Why does the screenshot of my AL2023 Amazon EC2 instance that's built on the Nitro System show "Booting"?

Short description

For EC2 instances that are built on the Nitro System, you must have the simpledrm driver to see the current instance screenshot. If you don't have the driver, then the instance screenshot shows the "Booting Amazon Linux (...) 2023" message. By default, AL2023 instances don't have the simpledrm driver installed.

Resolution

To troubleshoot AL2023 instances, it's a best practice to check the instance console output instead of a screenshot.

Or, to install the simpledrm driver, complete the following steps:

1. Confirm that you use an instance type that's built on the Nitro System.

2. Run the following command to confirm that you use AL2023:

   grep PRETTY_NAME /etc/os-release

3. Run the following command to check your Linux version:

   uname -r

4. Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) to use as a backup of your instance.

5. To install the kernel package with the simpledrm driver, run the following command based on your Linux version.
   Linux version 6.1:

   sudo dnf install kernel-modules-extra-$(uname -r)

   Linux version 6.12:

   sudo dnf install kernel6.12-modules-extra-$(uname -r)

   Linux version 6.18:

   sudo dnf install kernel6.18-modules-extra-$(uname -r)

6. Reboot your instance.

7. Wait 5 minutes, and then check the instance screenshot again.