sddm and KDE fail to start on Dell laptop

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-18T14:17:50+0100

A few days ago I ran pkg update && pkg upgrade on my Dell laptop running FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE-p11, X11/sddm/KDE. On reboot sddm failed to start and I was left with a console login.

The laptop is a Dell Precision 7550. I was using the nvidia modesetting drives. dmesg contains
nvidia0: <Quadro T1000> on vgapci0
vgapci0: child nvidia0 requested pci_enable_io
vgapci0: child nvidia0 requested pci_enable_io
nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms 595.84 Wed Jun 10 20:27:42 UTC 2026

/etc/rc.conf contains
kld_list="nvidia-modeset"
sddm_enable="YES"

kldstat output includes
4 1 0xffffffff837f9000 14d2f8 nvidia-modeset.ko
5 1 0xffffffff83a00000 5b7e838 nvidia.ko

/var/log/Xorg.0.conf doesn't seem to mention nvidia, contents at the end.

Any suggestions how to fix this?

[ 40.493] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sat Jul 18 14:51:01 2026
[ 40.494] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[ 40.494] (==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
[ 40.494] (==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
[ 40.494] (**) |-->Screen "Default Screen Section" (0)
[ 40.494] (**) | |-->Monitor "<default monitor>"
[ 40.495] (==) No monitor specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
Using a default monitor configuration.
[ 40.495] (**) Allowing byte-swapped clients
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically adding devices
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[ 40.495] (==) Automatically binding GPU devices
[ 40.495] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[ 40.497] (==) FontPath set to:
/usr/local/share/fonts/misc/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/OTF/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/,
/usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/,
catalogue:/usr/local/etc/X11/fontpath.d
[ 40.497] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
[ 40.497] (II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
[ 40.498] (II) Module ABI versions:
[ 40.498] X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[ 40.498] X.Org Video Driver: 25.2
[ 40.498] X.Org XInput driver : 24.4
[ 40.498] X.Org Server Extension : 10.0
[ 40.501] (!!) More than one possible primary device found
[ 40.501] (--) PCI: (0@0:2:0) 8086:9bf6:1028:09c3 rev 5, Mem @ 0x604a000000/16777216, 0x4000000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x00004000/64, BIOS @ 0x????????/65536
[ 40.501] (--) PCI: (1@0:0:0) 10de:1fb9:1028:09c3 rev 161, Mem @ 0xb3000000/16777216, 0x70000000/268435456, 0x80000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x00003000/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/65536
[ 40.501] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[ 40.502] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so
[ 40.509] (II) Module glx: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.509] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.0.0
[ 40.509] ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 10.0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched scfb as autoconfigured driver 1
[ 40.509] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 2
[ 40.509] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[ 40.509] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[ 40.509] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
[ 40.510] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.509] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.0.0
[ 40.509] ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 10.0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 0
[ 40.509] (==) Matched scfb as autoconfigured driver 1
[ 40.509] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 2
[ 40.509] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[ 40.509] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[ 40.509] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
[ 40.510] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.510] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.21.1
[ 40.510] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[ 40.510] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
[ 40.510] (II) LoadModule: "scfb"
[ 40.510] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/scfb_drv.so
[ 40.510] (II) Module scfb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.510] compiled for 1.21.1.18, module version = 0.0.5
[ 40.510] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
[ 40.510] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[ 40.510] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vesa_drv.so
[ 40.511] (II) Module vesa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.511] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 2.6.0
[ 40.511] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[ 40.511] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 25.2
[ 40.511] (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
[ 40.511] (II) scfb: driver for wsdisplay framebuffer: scfb
[ 40.511] (II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
[ 40.511] (--) Using syscons driver with X support (version 2.0)
[ 40.511] (++) using VT number 9

