Include i915 in mkinitcpio.conf

[Sebastiaan76]

Just a note, on my install I needed to include i915 in the mkinitcpio.conf 'Modules' section, otherwise I wasn't able to get a password prompt to open my Luks container. Might be worth mentioning this. Did you have this issue?

[ejmg]

Hey @Sebastiaan76, thanks for filing an issue.

First things first, what is your laptop model?

[Sebastiaan76]

X1 Carbon Gen 6 with the 2560x1440 HDR screen. I have a similar install to you with a Luks container for my /. EFI is unencrypted. Without i915 in the Modules section of mkinitcpio, the screen just stops at the Ramdisk message just after grub. However, if I type 'blind' the password, it will unlock the container and load the OS. Not sure if you had, or any of your other audience had this issue, but thought i'd mention it, in case you wanted to include this in your great guide!

[ejmg]

Want to make sure I understand you:

Without i915 in the Modules section of mkinitcpio, the screen just stops at the Ramdisk message just after grub. However, if I type 'blind' the password, it will unlock the container and load the OS

So without the i915 driver loaded by the kernel, it appears as if the bootloader freezes; however, if you go ahead and type your password (as if the prompt was given), you were able to unlock the disk and boot into Arch as expected. Did I read you correctly?

Furthermore, after adding the i915 module, did this completely solve the problem?

Either way...

but thought i'd mention it, in case you wanted to include this in your great guide!

I definitely want to include such a warning in the guide.

From an initial google'ing of the issue, it looks like this definitely has something to do with Intel graphics. In particular, I bet it is because your model has a better monitor, meaning it has compensatory hardware to deal with that, i.e. better Intel graphics. In particular, it looks like this exact issue has been documented within the Arch wiki within the entry for Intel graphics. The specific sub-issue is linked here.

Please take a look because it looks like there is some other modifications that could benefit you, in particular.

Please let me know if you think this is the issue and solution to the problem. If so, we can make sure to add this issue to the guide. Equivalently, you are welcomed to make the edit and open the PR yourself if you'd like direct credit 🙂

Thank you so much for taking the time to open this issue and letting me know about the fix!

[Sebastiaan76]

Your interpretation is indeed correct of the phenomena i'm experiencing. Interestingly, the i915 module issue is also mentioned briefly in the "Full Disk Encryption" section towards the bottom of this page: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6)

I think it is likely related to the issue you linked to as well, but not specifically the same issue ( although the fix - adding i915 to modules is the same resolution ).