Black screen in Ubuntu 19.10 on bootup

I recently installed Ubuntu 19.10 x64 on a pc with the foll. Specs :c2d cpu, dg41 motherboard, 4gb ram, onboard gfx.

While it worked fine after installation,the problem began upon reboot - every time i attempted to start Ubuntu i was greeted with a black screen and the system appeared to have frozen.

Its only after i restarted the system by performing a hard reset, i was able to access the login screen in Ubuntu - but this time most of the text looked overly large and it was running at a very low resolution .

I remember facing a similar issue on installing Ubuntu 19.4 on a pentium g2030 machine earlier - i assumed it was a bug in Ubuntu which has been rectified in the latest release, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

On googling, i found that this is a fairly common issue in Ubuntu, but a proper solution to it is not well documented.

Does anyone know of any method to resolve this problem? If yes kindly share it here.

Windows 7 works on the aforementioned pc without issues-only Linux is creating trouble.

Before you attempt anything, trying booting from DVD / USB and see how it is working.

It would be nice if you can share what you found out about this error. Will save us time Googling for it.

It works when booted from a live installation media, the issue only starts once Ubuntu has been installed

Looks like you are having graphics driver issues, possibly because of Nvidia drivers

Ubuntu Linux - Black screen and frozen system after upgrade and/or install - The Tech Journal

Black screen after installation of Ubuntu 18.04

Only these 2 seems to have a feasible solution. Did you try these ?

its running on onboard gfx,no discrete gpu is being used

quicky008 said:
I recently installed Ubuntu 19.10 x64 on a pc with the foll. Specs :c2d cpu, dg41 motherboard, 4gb ram, onboard gfx.

While it worked fine after installation,the problem began upon reboot - every time i attempted to start Ubuntu i was greeted with a black screen and the system appeared to have frozen.

Its only after i restarted the system by performing a hard reset, i was able to access the login screen in Ubuntu - but this time most of the text looked overly large and it was running at a very low resolution .

I remember facing a similar issue on installing Ubuntu 19.4 on a pentium g2030 machine earlier - i assumed it was a bug in Ubuntu which has been rectified in the latest release, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

On googling, i found that this is a fairly common issue in Ubuntu, but a proper solution to it is not well documented.

Does anyone know of any method to resolve this problem? If yes kindly share it here.

Windows 7 works on the aforementioned pc without issues-only Linux is creating trouble.

If you're getting the boot menu, go into advanced options for ubuntu and select some kernel version from the list. It will usually boot without the black screen. Try changing the graphics drivers from nonfree to free version or vice versa., and reboot. It *may* get alright.

Sorry I can't give you more detailed instructions as I'm not on a linux machine right now.

Can you try using 18.04 ?

Do you see the GRUB screen when your PC starts? If so, try setting `nomodeset` in the kernel. Steps for doing so can be found here: [Solved] Ubuntu Freezing at Boot Screen [Screenshot Guide]

Generally this is not needed but it mostly depends on whether your GPU supports it or not. These days, all modern distros disable it by default since they expect all new hardware to support high resolution boot screens.

^i tried the method in the aforesaid link and it has removed the freezing issue during boot-however now when the system boots into linux,it runs at a much lower resolution of 1024x768,which makes the display really blurry-when i tried to increase the resolution to 900p(the monitor's native resolution) from display settings,it wasn't possible-no other resolution was available there apart from 1024x768,which is a bit strange.Also the monitor was listed as "unknown display" (before applying this fix,it was identifying the monitor correctly and displaying its model number).

Is it possible that by applying nomodeset,the correct drivers for the monitor/gpu are not being loaded and that's causing the system to run at a lower resolution?

Is this issue confined to ubuntu 19.x versions only?Will reverting the system to ubuntu 18.04 LTS resolve this for good?

Can the drivers for the onboard intel gpu be installed separately somehow?

Post the output of the following command:

Code:

lspci | grep VGA

Edit: Also this command:

Code:

lshw -c video

lspci | grep VGA :did nothing,there was no output to speak of.

lshw -c video generated the following:

*-display:0 UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 03
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:fe800000-febfffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:dc00(size=8) memory:c0000-dffff
*-display:1 UNCLAIMED
description: Display controller
product: 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.1
version: 03
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:fe600000-fe6fffff

The info seems okay. Are you sure you are not able to use a higher resolution?

Try the steps here and see if it works: Unable to set my screen resolution higher

running xrandr says failed to get size of gamma for output default,also it states the min,current and max resolutions as 1024x768-so i suppose this solution wont work either.

Seems driver issue. Can you run this command and see whether mesa is installed?

Code:

sudo apt search mesa

If it's installed it will say [installed] next to its name in the list.

