention. Of course, this means I am not using my dedicated GPU and its performance.

Enabling Secure Boot: I discovered that if I enable Secure Boot in my BIOS/UEFI, the laptop also boots without any issues. However, I correctly realized that this is not a real fix. With Secure Boot enabled, the kernel does not load the proprietary NVIDIA driver because it is not signed. The system simply falls back to the open-source nouveau driver or the integrated GPU, which is the same outcome as uninstalling the driver. This observation confirms that the proprietary NVIDIA driver is the direct cause of the boot freeze.

My Question and Constraints:

I am staying in a university dormitory with a limited internet data plan. Because of this, I cannot afford to download and test every single available NVIDIA driver version to see which one might be stable.

Could you please offer some advice?

Is there a known "golden" or particularly stable NVIDIA driver version for an RTX 3060 on Zorin OS that I should try first?
Or is this issue likely unrelated to the specific driver version and more about a boot configuration problem (like a GRUB setting or a conflict with Kernel Mode Setting)?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am ready to provide any necessary logs or system information.

Thank you in advance!

[Locklear93]

I haven't had your specific issue, however if you're using proprietary drivers, I recommend switching to the open drivers. I've had serious problems on proprietary that I haven't had on the open. Note that I'm NOT suggesting you use the nouveau driver, but the Nvidia open driver. In the Additional Drivers tab, this is listed as nvidia-driver-xxx-open (proprietary).

Alternatively, you could try removing all nvidia packages (instructions are in various places here; I'll find one and add the link after I post this), booting to a command prompt, and installing from Nvidia's .run installer. If you do this, you again want the open version, which can be chosen through that installer by choosing "MIT/GPL" when prompted.

As for specific version numbers, the 575s seem to work better than the 570s.

[How To] install Nvidia Drivers from vetted sources

Software & Updates In the Software & Updates > Additional Drivers tab, select the preferred driver from the list. It can take some time, watch the progress spinner. A reboot is required to switch the driver. Terminal Sometimes, a person needs to install different Nvidia Drivers or try to correct Nvidia drivers outside of the Software Store. If you have already installed any Nvidia-driver, first you must run sudo apt remove --purge '^nvidia-.*' to remove all of the previous driver. Otherwise,…

[HOW TO] Install the latest Nvidia driver on Zorin OS 16.x/17.x & Pop! OS 21.04/24.04

For anyone using this method as opposed to Ubuntu's graphics-drivers PPA, Nvidia on Thursday released a non-beta 575 driver for Linux, version 575.57.08. I haven't yet installed this, but plan to this weekend. I've been running the previous beta driver, 575.51.02 from Nvidia's own package for several weeks now and haven't had any problems with it, OTHER THAN having to use the open/MIT license version as noted above, rather than the proprietary license version. That's one person and anecdotal,…

Both of these links include how to strip out the driver you have. The first link uses the graphics-drivers ppa to get the newest packaged version of the drivers. The second details use of Nvidia's installer. If you're using any method other than choosing the open driver from the additional drivers tab of Software & Updates, please be sure to remove the existing packages first, lest you run into cruft lying around from a previous install.

[maskarit]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I followed your advice and installed the latest NVIDIA driver, version 575. This has changed the boot behavior, but unfortunately, the underlying problem isn't solved.

Here's what happens now:

The freeze point has shifted. It now gets stuck right at the moment the graphical Zorin logo transitions to the "Zorin" text screen.

Also, my F8 workaround method is no longer reliable. It has become very inconsistent, and I just had to reboot three times before it managed to get to the desktop.

It seems the conflict still exists, but it has moved to a later stage in the boot process, probably right before the login screen should appear.

Given this new behavior, do you have any other ideas I could try?

Thanks again for your help.

[Aravisian]

Have you tried using the nomodeset grub parameter?

[HOW TO] add a grub parameter

There may be times that a user must add a specialized grub parameter in order to overcome an issue. The purpose of this guide is not to provide parameters, as that would be a case by case basis. It is to provide a guide on how to add one. To add a parameter, in a terminal (TTY, Recovery Prompt or Terminal Emulator) run: sudo nano /etc/default/grub Arrow key down to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" and place your parameter within the quotation tags. For example if you are adding th…

[Locklear93]

In addition to Aravisian's recommendation, you might try disabling the plymouth splash temporarily to see what, exactly, is hanging. If your GRUB menu is usable, instead of hitting enter or waiting, hit E. Find the line with "quiet" and "splash" in them, and delete those words, then hit F10 to boot. This will disable the splash and show a log of what's happening as it does.

If GRUB is not accessible (I think Zorin defaults to that on a new install), you can edit /etc/default/grub to remove quiet and splash as above, save it, then run sudo update-grub. The method above disables the splash one time only. This edit disables it permanently, but you can put it back by restoring quiet and splash, saving, and running update-grub again.

Obviously, this isn't intended to fix your problem, only to help us pinpoint what it's doing when the boot dies.

[Forpli]

You can take a look at this thread:

Zorin and nvidia drivers

This is certainly not the first time i have had issues with drivers. I've been playing video games for so long now without having any issues. I've been playing Factorio for the past month or so and its been working fine, 60 fps at no stutters. I know for a fact it has been using my graphics card, which is a RTX 3060. When i started Factorio an hour ago, it was crashing and asked me to report it. I clicked no and tried to remove mangohud from the steam launch option, i was then able to launch t…

[Ponce-De-Leon]

Because You are using a Nvidia Card: Does Your System run in Wayland or X11/Xorg? You can check that in Settings>About. When it runs in Wayland, I recommend to switch to X11/Xorg instead.

To do that, go to the Login Screen (not the Lock Screen). Reboot for that. On the Login Screen click on Your Profile so that the Password Field appears. It has to be appeared. When it is appeared, You should see in the bottom right Corner a Gear Icon. Click on it and choose the Option ''Zorin Desktop on Xorg'' and log in.

[maskarit]

I followed all the given suggestions, and now I have about a 50% chance of success. Sometimes it boots without any issues, but other times it freezes on the logo, and I have to restart to get it working. Honestly, I'm really tired of NVIDIA. I don't know why they have so many issues with Linux maybe dealing with drivers is genuinely difficult, but it completely ruins the experience for an average user. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

[Forpli]

You had written that the problem occurs less often/not at all if you don't use the Plymouth splash screen with the Zorin logo. Have you tested if it helps to remove quiet splash in etc/default/grub? This way you don't need the F8 key and the computer boots with the logs displayed instead of the Zorin logo.

[Storm]

One of the reason I switched to AMD/Radeon (xtx7900) when I bought parts to my new PC. I had in decades only bought Nvidia, but no more. It's a breeze of fresh air

[maskarit]

Yes, I've tried that, and it can still freeze in this case as well; there's about a 50% chance.

Uninstalling the NVIDIA drivers or enabling Secure Boot (which I do when I don't want to bother with removing the drivers, because the NVIDIA drivers don't work when Secure Boot is enabled as they are not signed) definitively leads to a trouble-free boot.

I am also sharing a photo of the last lines of text on the screen from when it fails to boot.

[Ponce-De-Leon]

You have a 3060. I would make the Suggestion to try it with the 535 Driver instead.

[Locklear93]

Ugh. I hate offering you "maybes," especially when you're on a limited data plan, but have you tried updating your BIOS or kernel? I ask because those last lines are ACPI errors that, when I look around, appear to either be due to a bug in the kernel or poor implementation of ACPI. I don't want to give you too much hope on these possibilities, because the searching I did also implies that this error is normally non-fatal, which implies it could be dying right after those, but before the next line of text can display.