Article Number: 000129836
Are you seeing start-up issues? (For example: Black Screens, the computer fails to boot, it loops at the log-in screen after performing computer, driver, or software updates.)
The following accordion drawers take you through using recovery mode in Ubuntu. Using the terminal commands that are required to remove those most recent updates. (The instructions are split to address the type of symptoms that you see.)
Optionally, we give terminal instructions on how to reinstall the updates for testing the startup. (Updates are known to cause issues when they go wrong during installation, which may not be seen on reinstallation.)
Restart your computer and press the Esc key once the Dell Splash screen disappears. (Press once on the Esc key. However, this may take several attempts and should bring up the Grand Unified Bootloader(GRUB) menu.)
Select the option ending with…(Recovery Mode).
Select the option Drop to root shell prompt to open a terminal prompt.
Check the usual log files. Check if they indicate where the computer is unresponsive and if so while it is carrying out what 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 directs your troubleshooting to one of the following steps. If not, start at the first step and work your way through them to a resolution:
Type the following command to give the following commands administrator rights: (You must be part of the admin group for this. Enter your user password when it asks.)
sudo su
Try manually starting lightdm by typing and running the following command:
lightdm
Do you get redirected back to the log in 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 it 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 again: (Enter your user password when it asks.)
sudo su
Run the following commands in this order: (This only works if your computer ships with a NVIDIA Graphical Processor Unit (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
Ensure that you have a wired or wireless Ethernet connection to the computer.
Connect to the Internet.
Open a terminal window.
Run the following command again: (Enter your user password when it asks.)
sudo su
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:
shutdown -r
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.)
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) kernel by 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.
Type the following command to give the following commands administrator rights: (You must be part of the admin group for this. Enter your user password when it asks.)
sudo su
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
26 Apr 2024
5
How To