[ 40.511] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 40.512] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 40.512] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for scfb
[ 40.512] scfb trace: probe start
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): using default device
[ 40.512] scfb trace: probe done
[ 40.512] (WW) VGA arbiter: cannot open kernel arbiter, no multi-card support
[ 40.512] scfb: PreInit 0
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): Using: depth (32), width (1920), height (1080)
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): Creating default Display subsection in Screen section
"Default Screen Section" for depth/fbbpp 24/32
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): Depth 24, (==) framebuffer bpp 32
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): RGB weight 888
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
[ 40.512] (II) scfb(0): Vidmem: 8100k
[ 40.512] (DB) xf86MergeOutputClassOptions unsupported bus type 0
[ 40.512] (==) scfb(0): DPI set to (96, 96)
[ 40.512] (**) scfb(0): Using "Shadow Framebuffer"
[ 40.512] (II) Loading sub module "shadow"
[ 40.512] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[ 40.512] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/libshadow.so
[ 40.512] (II) Module shadow: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 40.512] compiled for 1.21.1.24, module version = 1.1.0
[ 40.512] ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[ 40.512] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[ 40.512] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[ 40.512] (II) Module "fb" already built-in
[ 40.512] scfb: PreInit done
[ 40.512] (II) UnloadModule: "modesetting"
[ 40.512] (II) Unloading modesetting
[ 40.512] (II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
[ 40.512] (II) Unloading vesa
[ 40.512] scfb: ScfbScreenInit 0
[ 40.512] bitsPerPixel=32, depth=24, defaultVisual=TrueColor
mask: ff0000,ff00,ff, offset: 16,8,0
[ 40.512] mmap returns: addr 0x837800000 len 0x7e9000, fd 11, off 0
[ 40.512] scfb: ScfbSave 0
[ 40.512] scfb: ScfbSave done
[ 40.513] (==) scfb(0): Backing store enabled
[ 40.513] scfb: ScfbScreenInit done
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension Generic Event Extension
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension SHAPE
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension MIT-SHM
[ 40.513] (II) Initializing extension XInputExtension
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension XTEST
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension BIG-REQUESTS
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension SYNC
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension XKEYBOARD
[ 40.514] (II) Initializing extension XC-MISC
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension SECURITY
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension XFIXES
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension RENDER
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension RANDR
[ 40.515] (II) Initializing extension COMPOSITE
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DAMAGE
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension RECORD
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DPMS
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension Present
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension DRI3
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension X-Resource
[ 40.516] (II) Initializing extension XVideo
[ 40.517] (II) Initializing extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
[ 40.517] (II) Initializing extension GLX
[ 40.517] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI2 capable
[ 40.830] (EE) Bus error at address 0x84b6516f9

tuxador · 2026-07-18T15:10:35+0100

the default session in SSDm is plasma6-wayland, switch to plasma-x11 and it should work

T-Aoki · 2026-07-18T15:32:58+0100

Assuming your computer was working with your T1000 sanely, is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (or splitted out ones in your /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ kept sane before and after upgrade?

It shouldn't be touched automatically on usual upgrades, but your /var/log/Xorg.0.log suggests there is no NVIDIA specific configurations you should've done before.

Note that the error

Code:

[ 40.512] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

is unrelated here, as this error is emitted by genuine modesetting driver from xorg and in case of NVIDIA GPUs, this entry isn't generated at all unless you have graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod* (in case 15.0-RELEASE-p* and Quadro T1000, which is at Turing generation of architecture, graphics/nvidia-drm-66-kmod by default if installed via graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod port/pkg). This shouldn't be your case.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-18T15:47:25+0100

tuxador said:
the default session in SSDm is plasma6-wayland, switch to plasma-x11 and it should work

I don't even get to the SDDM login screen so I can't choose.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-18T16:41:08+0100

T-Aoki said:
Assuming your computer was working with your T1000 sanely, is your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (or splitted out ones in your /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ kept sane before and after upgrade?

Yes it was working fine before pkg upgrade.

T-Aoki said:
It shouldn't be touched automatically on usual upgrades, but your /var/log/Xorg.0.log suggests there is no NVIDIA specific configurations you should've done before.

Both were empty.

T-Aoki said:
Note that the error

Code:

[ 40.512] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory

is unrelated here, as this error is emitted by genuine modesetting driver from xorg and in case of NVIDIA GPUs, this entry isn't generated at all unless you have graphics/nvidia-drm-*-kmod* (in case 15.0-RELEASE-p* and Quadro T1000, which is at Turing generation of architecture, graphics/nvidia-drm-66-kmod by default if installed via graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod port/pkg). This shouldn't be your case.

