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Ubuntu 20.04 stuck on boot screen before login

cn flag
Valentin Dubois

So I know similar issues have been posted a thousand times already, yet I ask you to trust me when I say I reviewed a dozen or more threads and still couldn't solve my problem.

I recently installed Ubuntu 20.04 on an old laptop of mine, which as usual has a dual GPU: Intel chipset and NVidia GTX765M. I thought I managed to handle the driver situation pretty well, doing ubuntu-drivers devices and then installing the recommended driver with sudo apt install nvidia-driver-440. I even ensured in nvidia-settings that Prime was selected so that the pc used the NVidia GPU.

Anyway I think I did manage to reboot after that but I'm not sure. What matters is that the next day the computer didn't want to boot anymore and stayed stuck at the logo screen. I tried an handful of soltions found here and elsewhere on the net if that can help:

  1. Editing Grub I followed this tutorial: https://itsfoss.com/fix-ubuntu-freezing/ None of the solutions proposed by editing GRUB worked for me unfortunately.

  2. Editing /etc/gdm3/custom.conf I booted in Recovery Mode and from the root terminal edited /etc/gdm3/custom.conf to un-comment the line #Wayland = false, but unfortunately the pc still doesn't boot.

I still suspect the issue is linked to the NVidia driver but at this point I have no further idea or proof of anything. I thank you in advance for reading my post and if you can, propose your help to solve my issue that would be much appreciated !

EDIT: I can confirm that the Nvidia driver is the cause of the issue. The simple act of saving a xconf file causes the pc to be stuck on reboot, even without editing it

clicking on Save to X configuration file causes the boot issue

I however solved my issue by running in recovery mode from the grub screen (press ESC at start, choose the second option, launch recovery mode), and then opening a terminal with the "root" option and deleting the xconf file in /etc/X11/. Rebooting then works normally. The issue is a want to enable vsync to get rid of screen tearing issues and the only way I found so far is to do it though a xconf file.

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id flag
idunno
Hello there! Have you ever tried executing: `sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall`? That solved a big issue of mine.
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cn flag
Valentin Dubois
@idunno Hello, thanks for your answer. I just tried that and it just says "0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded" so I assume it didn't change anything ...
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
Since Ubuntu 20.04, it is a choice during installation to install the system with proprietary Nvidia drivers. You should select third party software, and download updates while installing. You can reinstall with these options and choose the Nvidia driver from the start so that you do not have to wrangle your system after-the-fact. PS: there are lots of "boot screens" - your description isn't specific enough to know what you're referring to
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oldfred avatar
cn flag
oldfred
Do not install another nVidia driver without totally purging any previous drivers. You get conflicts as a new driver does not uninstall previous. If wrong nVidia driver or upgrade, you must purge & install correct driver https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2362351&p=13649946#post13649946 Can you boot to grub menu and boot older kernel or recovery mode? What brand/model system?
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cn flag
Valentin Dubois
@Nmath Thanks for your answer ! I did this choice but somehow ended up reinstalling the drivers but I don't remember why I felt like meddling with the drivers afterwards. I did 3 reinstalls and spent more than 10h on this in the last 2 days so I'm a bit confused. I will do a 4th reinstall if nobody can help. Sorry I don't have a lot of technical knowledge on Linux, how would you suggest to modify the description, I am stuck at a black screen where there are the logo of the brand and the ubuntu logo behind. I can't access terminal from this screen.
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cn flag
Valentin Dubois
@oldfred Thanks for your answer, I can access terminal through recovery mode from the grub screen yes. Brand is MSI, don't remember the model though it's from 2013 ...
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
I am hearing that everything was fine until you meddled with drivers after installation. My suggestion is to reinstall and not try to fix things that aren't broken. If you're making a lot of changes to configs and drivers after installation, you are probably causing these problems. Also if you are installing unofficial software you could be causing problems.
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cn flag
Valentin Dubois
You are probably right, I guess I'll just do a 4th reinstall ... Thanks for the help anyway, I learned a lot trying to debug this mess and it's actually kinda interesting even if frustrating.
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cn flag
Valentin Dubois
@Nmath I did a reinstall and let Ubuntu do its thing, didn't touch Nvidia driver and let the manually installed one, did a reboot and got stuck ... I will try switching to Mint to see if it works out better. Thanks anyway
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Nmath avatar
ng flag
Nmath
You didn't answer my question. Why are you manually installing drivers after installation? This seems to be your problem. Mint is Ubuntu based so I'm incredulous that it will be any better if you choose to repeat the same mistake...
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