I have installed alma linux on my Dell 16 Plus laptop. I worked nicely with kernel 5.14.0-570.58.1, but I can not boot into kernels 5.14.0-611.16.1 or 5.14.0-611.26.1. When trying to boot with htis kernels I never get a login prompt and I need to power off the laptop to shut it down.
The last message I see when I boot with ‘rhgb’ as well as ‘quiet’ disabled is related to “flip_done timed out”.
After that I do see a mouse pointer, but it is very jumpy and does not follow the mouse movement.
Any hints what I can do to find out what the issue is?
Check if it can boot in text mode: Add systemd.unit=multi-user.target to the end of the kernel line in GRUB. Is this okay? Since the GPU might be causing issues, please verify this. Is that alright?
with the ‘systemd.unit=multi-user.target'I do get a login prompt, but it takes almost four minutes to get there. Before that I see the output flushing by, and two or three times I have the impression that the boot is stuck.
I saw one ‘Failed’ message passing by, but I have no idea whether this is relevant:
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[ESC[0;32m OK ESC[0m] Found device ESC[0;1;39m/dev/mapper/almalinux_alma-homeESC[0m.
[ESC[0;32m OK ESC[0m] Started ESC[0;1;39mLoad/Save RF Kill Switch StatusESC[0m.
[ESC[0;32m OK ESC[0m] Finished ESC[0;1;39mLoad/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of backlight:intel_backlightESC[0m.
Starting ESC[0;1;39mLoad Kernel Module efi_pstoreESC[0m…
Starting ESC[0;1;39mLoad/Save Screen Backlight Brightness of leds:dell::kbd_backlightESC[0m…
[ESC[0;1;31mFAILEDESC[0m] Failed to start ESC[0;1;39mWait for udev To Complete Device InitializationESC[0m.
See ‘systemctl status systemd-udev-settle.service’ for details.
[ESC[0;32m OK ESC[0m] Finished ESC[0;1;39mLoad Kernel Module efi_pstoreESC[0m.
[ESC[0;32m OK ESC[0m] Reached target ESC[0;1;39mPreparation for Local File SystemsESC[0m.
Mounting ESC[0;1;39m/bootESC[0m…
Mounting ESC[0;1;39m/homeESC[0m…
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× systemd-udev-settle.service - Wait for udev To Complete Device Initialization
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-udev-settle.service; static)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2026-02-09 15:24:30 CET; 15min ago
Docs: man:systemd-udev-settle.service(8)
Process: 735 ExecStart=udevadm settle (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 735 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 5ms
Feb 09 15:21:47 alma systemd[1]: Starting Wait for udev To Complete Device Initialization…
Feb 09 15:21:47 alma udevadm[735]: systemd-udev-settle.service is deprecated. Please fix multipathd.service not to pull it in.
Feb 09 15:23:47 alma udevadm[735]: Timed out for waiting the udev queue being empty.
Feb 09 15:24:30 alma systemd[1]: systemd-udev-settle.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 09 15:24:30 alma systemd[1]: systemd-udev-settle.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Feb 09 15:24:30 alma systemd[1]: Failed to start Wait for udev To Complete Device Initialization.
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Looking at /var/log/messages appears to confirm the suspicion that the issue is related to graphics, several messsages like
Feb 9 16:20:54 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR flip_done timed out
Feb 9 16:20:54 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR [CRTC:82:pipe A] commit wait timed out
Feb 9 16:20:55 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR GT1: GSC proxy component not bound!
Feb 9 16:20:55 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] Reducing the compressed framebuffer size. This may lead to less power savings than a non-reduced-size. Try to increase stolen memory size if available in BIOS.
Feb 9 16:20:55 alma kernel: Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 320x100
Feb 9 16:21:05 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR [CRTC:82:pipe A] flip_done timed out
Feb 9 16:21:05 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] fb0: xedrmfb frame buffer device
Feb 9 16:21:16 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR flip_done timed out
Feb 9 16:21:16 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR [CRTC:82:pipe A] commit wait timed out
Feb 9 16:21:26 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR flip_done timed out
Feb 9 16:21:26 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR [CONNECTOR:189:eDP-1] commit wait timed out
Feb 9 16:21:36 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR flip_done timed out
Feb 9 16:21:36 alma kernel: xe 0000:00:02.0: [drm] ERROR [PLANE:32:plane 1A] commit wait timed out
Feb 9 16:21:44 alma systemd-udevd[462]: vtcon1: Spawned process ‘/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-vconsole-setup’ [572] is taking longer than 59s to complete
match the time of the instances when I had the impression that the process is stuck.
Thinking about this again I had already noticed that even under the previous release the system is unresponsive from time to time, but at least I get a graphical interface there.