The only drm that I have installed ins

paulf> pkg info | grep drm
drm-66-kmod-6.6.25.1500068_8 Direct Rendering Manager GPU drivers
libdrm-2.4.133,1 Direct Rendering Manager library and headers

fahrenheit · 2026-07-18T20:57:32+0100

Paul Floyd have you tried another login manager (lightdm, ly, etc) or starting directly from terminal to see if the issue is sddm or kde?

the3ajm · 2026-07-18T21:36:57+0100

Paul Floyd said:
pkg info | grep drm
drm-66-kmod-6.6.25.1500068_8 Direct Rendering Manager GPU drivers
libdrm-2.4.133,1 Direct Rendering Manager library and headers

you should install nvidia-drm-kmod and nvidia-driver

T-Aoki · 2026-07-19T01:43:48+0100

Paul Floyd said:
The only drm that I have installed ins

paulf> pkg info | grep drm
drm-66-kmod-6.6.25.1500068_8 Direct Rendering Manager GPU drivers
libdrm-2.4.133,1 Direct Rendering Manager library and headers

So one possibility is that iGPU was used before upgrading, instead of NVIDIA dGPU Quadro T1000.
In this case, /dev/dri/card0 should be created by i915 driver in graphics/drm-66-kmod and driven (on xorg) by genuine modesetting driver and configurations for NVIDIA drivers didn't matter (because unused).

Does graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod (or graphics/gpu-firmware-intel-kmod sanely installed/upgraded?
Note that there seems to be issues in firmwares (if I recall correctly, mostly AMD iGPUs/dGPUs are affected but not sure Intel iGPUs are OK or not) in recent (not sure it's about latest one or any of previously provided ones).

In this case, you would have 2 options.

The first is to use Optimus (hybrid graphics).
In this case, as the3ajm already noted in #7, installing graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod is needed, as supports for Optimus is included in nvidia-drm.ko installed by any of installed graphics/nvidia-drm-{515|61|66|612|latest]-kmod{-580|-devel}.
See here (by the original author) to see how to configure.

The other option is, if you can disable iGPU via UEFI firmware for all displays including internal and external ones, you can try it.

You'll need manual old-school (UMS in contrast with KMS) configuration following Example 3 of Chapter 5.5.2 of the Handbook, or install graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod metaport to pull in matching and required comportnents with auto-configuration (no manual configuration should be needed in addition to /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf installed by graphics/nvidia-drm-{515|61|66|612|latest]-kmod{-580|-devel} you actually have).

fahrenheit said:
Paul Floyd have you tried another login manager (lightdm, ly, etc) or starting directly from terminal to see if the issue is sddm or kde?

Seeing the Xorg.0.log quoted in initial post, there seems to be driver configuration issue BEFORE login manager like sddm "actually" want to use xorg.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T06:47:50+0100

the3ajm said:
you should install nvidia-drm-kmod and nvidia-driver

Why? I tried the nvidia drm drivers briefly when I installed FreeBSD. I couldn't get it to work so I removed the drm package and reverted to just the modesetting drivers which worked for the last year or so until the recent quarterly update.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T07:00:17+0100

T-Aoki said:
So one possibility is that iGPU was used before upgrading, instead of NVIDIA dGPU Quadro T1000.
In this case, /dev/dri/card0 should be created by i915 driver in graphics/drm-66-kmod and driven (on xorg) by genuine modesetting driver and configurations for NVIDIA drivers didn't matter (because unused).

I never installed any Intel drivers so I don't see how that could have happened.

T-Aoki said:
Does graphics/gpu-firmware-kmod (or graphics/gpu-firmware-intel-kmod sanely installed/upgraded?
Note that there seems to be issues in firmwares (if I recall correctly, mostly AMD iGPUs/dGPUs are affected but not sure Intel iGPUs are OK or not) in recent (not sure it's about latest one or any of previously provided ones).

In this case, you would have 2 options.

The first is to use Optimus (hybrid graphics).
In this case, as the3ajm already noted in #7, installing graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod is needed, as supports for Optimus is included in nvidia-drm.ko installed by any of installed graphics/nvidia-drm-{515|61|66|612|latest]-kmod{-580|-devel}.
See here (by the original author) to see how to configure.

The other option is, if you can disable iGPU via UEFI firmware for all displays including internal and external ones, you can try it.

