Ubuntu black screen after start up

Axman43 · 10-26-2012, 04:20 PM

Hello,

I just installed Ubuntu two days ago, and had no problems. it wasn't until yesterday that I started to have issues. I was checking to see if any of my drivers needed updating, and my Nvidia graphics cared had a lot of things to either update or activate. After activating one of the drivers and installing it I got prompt to restart my computer. Upon restart everything starts up correctly when I click to use my Linux instead of Vista (I partitioned Linux with my Windows Vista) the whole screen goes black and I see nothing but I do hear a noise meaning I am on the login screen and it's only my screen that is not being displayed. If someone could help me with this it would be great, I have looked at few other fourms with people that had similar issues.

Ryan

Axman43 · 10-26-2012, 06:08 PM

If anyone can help me as soon as possible it would be great

.

tommcd · 10-27-2012, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axman43

I was checking to see if any of my drivers needed updating, and my Nvidia graphics cared had . ...

There should not have been "a lot of things to either update or activate" for the nvidia-driver. It should only really be the driver itself. Perhaps there were other system updates also.
What nvidia card do you have?
What version of Ubutnu are you using??
If you have a GForce 6 card or newer, you should use the nvidia-current driver.

Try booting to recovery mode by choosing the "advanced" options" from the grub menu (assuming you are using Ubuntu 12.10). Then choose recovery mode, then choose "drop to a root shell prompt" from the menu that comes up.
Then remove all nvidia drivers:

Code:

apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

Then reboot with

Code:

reboot

Hopefully, you should now get to the Ubuntu deasktop. If you do, then open a terminal and install the nvidia-current driver:

Code:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings mesa-utils

If you still can not get to the Ubuntu desktop, then run the above commands to install the nvidia driver from the recovery mode root shell prompt as I instructed above. Then reboot.
(Note that you do not need sudo when running from a root shell prompt}.
Hopefully you can now get to the Ubuntu desktop.
To activate the nvidia driver, run this from the terminal:

Code:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then to check if the nvidia driver is running:

Code:

glxinfo | grep -i render

You should get something like this:

Code:

bash-4.2$ glxinfo | grep -i render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce 8400 GS/PCIe/SSE
 GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color, GL_NV_copy_image, 
    GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object2, GL_NV_path_rendering, 
    GL_NVX_conditional_render, GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info, 
    GL_OES_depth_texture, GL_OES_element_index_uint, GL_OES_fbo_render_mipmap,

The important stuff there is direct rendering: Yes to indicate that direct rendering is enabled, and your graphics card should be listed on the next line as mine is on the OpenGL renderer string line (nvidia GForce 8400GS in my case).

I always prefer to install the nvidia drivers manually from the terminal like this to avoid problems.
Write back if you need mreo help.

And welcome to the LQ forums!

Axman43 · 10-27-2012, 10:42 AM

When I type in apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

Not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock
Unable to write to /var/cache/apt/
The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened

I also get this on tiger their option
I also do not know what version it is, is there a way to check
The Graphics card is Nvidia GeForce 7000m

tommcd · 10-27-2012, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axman43

When I type in apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

Not using locking for read only lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock
Unable to write to /var/cache/apt/
The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened

This sounds like a permissions problem.
Are you running this from the recovery mode root shell prompt? In any case try using sudo before the apt-get commands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axman43

I also get this on tiger their option

I do not know what that means.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axman43

I also do not know what version it is, is there a way to check

What version did you install? In any case, run this to check your Ubuntu version:

Code:

cat /etc/lsb-release

Quote:

Originally Posted by Axman43

The Graphics card is Nvidia GeForce 7000m

So is this a laptop? Do you know if the laptop has nvidia optimus? If so, then this can complicate things. I have no experience with nvidia optimus, but I do know that nvidia does not currently support this in Linux.