Here are some specs before I begin:
- x86_64 architecture
- Intel Core i7-4790K processor
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 graphics card
For context, I was previously using Ubuntu version 20.04.3 LTS, but due to a failed installation of an Nvidia graphics driver, I encountered recurring issues with the aspect ratio and booting the system up. I managed to get the system working properly several times, but each time these problems would resurface unprompted. I decided to give in and reinstall Linux with a USB I had (same version).
Reinstallation appeared to go fine. The aspect ratio looked good until I was prompted to restart my system before changes could be saved. Once I did that, Ubuntu would not start correctly, always freezing with either a black screen w/ a mouse in the bottom right corner, or an improperly-cropped login screen.
I can only start my system by accessing the GRUB menu (v 2.04) and selecting a less recent Linux kernel (5.11.0-27 rather than 5.11.0-41). The aspect ratio is still messed up, however.
Here are some of the things I've already tried:
- Editing my startup with "nomodeset" still results in a frozen login
- Navigating the 5.11.0-41 recovery mode menu freezes the system
- Pressing Ctrl+Alt+F4 during startup brings up the login prompt for a split second, but then ignores it and freezes on a black screen with a mouse in the bottom right corner
- Yes, I updated / upgraded everything
- "Additional Drivers" has locked me into the "Continue using a manually installed driver" option. I can't select any of the other options, like the xserver-xorg-video-nouveau open-source one, or the nvidia-driver-495 proprietary one. I'm concerned that if I attempt to manually install one, I'll end up with the same problems as last time!
Here is my output for sudo lshw -c video:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: GM206 [GeForce GTX 960]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
resources: irq:16 memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff
When I tried nvidia-smi I got Failed to initialize NVML: Driver/library version mismatch.
Any help would be appreciated. I believe the mistakes I made previously included editing blacklists and trying to reinstall vital packages...so needless to say, I'd like to avoid those methods if possible.
