Comment 0 for bug 1821533

Booting very new laptop hardware (ASUS Zenbook UX431FA) from 18.04 usb install (also 18.10, also 19.04 daily) leads to black screen. Adding "nomodeset" to kernel boot parameter gives 800x600 video only and permits installing OS to disk. Applying updates and hardware enablement packages does not solve problem: the system will still only boot with nomodeset kernel option, and X is limited to using fbdev module at 800x600 resolution.

The "modesetting" driver appears to be loaded and then unloaded during X startup. Trying to force intel module from xserver-xorg-video-intel by setting up 20-intel.conf file in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ does not help.

The PCI id for the graphics device appears to be 3ea0 and the place where that might be relevant is the i915 module.

This problem occurs with every other Linux release I have tried including Fedora 29, Elementary OS latest, Mint 19.1, Manjaro latest. The one open source OS that I have found where it might be fixed is DragonFlyBSD (see bug report 3167 here https://bugs.dragonflybsd.org/issues/3167). I have verified that the patch referenced in that bug report does make DragonFlyBSD boot past the video problem which I think is the same problem I experience with every Linux OS I have tried including Ubuntu.

guest@guest-ZenBook-UX431FA:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Release: 18.04

guest@guest-ZenBook-UX431FA:~$ dpkg -l | grep hwe | egrep "linux|fbdev"
ii linux-generic-hwe-18.04 4.18.0.16.66 amd64 Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
ii linux-headers-generic-hwe-18.04 4.18.0.16.66 amd64 Generic Linux kernel headers
ii linux-image-generic-hwe-18.04 4.18.0.16.66 amd64 Generic Linux kernel image
ii linux-signed-generic-hwe-18.04 4.18.0.16.66 amd64 Complete Signed Generic Linux kernel and headers (dummy transitional package)
ii xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-hwe-18.04 1:0.5.0-1ubuntu1~18.04.1 amd64 X.Org X server -- fbdev display driver

Expected result: Video at 1920x1080
Actual result: Video limited to 800x600

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu7.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-16.17~18.04.1-generic 4.18.20
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.6
Architecture: amd64
BootLog: Error: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/boot.log'
CompositorRunning: None
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sun Mar 24 10:36:51 2019
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: bionic
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, including running git bisection searches
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation Device [8086:3ea0] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:17d1]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-03-24 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
MachineType: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ZenBook UX431FA
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-16-generic root=UUID=e6ae272a-49f0-491b-99b6-2a3785a7679e ro nomodeset vt.handoff=1
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/14/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: UX431FA.205
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: UX431FA
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Tag
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrUX431FA.205:bd12/14/2018:svnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:pnZenBookUX431FA:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnUX431FA:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.family: ZenBook
dmi.product.name: ZenBook UX431FA
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.95-1~18.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 18.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.2
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 18.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core N/A
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A