Sent from my GM1911 using Tapatalk

This command resulted in the following:

Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
bumblebee-nvidia/eoan 3.2.1-20 amd64
NVIDIA Optimus support using the proprietary NVIDIA driver

fonts-eurofurence/eoan,eoan 4.0-1 all
family of geometric rounded sans serif fonts

fortunes-eo/eoan,eoan 20020729b-1 all
Collection of esperanto fortunes.

fortunes-eo-ascii/eoan,eoan 20020729b-1 all
Collection of esperanto fortunes (ascii encoding).

fortunes-eo-iso3/eoan,eoan 20020729b-1 all
Collection of esperanto fortunes (ISO3 encoding).

gambas3-gb-opengl-glu/eoan 3.13.0-1ubuntu2 amd64
Gambas OpenGL utility

gnubik/eoan 2.4.3-3 amd64
3D Rubik's cube game

kmscube/eoan 0.0.0~git20170617-2 amd64
Example KMS/GBM/EGL application

libd3dadapter9-mesa/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
state-tracker for Direct3D9

libd3dadapter9-mesa-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
state-tracker for Direct3D9 -- development files

libegl-mesa0/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
free implementation of the EGL API -- Mesa vendor library

libegl1-mesa/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
transitional dummy package

libegl1-mesa-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
free implementation of the EGL API -- development files

libgbm-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
generic buffer management API -- development files

libgbm1/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
generic buffer management API -- runtime

libgl1-mesa-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
free implementation of the OpenGL API -- GLX development files

libgl1-mesa-dri/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
free implementation of the OpenGL API -- DRI modules

libgl1-mesa-glx/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
transitional dummy package

libglapi-mesa/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
free implementation of the GL API -- shared library

libgles2-mesa/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
transitional dummy package

libgles2-mesa-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
free implementation of the OpenGL|ES 2.x API -- development files

libglu1-mesa/eoan,now 9.0.1-0ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
Mesa OpenGL utility library (GLU)

libglu1-mesa-dev/eoan 9.0.1-0ubuntu1 amd64
Mesa OpenGL utility library -- development files

libglvnd-core-dev/eoan 1.1.1-0ubuntu1 amd64
Vendor neutral GL dispatch library -- core development files

libglw1-mesa/eoan 8.0.0-1.1build1 amd64
GL widget library for Athena and Motif -- runtime

libglw1-mesa-dev/eoan 8.0.0-1.1build1 amd64
GL widget library for Athena and Motif -- development files

libglx-mesa0/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
free implementation of the OpenGL API -- GLX vendor library

libosmesa6/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
Mesa Off-screen rendering extension

libosmesa6-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
Mesa Off-screen rendering extension -- development files

libwayland-egl1-mesa/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
transitional dummy package

libwxgtk3.0-0v5/eoan 3.0.4+dfsg-12 amd64
wxWidgets Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (GTK 2 runtime)

libwxgtk3.0-dev/eoan 3.0.4+dfsg-12 amd64
wxWidgets Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (GTK 2 development)

libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-0v5/eoan 3.0.4+dfsg-12 amd64
wxWidgets Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (GTK 3 runtime)

libwxgtk3.0-gtk3-dev/eoan 3.0.4+dfsg-12 amd64
wxWidgets Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (GTK 3 development)

mesa-common-dev/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
Developer documentation for Mesa

mesa-opencl-icd/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
free implementation of the OpenCL API -- ICD runtime

mesa-utils/eoan 8.4.0-1build1 amd64
Miscellaneous Mesa GL utilities

mesa-utils-extra/eoan 8.4.0-1build1 amd64
Miscellaneous Mesa utilies (opengles, egl)

mesa-va-drivers/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
Mesa VA-API video acceleration drivers

mesa-vdpau-drivers/eoan 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64
Mesa VDPAU video acceleration drivers

mesa-vulkan-drivers/eoan,now 19.2.1-1ubuntu1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
Mesa Vulkan graphics drivers

mir-client-platform-mesa-dev/eoan 1.4.0-0ubuntu3 amd64
Display server for Ubuntu - client platform library for Mesa development files

mir-client-platform-mesa5/eoan 1.4.0-0ubuntu3 amd64
Display server for Ubuntu - client platform library for Mesa

mir-platform-graphics-mesa-kms16/eoan 1.4.0-0ubuntu3 amd64
Display server for Ubuntu - platform library for KMS Mesa

mir-platform-graphics-mesa-x16/eoan 1.4.0-0ubuntu3 amd64
Display server for Ubuntu - platform library for X11 Mesa

picard-tools/eoan 2.18.25+dfsg-2 amd64
Command line tools to manipulate SAM and BAM files

pike8.0-gl/eoan 8.0.702-1build2 amd64
Mesa modules for Pike

xscreensaver-gl/eoan 5.42+dfsg1-1ubuntu1 amd64
GL(Mesa) screen saver modules for screensaver frontends

xscreensaver-gl-extra/eoan 5.42+dfsg1-1ubuntu1 amd64
Extra GL(Mesa) screen saver modules for screensaver frontends

xserver-xorg-video-nouveau/eoan,now 1:1.0.16-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver

youtube-dl/eoan,eoan 2019.09.28-1 all
downloader of videos from YouTube and other sites

xserver-xorg-video-nouveau/eoan,now 1:1.0.16-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver

