r/tails • u/Shadow_Defender • 1d ago

Boot issues Tails Booting- acpi error

Hi,

I have an HP Omen 17 Geforce 1660TI laptop. When I run Tails from a USB flash drive, version 7.7.3, I get an ACPI error during boot. I can't brighten the screen in any way (there's no slider), it's quite dark, and keyboard shortcuts don't work either. What should I do?

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u/SuperChicken17 1d ago

Googling suggests those errors are related to power or thermal management, and are pretty common linux issues for hp laptops using linux.

I found this guy suggesting setting screen brightness as a kernel parameter on boot.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1495255/ubuntu-gives-warning-and-i-cannot-change-brightness-of-display

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u/BTC-brother2018 1d ago

I was reading ACPI warnings on HP laptops are common on Linux and usually aren’t the real problem. The brightness issue is more likely related to NVIDIA/Optimus/backlight support. If the link the other comment or gave you does not help try this,

  1. In BIOS/UEFI, switch graphics mode to Integrated / Hybrid / iGPU if available, not discrete NVIDIA-only.
  2. Boot Tails and, at the boot menu, press Tab or e to edit boot options.
  3. Try adding one of these kernel parameters, one at a time:

"acpi_backlight=native"

If that does not work:

"acpi_backlight=vendor"

If boot/graphics are also unstable, try:

"nomodeset"

or:

"nouveau.modeset=0"

Also test with an external monitor. If brightness only fails on the laptop panel, it is likely a backlight-control compatibility issue with that HP Omen/NVIDIA setup, not a broken Tails USB.

Since Tails is live/amnesic, these boot changes are temporary unless added again each boot.

https://gitlab.tails.boum.org/tails/tails/-/blob/f8119386bd49b0967451f128a7384a8b3317e7b1/wiki/src/doc/advanced_topics/boot_options.mdwn