ugraded ubuntu, now cannot start an X session

I installed updates (I'm not sure what) and when I later rebooted the log in screen appears, but when I enter the password, the screen blanks for a moment, then the (graphical) login screen reappears.

I looked for information in the logs. I found that attempting to log in generates a ton of messages that look like this:

Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4636]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.112699] init: bumblebeed main process (4636) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.112708] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4648]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.121519] init: bumblebeed main process (4648) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.121531] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4658]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.131603] init: bumblebeed main process (4658) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.131615] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4666]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.140545] init: bumblebeed main process (4666) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.140558] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4674]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.150363] init: bumblebeed main process (4674) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.150374] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4682]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.160106] init: bumblebeed main process (4682) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.160117] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca bumblebeed[4690]: No integrated video card found, quitting.
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.170127] init: bumblebeed main process (4690) terminated with status 1
Sep 28 15:40:19 alpaca kernel: [  495.170143] init: bumblebeed main process ended, respawning

I'm using an ATI Radeon card, so why is it looking for integrated video? I looked in the Xorg log file and saw lots of stuff about Radeon, but nothing that looked like an error (though it's hard to tell what's going on in this log file).

This is with kernel Ubuntu 3.13.0-36.63-generic 3.13.11.6 and installed Xorg stuff is:

ii  xorg                      1:7.7+1ubuntu8    amd64             X.Org X Window System
ii  xorg-docs-core            1:1.7-1           all               Core documentation for the X.org X Window System
ii  xorg-sgml-doctools        1:1.11-1          all               Common tools for building X.Org SGML documentation
ii  xserver-xorg              1:7.7+1ubuntu8    amd64             X.Org X server
ii  xserver-xorg-core         2:1.15.1-0ubuntu2 amd64             Xorg X server - core server
ii  xserver-xorg-input-all    1:7.7+1ubuntu8    amd64             X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
ii  xserver-xorg-input-evdev  1:2.8.2-1ubuntu2  amd64             X.Org X server -- evdev input driver
ii  xserver-xorg-input-mouse  1:1.9.0-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- mouse input driver
ii  xserver-xorg-input-synapt 1.7.4-0ubuntu1    amd64             Synaptics TouchPad driver for X.Org server
ii  xserver-xorg-input-vmmous 1:13.0.0-1build1  amd64             X.Org X server -- VMMouse input driver to use with VMWa
ii  xserver-xorg-input-wacom  1:0.23.0-0ubuntu2 amd64             X.Org X server -- Wacom input driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-all    1:7.7+1ubuntu8    amd64             X.Org X server -- output driver metapackage
ii  xserver-xorg-video-ati    1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3. amd64             X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper
ii  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus 1:1.5.2-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- Cirrus display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-fbdev  1:0.4.4-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- fbdev display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-glamor 0.6.0-0ubuntu4    amd64             X.Org X server -- graphics acceleration module based on
ii  xserver-xorg-video-intel  2:2.99.910-0ubunt amd64             X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-mach64 6.9.4-1build1     amd64             X.Org X server -- ATI Mach64 display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-mga    1:1.6.3-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- MGA display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-modese 0.8.1-1build1     amd64             X.Org X server -- Generic modesetting driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-neomag 1:1.2.8-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- Neomagic display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-nouvea 1:1.0.10-1ubuntu2 amd64             X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-opench 1:0.3.3-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- VIA display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-qxl    0.1.1-0ubuntu3    amd64             X.Org X server -- QXL display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-r128   6.9.2-1build1     amd64             X.Org X server -- ATI r128 display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-radeon 1:7.3.0-1ubuntu3. amd64             X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI Radeon display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-s3     1:0.6.5-0ubuntu4  amd64             X.Org X server -- legacy S3 display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-savage 1:2.3.7-2ubuntu2  amd64             X.Org X server -- Savage display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-silico 1:1.7.7-2build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- SiliconMotion display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-sis    1:0.10.7-0ubuntu6 amd64             X.Org X server -- SiS display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-sisusb 1:0.9.6-2build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- SiS USB display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-tdfx   1:1.4.5-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- tdfx display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-triden 1:1.3.6-0ubuntu5  amd64             X.Org X server -- Trident display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-vesa   1:2.3.3-1build1   amd64             X.Org X server -- VESA display driver
ii  xserver-xorg-video-vmware 1:13.0.2-2ubuntu1 amd64             X.Org X server -- VMware display driver

Anybody have any idea what might be going on here?

Could the software update have changed your installed video driver? That happened to a friend of mine running 12.04. He didn't loose the GUI entirely but saw a lot bizarre behavior. When he reinstalled his video driver, the display went back to normal.

What would be missing? Ubuntu normally installs all the drivers. In other words, if you change video cards it doesn't quit working. I noticed that the ATI and Radeon drivers are still installed, and xorg.log is full of messages about radeon that look reasonable to me. I also did try switching to the onboard intel video and it failed in exactly the same way.

Let me add another detail about my friend's experience, which might help clarify whether my comment above is even relevant to your problem.

He had opened the Update Manager and found an offered update box near the top of the screen where you may see the OS upgrade offered, except in this case, it was labeled as a hardware upgrade. He said he didn't know what was involved in the hardware upgrade, but he went ahead and installed it. After that, his display was messed up, but not inoperative.

To fix his problem, he opened the Additional Drivers application and observed that a new display driver had been chosen among the available options. He knew what had been installed originally, so he reinstalled that, and his display started working normally again.

He is running 12.04, and his display card is nVidia (I don't know which one).

Was the kernel upgraded? If so try the previous kernel that was being used and see if it still works.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <Ubuntu> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I actually downgraded from 3.16.3 after I had some issues with WiFI signal that won t show up correct, try recompiling the ATI driver again, maibe it is not the current kernel`s version. Or as colorpurple21859 stated earlier, downgrade the kernel back to whatever it had before. or remove the proprietary ATI driver and see the result

The first thing I would do is remove bumblebee.

You don't need it and it obviously is trying to do something. Probably having a very hard time finding your nVidia card.

I did try running an older kernel and it had no effect on the behavior.

Yeah, pretty hard to find my nvidia card. So I removed bumblebee and rebooted (because it did something to the kernel) and I was still getting bumblebee errors in syslog. Geez. I purged bumblebee (which got rid of /etc/inid.t/bumblebeed) and now those errors are gone. But I still get the crash. And actually I took a look at historic syslog files and the bumblebeed errors were there even when everything was working.

I took another look at the files that are be written after a failed X login. And Xorg.0.log is the only one that seems like it is relevant. It's a pretty long file, and hard to post here. I wonder if this line (the last one) is indicating an error:

[   139.416] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch

Note that I'm using the native ATI driver, not the binary one.

Have you tried booting to recovery and using startx to start your session.

May give you some information at the least.

I would also log in as root from recovery mode and see if that gives you a desktop environment.

This is not a safe place to be facing the internet from so disconnect the bugger. Or to feel really safe unplug the thing if you are using a wired connection (I am too paranoid to use wifi - probably need professional help on that).

The problem was that ~/.Xauthority was owned by root. I'm not sure how that happened. Once this file was removed, then everything started to work again.