Article Number: 000129836
Are you seeing start-up issues? Such as Black Screens, the computer fails to boot, it loops at the login screen after performing computer, driver, or software updates.
The next section will take you through using recovery mode in Ubuntu. Using the terminal commands that are required to remove those most recent updates.
Optionally, we give terminal instructions on how to reinstall the updates for testing the startup in the third section. (Updates are known to cause issues when they go wrong during installation, which may not be seen on reinstallation.)
Restart the computer and press down the Esc key once the Dell Splash screen disappears. (Press only once on the Esc key, however, this may take several attempts and should bring up the GRUB menu.)
Symptom: Black Screen or Loops at boot
Select the option ending with…(Recovery Mode).
Select the option that is listed as Drop to root shell prompt to open a terminal prompt
Check the usual log files. Check if they indicate where the computer was unresponsive and if so while carrying out which operation? Try the following commands followed by pressing the Enter Key (If these do not work, try changing cat for less.):
cat ~/.xsession-errors
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log
cat /var/crash
The information in the logs will shortcut your troubleshooting to one of the following steps. If not, start at the first step and work your way through them to a resolution:
Run the following command to give yourself administrator rights on the following commands (Enter your user password when it asks.):
sudo su
Try manually starting lightdm using the following command:
lightdm
Do you get redirected back to the login screen after entering the password into a display manager like lightdm or GDM? Run the following command to remove the Xauthority file from your home folder and try again:
rm ~/.Xauthority
If that did not work, you can use the following command to purge the Nvidia driver from the computer:
apt-get purge nvidia*
Can you now log in? If you can, but the graphics are basic you can update the video driver. If you cannot, then you may be looking at reinstalling Ubuntu once you have saved your data off the computer.
Run the following command to give yourself administrator rights on the following commands (Enter your user password when it asks.):
sudo su
Run the following commands (This only works if your computer shipped with a Nvidia GPU.):
add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
apt update
apt upgrade
ubuntu-drivers list
Pick your version from the list of Nvidia drivers and then run the following command to update it:
apt install nvidia-driver-VERSION_NUMBER_HERE
The following command restarts the computer:
shutdown -r
Symptom: No Boot
Roll back to the previous version of the operating system.
(You should boot to the older kernel version listed in the GRUB recovery Menu)
Uninstall the new (faulty) by kernel changing the text between the <> brackets with the version number seen in GRUB:
sudo apt remove <linux-image-4.15.0.1066-oem>
Update the GRUB program using the following command:
sudo update-grub
The following command restarts the computer:
shutdown -r
Ensure you have a wired or wireless Ethernet connection on the computer.
Connect to the Internet.
Open a terminal window.
Run the following command to give yourself administrator rights on the following commands (Enter your user password when it asks. Your account needs to be an administrator on your computer.):
sudo su
Symptom: Black Screen or Loops at boot
Run the following command to update the driver and software package database:
apt-get update
Run the following command to update from the new driver and software packages:
apt-get upgrade
Restart the computer and test if the computer still logs in as it should. The following command restarts the computer:
shutdown -r
Symptom: No Boot
Run the following command to update the list of kernel updates:
apt update
Run the following command to update from the operating system updates:
apt upgrade
Restart the computer and test if the computer still logs in as it should. The following command restarts the computer:
shutdown -r
G Series, Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, XPS, Fixed Workstations
04 Feb 2022
4
Solution