You'll need manual old-school (UMS in contrast with KMS) configuration following Example 3 of Chapter 5.5.2 of the Handbook, or install graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod metaport to pull in matching and required comportnents with auto-configuration (no manual configuration should be needed in addition to /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf installed by graphics/nvidia-drm-{515|61|66|612|latest]-kmod{-580|-devel} you actually have).

Seeing the Xorg.0.log quoted in initial post, there seems to be driver configuration issue BEFORE login manager like sddm "actually" want to use xorg.

What I see is that Xorg is failing to detect that it should use the nvidia drivers and is falling back to the scfb drivers and then a bit later there is a crash with SIGBUS.

Something in the quarterly upgrade broke the xorg nvidia driver detection - finding the cause of that seems to me the best way to solve the issue.

I'll have a go with some of your suggestions after I get back from my holidays in about 3 weeks time. All that seems to me to be doing something different because something that was working is now broken.

Emrion · 2026-07-19T07:07:26+0100

What nvidia drivers do you use? Try to change of nvidia driver version (downgrade).

T-Aoki · 2026-07-19T07:39:55+0100

Paul Floyd said:
I never installed any Intel drivers so I don't see how that could have happened.

You stated that you have graphics/drm-66-kmod installed.

This one includes kernel part of drivers for AMD and Intel, in addition to common DRM/KMS support kmods. x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel is NOT needed, as userland part of driver, /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so, is provided as part of x11-servers/xorg-server.

Code:

% pkg which /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so was installed by package xorg-server-21.1.24,1
%

Paul Floyd said:
Something in the quarterly upgrade broke the xorg nvidia driver detection - finding the cause of that seems to me the best way to solve the issue.

Again, the old-school configuration that doesn't use nvidia-drm.ko doesn't support Optimus (hybrid graphics) and x11-servers/xorg-server doesn't attempt to look for proprietary NVIDIA driver (provided as x11/nvidia-kmod* and x11/nvidia-driver* in ports/pkgs) without specific configuration shown as Example 3 of Chapter 5.5.2 of the Handbook. Quote the contents below.

Code:

Example 3. Select NVIDIA® Graphics Driver in a File

/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Card0"
    Driver     "nvidia"
EndSection

Without this kind of manual driver configuration, x11-servers/xorg-server looks for nv (x11-drivers/xf86-video-nv) and nouveau (nonexistent on FreeBSD) drivers only for NVIDIA GPUs, but not NVIDIA proprietary drivers (required userland part, x11/nvidia-driver*).

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T08:36:21+0100

fahrenheit said:
Paul Floyd have you tried another login manager (lightdm, ly, etc) or starting directly from terminal to see if the issue is sddm or kde?

If I just run startx then I get a SIGBUS when Xorg tries to start. It seems to have fallen back to trying scfb.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T08:40:40+0100

T-Aoki said:
You stated that you have graphics/drm-66-kmod installed.

This one includes kernel part of drivers for AMD and Intel, in addition to common DRM/KMS support kmods. x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel is NOT needed, as userland part of driver, /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so, is provided as part of x11-servers/xorg-server.

Code:

% pkg which /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so was installed by package xorg-server-21.1.24,1 %

Again, the old-school configuration that doesn't use nvidia-drm.ko doesn't support Optimus (hybrid graphics) and x11-servers/xorg-server doesn't attempt to look for proprietary NVIDIA driver (provided as x11/nvidia-kmod* and x11/nvidia-driver* in ports/pkgs) without specific configuration shown as Example 3 of Chapter 5.5.2 of the Handbook.

So why did it work before?

T-Aoki said:

Quote the contents below.

Code:

Example 3. Select NVIDIA® Graphics Driver in a File

/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Card0"
    Driver     "nvidia"
EndSection

I've tried that. I just get "(EE) no screens found". If I add 'BusID "PCI:1:0:0"' then I get a black screen with a white rectangle in the top left corner.

T-Aoki said:
Without this kind of manual driver configuration, x11-servers/xorg-server looks for nv (x11-drivers/xf86-video-nv) and nouveau (nonexistent on FreeBSD) drivers only for NVIDIA GPUs, but not NVIDIA proprietary drivers (required userland part, x11/nvidia-driver*).

x86-video-nv wasn't installed, installing it made no difference.