It says here that Nouveau is installed, which is a nvidia driver. Which GPU do you have? I thought you were using onboard GPU.

i am using the onboard gpu of the motherboard-there's no nvidia gpu in the system.

anyway i have installed ubuntu 18.04 lts now-its been working properly so far,it remains to be seen how long its going to stay this way though.

quicky008 said:
installed ubuntu 18.04 lts now-its been working properly

Normally LTS has better compatibility. The intermediate releases are mostly lab rats.

I have used v 16 lts earlier and that generally works well without any noticeable issues - lets hope v 18. 04 won't disappoint either.

Should i keep automatic updates enabled or disable it? Can newer updates give rise to stability issues in a system (like recent win 10 updates which have been known to cause problems on certain systems)?

Make a restore point now. Then if you feel confident, enable updates. As you know, Ubuntu allows you to choose what to install.

I was talking about Ubuntu, not windows. Does Ubuntu allow users to create restore points?

quicky008 said:
I was talking about Ubuntu, not windows. Does Ubuntu allow users to create restore points?

You have to have "timeshift" installed. It will allow to create restore points, but needs lots of disk space for the backups.

maheshn said:
but needs lots of disk space for the backups

If you have btrfs then you don't need too much disk space.

i am facing the black screen on boot issue all over again,this time in 18.04.

time to ditch ubuntu i guess-but is there any other alternative distro which has a decent ui and supports majority of the commonly used apps?

How's opensuse tumbleweed in terms of stability and user friendliness? I tried using POP OS but didn't like its UI (it doesn't feature the minimize button in its windows,which makes it rather frustrating to use).

That's weird but ok.

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is okay but the package manager is different but that's not a huge issue. PopOS is also good but I agree that the UI is a bit weird, however you can install a different desktop environment such as Cinnamon or MATE and use it normally. Another option is Manjaro which I currently use.

there seems to be different flavours of manjaro viz xfce,kde-plasma and gnome,which one do you this would be the best?

does it incorporate any kind of sidebar like the one in ubuntu?

edit: downloaded the xfce version-it looks quite pleasant.Does it have a built in gui based package manager(aka "software and updates" in ubuntu) which can be used to download and install apps directly rather than installing via the command line?

Wanted to install Gedit as it doesn't seem included by default-using sudo apt install gedit command returned an error(i was just trying out the live desktop on an usb drive)-how can i install the software packages i require in manjaro?

I use the KDE version, but technically you can install any desktop environment and switch between them on the login screen. So you can have multiple desktop environments as well if you want. The different version ISO are basically only for convenience.

Yes, Manjaro comes with a GUI package manager called pamac. So you technically never have to enter any commands for updates. It even gives you notifications for kernel updates.

Xfce comes with Mousepad as the default text editor. You can install gedit but I recommend that you use mousepad instead since it's much lighter.

Also, Manjaro does not use apt as the package manager. Like all Arch Linux based distros, it is based on pacman.

The command you need to enter is:

Code:

sudo pacman -S gedit

Alternatively, launch the package manager GUI application and search for the package you want to install.

Sent from my GM1911 using Tapatalk

Thank you for all that info,its helpful indeed.

I just tried to install the xfce version by clicking the installer icon on the desktop-on the partition select screen,it gives an option to replace an existing parition with manjaro,or to manually change/modify partitions.

I selected the former ie replace an existing partition,then i attempted to choose the single ext4 partition(~15gb) consisting of my current ubuntu 18.04 installation-but it doesn't let me select that partition.There are 2 other ntfs partitions (one of them containing win 7) and they can be selected,but whenever i hover the mouse over the ext4 linux partition,it shoes a red cross sign next to the mouse pointer-any ideas as to why this is happening?

is it possible to replace ubuntu with manjaro using the default installer(just as ubuntu gives an option to erase an existing/older linux installation and install ubuntu)?Or is the process not quite as simple in case of manjaro?

quicky008 said:
but it doesn't let me select that partition

Can you post a screenshot? Perhaps it is not allowing you to select because there is an existing OS there. If you format that partition first then perhaps it will allow.

quicky008 said:
is it possible to replace ubuntu with manjaro using the default installer

Yes, that's what I had done when replacing my previous Kubuntu installation with Manjaro.