Ubuntu gets stuck in black screen with blinking cursor after update

David

1/10/23, 6:54 AM

This happened after the software updater app asked me to restart my system to install updates. Upon restarting the regular boot sequence happens until it hits the blank terminal from which it never continues.

Some things to note are that I originally installed Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 in a dual boot (with Windows) a few weeks back. Also, I would lie if I said that I paid attention what the update was, so I'm not sure if my system was barely installing 20.04.3 or I have had it for a while already, but at the moment of the failure 04.3 is what my system had installed.

I tried dpkg reconfigure and restart from this answer and then I ran Ubuntu in recovery mode and did another dpkg reconfigure as described in this answer (with and without networking). Then I ran a few other options in the recovery menu namely dpgk and fsck.

Finally, as I am basically new to Ubuntu, I decided to just go for a fresh install before I messed up something I can't fix. The fresh install has the exact same issue. There are couple of interesting things I noticed while trying to reinstall:

My bootable usb with Ubuntu 20.04.2 loaded without trouble in regular Ubuntu with graphics enabled.
Trying to save me from backing up my files I tried 04.3. It wouldn't load with graphics, so I had to use safe graphics (and still had to delete all files).

At this point I was going to try reinstalling 04.2 but I realized that even if I disabled updates, there is no point because I'm still losing on important patches and improvements. I do not want a stale Ubuntu, so I'm still looking for a solution.

If it is important, here are the specs of major components of my PC:

Mobo: GIGABYTE Z97X
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Drives: 2xSSD and 2xHDD (OSs are in a single SSD)

118

0 + 0

updates

dual-boot

20.04

ChanganAuto

1/10/23, 8:38 AM

Disable Secure Boot and install the Nvidia drivers properly.

David

1/15/23, 2:33 AM

Would you mind giving a bit more information on how to do this correctly? I tried this https://askubuntu.com/a/474923 and it didn't work. Also, while reading about Secure Boot, I'm not sure I have that enabled.

ChanganAuto

1/15/23, 2:56 AM

An answer from **8 years ago** is hardly relevant. Besides it mentions packages that no longer exist and a very questionable method. (1) Secure Boot is a firmware's (UEFI) feature (UEFI is what replaced BIOS a decade ago), read your manual if you don't know where and how to disable it. (2) In Ubuntu open Additional Drivers, select and apply (it runs a script to purge old versions and install the selected one. It's this simple.

David

1/15/23, 3:33 AM

@ChanganAuto Sorry, I have no way of telling better as I'm pretty new to the GNU/Linux environment. Either way, that fixed the issue. Thank you! I'd vote you up but I can't. Anyway, I checked the UEFI and I had secure boot disabled already (as I suspected). Also, the xorg drivers were selected when I opened the app through secure boot; I changed them to NVidia, rebooted, and booted back into regular Ubuntu and it started without any problem.

guiverc

1/15/23, 12:17 PM

David if you want to thank ChanganAuto, you could always ask him/her to write an answer for you (if it solved your issue), upvote & accept it, plus read some other answers by ChanganAuto & vote up some of them if you felt they were good.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Ubuntu gets stuck in black screen with blinking cursor after update

TH: Ubuntu ค้างอยู่ในหน้าจอสีดำพร้อมเคอร์เซอร์กะพริบหลังจากอัปเดต

RO: Ubuntu rămâne blocat pe ecranul negru cu cursorul care clipește după actualizare

RU: Ubuntu застревает на черном экране с мигающим курсором после обновления

VI: Ubuntu bị kẹt trong màn hình đen với con trỏ nhấp nháy sau khi cập nhật

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