When asking for help in the Discord, avoid pasting lengthy logs, terminal output, or command results directly into chat, this clutters the channel and can make issues harder to read and track.
Instead, use PikaOS Paste:
PikaOS Paste is the project's own encrypted, expiring paste service, and is the preferred way to share this kind of output.
pikman upgrade, a log file, or a config file).log, bash), an expiry time, and a password if you'd like the paste protected.This keeps the channel readable and makes it much easier for helpers to review the full output.
Use this method when you can't get a graphical session and can't drop into a TTY either.
If that doesn't help
Go back to the rEFInd bootloader and press Tab twice. This reveals the full boot command line.
Move to the end of the line, add aspace, then type3. pressenter
Boot with this option — it will drop you into a terminal (runlevel 3) for further troubleshooting.
If neither option works, you can still reach your installed system by chrooting from a live ISO. Follow the guide here:
Chrooting from a Live ISO in PikaOS
Linux provides virtual terminals called TTYs, separate from your graphical login screen.
-If you have a bluescreen, press tab and launch into an older kernel and proceed with the commands below in a terminal.
-If you get stuck at the greeter, press Ctrl+Alt F1 to start a TTY terminal, login and proceed with the commands below.
pikman i pika-nvidia-driver kernel-pika-kernel
Proceed to login and if needed remove the faulty kernel or non supported kernel with the PikaOS kernel manager
If your greeter fails to start or behaves incorrectly, reconfigure it from a TTY:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure otter-greeter
Replace otter-greeter with the package name of whichever greeter/display manager you have installed and want to use.
To reconfigure your keyboard layout system-wide:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure kbd-data
sudo dpk --configure -a
pikman upgrade
Note: If you can't type at all, not even at the login manager or in a TTY, use Section 1 to get into a terminal first, then run the commands above.
If your keyboard input isn't recognized specifically in otter-greeter (but works elsewhere):
sudo nano /etc/otter-shell/otter-greeter/otter-greeter-hyprland.lua
kb_layout = "gb",
Replace gb with your required keyboard layout code (e.g. us, de, fr).
On some newer AMD graphics cards (such as the Radeon RX 9070), KWin (Wayland) can repeatedly crash or fail to initialize, often accompanied by Unsupported screen format RA24 errors in the logs. A temporary workaround (forcing a software cursor) is available until an upstream fix lands. See the full guide here:
KWin Bug: Unsupported Screen Format RA24 (AMD GPUs)
If that fails follow Section 1 to get a terminal for further troubleshooting.
You can always ask for further advice on the PikaOS Discord