Cinnamon fails to boot with AMD Vega 8 on Linux Mint 22.2 (Screen turns black)

[sdmx44]

Hello Linux Mint Developers,

I am experiencing a persistent issue with Linux Mint 22.2 Cinnamon on my laptop, related to the AMD Vega 8 integrated graphics. The system works fine from the Live USB, but after installation, Cinnamon fails to boot correctly, resulting in a black screen. Here are the details:

Laptop and Hardware:

• Laptop: HP EliteBook 745 G6
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U
• GPU: AMD Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series]
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• SSD: 265GB M.2 NVMe
• BIOS: UEFI, GPT partition, Secure Boot disabled

System Details:

• Linux Mint 22.2 Cinnamon
• Kernel: 6.14.0-37
• amdgpu driver initially not loaded (llvmpipe was used)
• Display manager: default (Cinnamon)
• Xorg session

Symptoms:

1. Booting from GRUB without nomodeset causes the system to show some rendering messages (e.g., “Rendering …”), then the Linux Mint logo appears briefly and the screen goes black indefinitely.
2. Booting with nomodeset allows Cinnamon to load, but GPU acceleration is disabled.
3. Using amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x12 temporarily from GRUB allows Cinnamon to boot, but the fix is not persistent across reboots.
4. Live USB boots normally with full GPU acceleration.
5. Fractional scaling (experimental) does not seem to be the cause.

Steps I have tried:

• Booting with nomodeset (works, but GPU disabled)
• Adding amdgpu.dcdebugmask=0x12 in /etc/default/grub.d/ and updating GRUB (did not persist)
• Installing AMD official driver (amdgpu-pro) for Ubuntu (did not resolve the issue)
• Kernel updates and Mesa updates (still failing)
• Not sure if XFCE session works fine with GPU acceleration

Additional info:

• inxi -G shows GPU as N/A before applying the fix
• glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer" shows llvmpipe (LLVM …) before fixing
• GRUB menu resolution seems low, as if GPU is not fully initialized
• Issue seems related to Cinnamon compositor + amdgpu DC driver

Request:
I hope the team can investigate this compatibility issue between Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.2 and AMD Vega 8 integrated graphics, as it prevents Cinnamon from booting properly while XFCE works. Any advice or fix would be highly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and support.

[filipsundrams]

I have the same issue. And have simular configuration:
System:
Kernel: 6.14.0-37-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.3.0 clocksource: tsc
Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.4.8 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: Muffin v: 6.4.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0
Distro: Linux Mint 22.2 Zara base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
Type: Convertible System: HP product: HP ENVY x360 Convertible 15-ds0xxx v: N/A
serial: Chassis: type: 31 serial:
Mobo: HP model: 85DD v: 40.36
CPU:
Info: quad core model: AMD Ryzen 3 3300U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx bits: 64 type: MCP
smt: arch: Zen/Zen+ note: check rev: 1 cache: L1: 384 KiB L2: 2 MiB L3: 4 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1399 high: 2099 min/max: 1400/2100 boost: disabled cores: 1: 1167 2: 2099
3: 1167 4: 1166 bogomips: 16799
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 pcie: speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1
empty: DP-1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:15d8 class-ID: 0300 temp: 37.0 C

If when booting, it also turns black if I do nothing - but if I hit F1 when booting and get system info, then hit escape - the system starts just fine.

[filipsundrams]

Problem somehow disappeared

[sdmx44]

Yeah , Maybe a Kernel or Mesa update fixed this issue , My problem is no longer exist right now.