Score:1

Upgrade a working 21.04 installation to 21.10 resulted in a useless purple screen

in flag

I upgraded my fully functional ubuntu 21.04 installation to 21.10, and the result was a useless blank purple Ubuntu screen. Rebooting just results in the same thing. There is nothing I can do, not even getting into the bios when rebooting. Is there some way past this problem that doesn't cause all my previous settings to be lost? It's become apparent that I can't preserve anything. When I reboot the keyboard is ignored; I can't get into the bios, so I can't boot from a USB key to wipe it all out and reinstall the OS, any version. So, somehow the computer has become a paperweight, capable of nothing but the useless purple Ubuntu screen.

Problem solved, although I don't know how. But after several reboots, the system let me log in, and everything is working fine now.

ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
Getting to BIOS/UEFI is hardly any help in this case and your current inability to do so has nothing to do with the installed OS or the release upgrade. Try CTRL+ALT+F3 to obtain a TTY (command line login console), authenticate with your username and password then run `sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade`, let it finish and reboot with `sudo reboot now`.
ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
About settings: Due to the change to the new Gnome 40 most of the desktop look & feel settings are probably lost anyway.
in flag
CTRL-ALT-F3 brought up a box with two options, "top bar' and 'login window'. But it didn't make any difference, as the box stayed up only a couple of seconds, and the keyboard couldn't select either of them. After a power off, the system came up in a usable form, but after another restart, it was back to the unusable purple screen again. And now the CTRL-ALT-F3 box only has the 'top bar' option!
kanehekili avatar
zw flag
Does [his](https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-upgrade-ubuntu-to-21-10]) help? I've tried it several times, but my advice it to set up Ubuntu from scratch - it is not a rolling release.
waltinator avatar
it flag
Type "Purple screen" into the AskUbuntu search box at the top of the page
Score:0
in flag

The problem is solved, or at least has gone away. I don't know how or why, but it all works now. I rebooted my system several times. On one of the reboots, instead of going directly into ubuntu and the purple screen, it gave me an opportunity to log in. I did that, and this time it has continued to work correctly. That's all I know about it, except that I was pleased to find that I lost none of my personal settings that had been in the 21.04 installation.

However, I don't know how to mark my question solved.

in flag
If I knew anything useful, I would have put it in the answer. I rebooted my system several times. On one of the reboots, instead of going directly into ubuntu and the purple screen, it gave me an opportunity to log in. I did that, and this time it has continued to work correctly. That's all I know about it, except that I was pleased to find that I lost none of my settings that had been in my 21.04 installation.
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