Problem

I have a Dell XPS 15 (2017) with dual boot (Windows 10 + Ubuntu 16.04). While trying to install the nvidia drivers (in order to be able to disable the nVidia GPU and let it run on onboard graphics for lower power consumption),my system got messed up. Up until some minutes ago,after shutting down or restarting my computer,I got a black screen with the following output:

/dev/nvme0n1p4: recovering journal
/dev/nvme0n1p4: clean,455620/127927 files,xx/xxx blocks
[xxxx.xxxx] NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - cpu#1 stuck for 23s! [plymouthd:13948]
[xxxx.xxxx] NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - cpu#1 stuck for 23s! [plymouthd:13948]
INFO: rcu_sched self-detected stall on cpu
o1-...: (14999 ticks this GP) idle=4e5/140000000000/softirq=98156/98156 fqs7496
o (t=xxxxxx jiffies g=xxxxxx c=xxxxxx q=xx

Click here to view the complete log (picture)

After following this answer,after step 2,my computer stopped displaying a black screen with the error message above and now only freezes after pressing the shutdown/restart button. Trying sudo swapoff -a && systemctl poweroff has the exact same impact.

I have also tried logging the shutdown procedure with no luck so far (run systemctl start debug-shell and then hit ctrl+alt+F9 when the hang up occurred,but no response at all.

I am currently using the X.org X server drivers (since after trying one nVidia driver I was unable to open my computer). Additionally,even though I have purged all nVidia drivers,the Additional Drivers dialogue still displays a bunch of them (nvidia-384 nvidia-375 nvidia-378 nvidia-381).

I am sorry for the long post-but I tried to supply as much information as possible in order to identify the problem.

Answer

answer 1

Eventually,the solution that fixed everything for me is the following (at least for my system configuration):

• edit /etc/default/grub
• add acpi_rev_override=1 to your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT parameters
  (in my case the following line looks like this):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_rev_override=1"

• run update-grub from the terminal

after shutting down your machine one more time from the power button,the problem should have been fixed.

answer 2

I have the same laptop and I can run 17.10 and 18.04 (daily build) successfully. I haven’t tried LTS,but I had the same problem as you when trying to install the first time.

I solved it by adding this to the /etc/default/grub file:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=! acpi_osi=\"Windows 2009\" acpi_osi=Linux acpi_rev_override=5 acpi_backlight=vendor enable_fbc=1 enable_psr=1 disable_power_well=0"

The thing that makes it work is the acpi_* ones. The other ones seem to be helping with battery consumption (that and using the Intel driver for video when on battery,gives me around 7 to 10 hours of battery life).

The Arch wiki has good info:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_15_956031

answer 3

I had some luck with adding nomodeset to the boot options.
1) Boot from usb
2) hit F6 ( in the installer menu)
3) select ” nomodeset”
4) try and install

From here: “Note: Ubuntu Live freezes on the Dell XPS 15 in several versions. As pointed out by Milan P. Antonovic,you can solve this by adding nouveau.modeset=0 to the boot options.”
source: https://github.com/rcasero/doc/wiki/Ubuntu-linux-on-Dell-XPS-15-(9560)19

answer 4

I was just experiencing somewhat the same issue,restarting would take me to a black screen or sometimes a black screen with blinking cursor and it would never accomplish,I have to note I didn’t have a problem with shut down.

So what I did was,I opened Drive Manager,and I installed Intel-Microcode firmware for the cpu,I shutdown the computer,and then I tired restarting the OS,and it finally worked.

Changing from Do not update the cpu microcode to intel-microcode

I’m on Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.3 which is based on Ubuntu Xenial Xerus 16.04 LTS.

https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_serena_cinnamon.php
https://askubuntu.com/questions/951415/ubuntu-16-04-hangs-on-shutdown-restart-dell-xps-15-9560/967698
https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/cannot-install-ubuntu-mate-16-04-on-a-dell-xps-15-9560/15628/2
https://ubuntu-mate.community/t/cannot-install-ubuntu-mate-16-04-on-a-dell-xps-15-9560/15628/3
https://askubuntu.com/questions/764568/ubuntu-16-04-hangs-on-shutdown-restart/769972#answer-769972
https://github.com/stockmind/dell-xps-9560-ubuntu-respin
https://github.com/stockmind/dell-xps-9560-ubuntu-respin/releases
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=244728