[SOLVED] No GUI after installing EndeavourOS on Framework 16

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
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TLDR: I successfully installed EndeavourOS on my Framework 16 but I have no GUI.

TLDR solution: SDDM is misconfigured by default. Go to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#Wayland and create and fill in the /etc/sddm.conf.d/10-wayland.conf file. Next, open KDE System Settings and navigate to Colors & Themes > Login Screen (SDDM) and click “Apply Plasma Settings…”.

Linux distro: EndeavourOS

Version: Ganymede-Neo-2026.01.12 (sha512 4019bfc0175a52316f4e4455b7f78064e7140f3fafc839d3add37d0c20469a6ab3a353f20bfbb1f1a75d2f0e30bd161c95f1d80c76c8995fc674b0b9ec6da4c3)

Kernel version: 6.18.9-arch1-2 (from uname -r)

BIOS version: LFKN6.03.04

CPU: AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series - Ryzen™ AI 9 HX 370 w/ Radeon 890M

GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5070

Hello everyone!

I just opened and built my brand new Framework 16! I followed all the instructions and decided to install EndeavourOS as my distro of choice. I know it’s not officially supported but plenty of people seem to use it without issue and Framework even partnered with the EndeavourOS team to test their hardware with their distro.

Anyway, I have disabled Secure Boot, plugged a USB drive with EndeavourOS on it, and booted the computer from the drive. I choose the second option from the EndeavourOS boot menu “EndeavourOS with NVIDIA drivers for recent cards” (I don’t remember the exact label). So far so good.I arrive into the Live Environment (with KDE Plasma, the default GUI), I connect to my home WiFi, and start the installation process. I choose a username, a partition, timezone, a desktop environment (KDE Plasma), a language, etc. The installation succeeds and I reboot.

And I am stuck on a blank, black screen. No login prompt, no wallpaper, nothing. I can successfully log in via the alternate TTYs (by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F3 for example) but I have no GUI.

When I press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to access the default TTY, I can see all the boot startup messages. The last one reads [ OK ] Reached target Graphical Interface. The second TTY cannot be accessed (Ctrl+Alt+F2 just shows a black screen.)

Does anyone know how to fix this? I have heard that NVIDIA drivers can be complicated on Linux (obligatory insert Linus flips off NVIDIA image here) but I thought EndeavourOS included them out of the box. Why does it work in the Live Environment but not after I have installed it?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Note: I should point out that I tried installing Pop!_OS on there too and it worked fine. I had a GUI.

EDIT: SOLVED!

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I’m guessing you mean you have a blank screen on SDDM login. That issue has been a problem for a while. Check here for a fix that worked for me on base arch at least. If you are able to login via TTY and do startplasma-wayland and it loads fine then it is just SDDM causing the issue and hopefully that fix will help.

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Thank you for pointing me in the right direction! It was indeed SDDM (I had no idea what it was before that)! I ended finding the solution by googling “sddm nvidia black screen” and following ArchLinux’s wiki.

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Just chiming in - this fix got SDDM working for me under Wayland, using the Ryzen AI. Before this I was running KDE from the command-line using a console:

XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland dbus-run-session startplasma-wayland

…saved as a shell alias of course.

The actual fix, for those who don’t want to wade through the Arch links:

[General]
DisplayServer=wayland
GreeterEnvironment=QT_WAYLAND_SHELL_INTEGRATION=layer-shell
[Wayland]
CompositorCommand=kwin_wayland --drm --no-lockscreen --no-global-shortcuts --locale1

Put that in /etc/sddm.comf, and make sure you have the “layer-shell-qt” package installed.

Of course now I have X running again (tip of the hat to @Blockyheadman) so Wayland is for the birds

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Yes! this is the exact fix suggested in the Arch wiki ! (link in my post)

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Yeah that’s where I got it from. I included the details here so others don’t have to go track it down. Those Arch pages are kinda cluttered.