Ubuntu 14.04 hangs after login, doesn't respond to popular fixes

slackr007 · 12-19-2014, 11:54 AM

So I've got 14.04 installed on a new computer I just built. All new hardware, new install, everything new. I had it all up and running for a few days. I got the nvidia drivers installed, installed steam and was even able to play some games. The last time I had it up it loaded fine, I played 'The Talos Principle', then rebooted to go back to windows. Now when I boot into linux it hangs after the login screen. You can look at my post history as I had this issue before. I was able to fix it that time, but I think it was a different cause.

Some things I've tried to date:
The most common suggestion I've found from googling this issue is to restart lightdm. I've done that to no avail.

I've tried simply entering tty from the frozen screen and then coming back out with Ctrl+Alt+F7. No dice there either.

I've also seen that some people needed to reset their graphics drivers when using nvidia. I tried to do that and I don't think it worked. When I try to purge all nvidia packages it always says "0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 16 not upgraded".
Results of dpkg:

Code:

$ dpkg -l nvidia*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait-Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version      Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-===================
un  nvidia-common  <none>       <none>       (no description available)
un  nvidia-prime   <none>       <none>       (no description available)

I'm gonna keep googling around in case I find something useful, but I fear I'm treading into water deeper than I know how to swim in and I'm worried that I'll screw something up if I start experimenting. I know just enough about linux to be dangerous. Any advice on what the results of dpkg above mean or suggestions about the problem would be much appreciated.

edit: Forgot to mention that the last time it was working I didn't make any changes to anything. I played a game and rebooted. Suddenly things are broken.

AlexBB · 12-20-2014, 12:24 PM

I presume you have two partitions on your C:\ drive, one is for the Windows, the other for Ubuntu. I also assume you loaded/installed the Windows OS first. I also assume you can log in to the Windows. If so, go to cmd prompt as an administrator and run bcdedit.exe. See what is inside. The Ubuntu OS should be properly acknowledged there. I am not sure you will find a solution there but it will be a good starting point.

slackr007 · 12-22-2014, 01:34 PM

All of your assumptions are correct, except Ubuntu being acknowledged in bcdedit.exe. Results follow:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit.exe

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {538872e5-841d-11e4-a941-c91704289c9f}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {538872e7-841d-11e4-a941-c91704289c9f}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {538872e5-841d-11e4-a941-c91704289c9f}
nx                      OptIn

C:\Windows\system32>

I'm reading up on it now, but what is the significance of Ubuntu not being listed there? Usually I assume that ubuntu is invisible to windows (mounting file systems, needing to be installed second, etc).

EDDY1 · 12-22-2014, 01:40 PM

Maybe you should check xsession errors or /var/log/messages

AlexBB · 12-22-2014, 02:21 PM

I have a similar problem except I could not even once boot to Ubuntu after trying to install it three times. Every time starting with #2 the installer tells me I already have the Ubuntu installed and I don't need to do it again. And I cannot find it anywhere. Bcdedit.exe shows nothing. It is so bizarre.

slackr007 · 12-22-2014, 03:01 PM

~/.xsession-errors:

Code:

Xlib:   extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:   extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Script for ibus started at run_im.
Script for auto strted at run_im.
Script for default started at run_im.
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd main process ended, respawning
init: at-spi2-registryd respawning too fast, stopped

What would I look at in /var/log/? I looked at lightdm.log and that was empty. nvidia-installer.log is huge and I don't really know what the stuff in it means. Nothing obviously wrong in it. Just looks like a log of all the things the installer did. It does mention that it detected a previous driver when installing, though.

EDDY1 · 12-23-2014, 01:29 AM

Have you tried removing the nvidia driver with rmmod or modprobe -r & loading nouveau with modprobe?

AlexBB · 12-24-2014, 08:32 AM

What does nvidia driver have to do with Ubuntu?

yancek · 12-24-2014, 09:08 AM

Quote:

What does nvidia driver have to do with Ubuntu?

The OP clearly states in his initial post that he is using an Nvidia driver on the machine.

You won't see an entry in the bcdedit.exe file unless you manually edited that file yourself and put the entry there or, used some third party software such as EasyBCD which will edit the file and put an entry for Linux.

Which windows version are you using? Are you able to boot Ubuntu but simply cannot get into a GUI but are able to access a terminal?

AlexBB · 12-24-2014, 01:29 PM

I am sorry, I was under the impression that it was my OP. Very sorry. I have a somewhat similar problem, this is why I got confused. Thanks.

colorpurple21859 · 12-24-2014, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Have you tried removing the nvidia driver with rmmod or modprobe -r & loading nouveau with modprobe?

I don't think that will work since nvidia replaces some Xorg files with it's own files during installation. If an update was done recently involving x or mesa I would recommend to uninstall and reinstall the nvidia driver or uninstall and use nouveau driver.

slackr007 · 02-01-2015, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Which windows version are you using? Are you able to boot Ubuntu but simply cannot get into a GUI but are able to access a terminal?

Sorry for the delayed reply. I got fed up with the issue and quit messing with it for a while. I'm using windows 7 pro. I can boot Ubuntu normally. I get the login screen and log in, then it just goes to a blank screen with the background and a "ubuntu 14.04 LTS" watermark in the bottom left. I can enter a terminal from this screen, but have no mouse and don't get reactions from any other keyboard commands that I know of. Terminal access is how I am able to view my logs.

Just an additional tidbit: I have also tried accessing the advanced ubuntu options in grub and loading an older version. Same issue, the only difference being that everything is in low resolution. Perhaps because I've rolled back to a version which doesn't have my graphics driver installed? I'm not entirely sure what that is even doing, to be honest.