Erichans · 2026-07-19T09:03:26+0100

Just to be sure, can you post the output of:
pkg query -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(51.-|6..?-)?kmod|(^nvidia-(d|k))' | column -t

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T09:58:11+0100

Erichans said:
Just to be sure, can you post the output of:
pkg query -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(51.-|6..?-)?kmod|(^nvidia-(d|k))' | column -t

paulf> pkg query -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(51.-|6..?-)?kmod|(^nvidia-(d|k))' | column -t
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods] graphics/drm-66-kmod drm-66-kmod 6.6.25.1500068_8
[FreeBSD-ports] x11/nvidia-driver nvidia-driver 595.84
[FreeBSD-ports] x11/nvidia-kmod nvidia-kmod 595.84.1500068

T-Aoki · 2026-07-19T10:09:59+0100

Paul Floyd said:
So why did it work before?

This is why I suspect your computer WAS working with Intel DRM kmods from graphics/drm-66-kmod and it somehow stopped working properly.
Note that I'm not using Intel driver (both DRM and old-school one) both on my ThinkPad P52 (and all now-not-working T61 and T420) and Minisforum MS-01, as I'm explicitly disabling iGPU via UEFI firmware (T61 alone was via legacy BIOS) not to be bothered by hybrid graphics (Optimus).

And on MS-01 miniPC, I'm connecting display via miniDP on Quadro A400 and not connecting via onboard HDMI and USB/DP.

Paul Floyd said:
I've tried that. I just get "(EE) no screens found".

So you'll need another configuration for screen section something like in Example 7 of Chapter 5.5.3.2 of the Handbook, quote below.

Code:

Example 7. Set Screen Resolution in a File

/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    SubSection "Display"
    Modes      "1024x768"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

You'll need to edit Modes line to fit your monitor.

Or let x11/nvidia-xconfig to generate old-school and monolithic /etc/X11/xorg.conf for you.

Paul Floyd said:
x86-video-nv wasn't installed, installing it made no difference.

This driver supports quite old GPUs only and shouldn't work for your Quadro T1000. But x11-servers/xorg-server still looks for it by default to sniff any supported GPU can be found instead of sniffing proprietary NVIDIA drivers, unless proper configuration for it is done.

Erichans · 2026-07-19T10:53:27+0100

Paul Floyd said:

Code:

paulf>  pkg query -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(51.-|6..?-)?kmod|(^nvidia-(d|k))' | column -t
[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  graphics/drm-66-kmod  drm-66-kmod    6.6.25.1500068_8
[FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver     nvidia-driver  595.84
[FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod       nvidia-kmod    595.84.1500068

T-Aoki said:
This is why I suspect your computer WAS working with Intel DRM kmods from graphics/drm-66-kmod and it somehow stopped working properly.

IIUC you have Nvidia graphics but you're using/relying on graphics/drm-66-kmod as indicated by you Xorg log that is selecting modesetting.

Using 15.0-RELEASE settings of quarterly on my sytem show:

Rich (BB code):

[4-0] # pkg rquery -x '[%R] %o %n %v' '^drm-(51.-|6..?-)?kmod|(^nvidia-(d|k))' | sed '/-devel/d' | column -t | nl
     1  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/drm-515-kmod             drm-515-kmod             5.15.160.1500068_10
     2  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/drm-61-kmod              drm-61-kmod              6.1.128.1500068_10
     3  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/drm-66-kmod              drm-66-kmod              6.6.25.1500068_10
     4  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/drm-kmod                 drm-kmod                 20260508
     5  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver                 nvidia-driver            595.84
     6  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver-304             nvidia-driver-304        304.137_11
     7  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver-340             nvidia-driver-340        340.108_5
     8  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver-390             nvidia-driver-390        390.157_1
     9  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver-470             nvidia-driver-470        470.256.02_2
    10  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-driver-580             nvidia-driver-580        580.173.02
    11  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-515-kmod      nvidia-drm-515-kmod      595.84.1500068_1
    12  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-515-kmod-580  nvidia-drm-515-kmod-580  580.173.02.1500068_1
    13  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-61-kmod       nvidia-drm-61-kmod       595.84.1500068_1
    14  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-61-kmod-580   nvidia-drm-61-kmod-580   580.173.02.1500068_1
    15  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-66-kmod       nvidia-drm-66-kmod       595.84.1500068_1
    16  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-66-kmod-580   nvidia-drm-66-kmod-580   580.173.02.1500068_1
    17  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod          nvidia-drm-kmod          595.84
    18  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod-580      nvidia-drm-kmod-580      580.173.02
    19  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod                   nvidia-kmod              595.84.1500068
    20  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod-304               nvidia-kmod-304          304.137.1500068
    21  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod-340               nvidia-kmod-340          340.108.1500068
    22  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod-390               nvidia-kmod-390          390.157.1500068
    23  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod-470               nvidia-kmod-470          470.256.02.1500068
    24  [FreeBSD-ports]        x11/nvidia-kmod-580               nvidia-kmod-580          580.173.02.1500068
    25  [FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  graphics/drm-515-kmod             drm-515-kmod             5.15.160.1500068_9
    26  [FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  graphics/drm-61-kmod              drm-61-kmod              6.1.128.1500068_8
    27  [FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  graphics/drm-66-kmod              drm-66-kmod              6.6.25.1500068_8
    28  [FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  x11/nvidia-kmod                   nvidia-kmod              595.58.03.1500068

From my output the most recent version is 6.6.25.1500068_10:

Rich (BB code):

     3  [FreeBSD-ports]        graphics/drm-66-kmod              drm-66-kmod              6.6.25.1500068_10

which has not (yet?) arrived in FreeBSD-ports-kmods,you have:

Rich (BB code):

[FreeBSD-ports-kmods]  graphics/drm-66-kmod  drm-66-kmod    6.6.25.1500068_8

Your version may very well be incompatible with the modesetting driver used by Xorg: /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so

Try installing the version 6.6.25.1500068_10:
pkg install -f -r FreeBSD-ports drm-66-kmod
or build locally from source.

Note: this does not touch the issue of using fully proprietary Nvidia drivers.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T11:07:16+0100

I've delete drm-66-kmod
Installed nvidia-xconfig and ran it. Again all I get is a black screen with a white blob.

Erichans · 2026-07-19T11:22:33+0100

Paul Floyd said:
I've delete drm-66-kmod

Right, IIUC that means you do not want/need to use a kernel modesetting graphics driver for your intel iGPU because you just deleted it.
For the Nvidia stuff T-Aoki is definitively very much more knowledgeable.

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T12:17:37+0100

Erichans said:
Right, IIUC that means you do not want/need to use a kernel modesetting graphics driver for your intel iGPU because you just deleted it.
For the Nvidia stuff T-Aoki is definitively very much more knowledgeable.

Well, I'll try if I can't get nvidia to work.

Erichans · 2026-07-19T12:25:41+0100

Right, I hope you get that working.
Do keep in mind that using Nvidia graphics, instead of relying on your iGPU, for your laptop screen also means that when running on batteries I'm expecting you wil have less runtime available (maybe a lot).

T-Aoki · 2026-07-19T12:39:20+0100

So ~~NeXT~~next step would be to determine whether the issue is in KDE (including sddm) side or xorg / NVIDIA driver side.

Can you try without ~/.xinitrc and ~/.xsession (recommend renaming rather than deleting) to see default twm environment with 2 differently sized xterm window and xeyes (if I recall correctly) appears?

If those appears, xorg itself and NVIDIA driver sets may be OK and the issue would be in KDE side. In this case, consider trying different DE or WM like x11/mate, x11-wm/xfce4 or something else you're interested in.

If the issue persists even on vanilla xorg, another possibility is that the resolution and/or refresh rate of your monitor (regardless internal or external) does not provide sane EDID information (or for external monitors, cables is not sanely wired or broken).
If this is the case, forcibly setting modeline in your generated /etc/X11/xorg.conf or run nvidia-xconfig(1) again with --mode= option specifying your screen resolution.

T-Aoki · 2026-07-19T12:45:28+0100

Note that if you prefer Wayland, as far as I know, all compositors wants nvidia-drm.ko is loaded and working. In this case, you need hw.nvidiadrm.modeset=1 line in your /boot/loader.conf (to make 100% sure the tunable is already set BEFORE nvidia-drm.ko is loaded).

Paul Floyd · 2026-07-19T15:07:52+0100

I've run out of time for this, I'll have a look again when I get back from holidays in about 3 weeks.

Thanks for all the help.