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I've been running 17.10, which is completely updated and current, and trying to upgrade to 18.04. My system should be perfectly capable of the new distribution, it's a quad-core AMD system running nVidia GTX 550 graphics. (I also run Windows 10 on it, with all the latest upgrades, and a copy of Win 7 just for old times' sake.)

I've tried it multiple times using command-line (both with and without the Developer option) and using the GUI method, and every time, the upgrade seems to complete flawlessly, but in the end, it reboots to a black screen with command-line only. It wants a login and password (which I've never used before, always login automatically), then tells me "Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS", and some further tidbits of info, then returns to a command prompt, still on an otherwise black screen.

Obviously, this is a problem, so I've wiped it and restored to the previous build (again). Anybody have any ideas as to what's going wrong? The full text of how my screen appears after upgrading follows:

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS BigBoy tty1 [NOTE:  BigBoy is my computer's name, no laughing]

BigBoy login:dave

Password:

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-20-generic x86_64)

* Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
* Management:  https://landscape.canonical.com
* Support:  https:ubuntu.com/advantage

* Meltdown, Spectre and Ubuntu:  What are the attack vectors, how the fixes work, 
and everything else you need to know -- https:ubu.one/u2know

0 packages can be updated
0 updates are security updates

You have packages from the Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) installed that are going 
out of support on 2016-08-04.

There is a graphics stack installed on this system.  An upgrade to a configuration 
supported for the full lifetime of the LTS will become available on 2016-07-21 and 
can be installed by running "update manager" in the Dash.

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;  the exact 
distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in 
/usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

dave@BigBoy:"$
djroff
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    I had the same problem, and this fixed it: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1029509/no-gui-after-kubuntu-18-04-lts-upgrade-from-17-10 – Helene Apr 29 '18 at 10:20
  • That sounds promising, considering the nature of the messages that came up in the above login text. (Although why anything "becoming available on 2016-07-21", as if it's a future date, is showing up in a 2018 upgrade is beyond me.) I'll give that a shot in a few days, when I have time to re-run the upgrade, login, kick-start the GUI, and then run that command in a terminal. – djroff Apr 30 '18 at 00:41
  • That took care of it. – djroff May 05 '18 at 11:54

2 Answers2

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"startx" will indeed get you into the normal desktop environment from command-line purgatory. Once in, from the link Helene gave me, the problem was easy to fix. Apparently the upgrade process leaves display manager package "lightdm" in a broken state, and it has to be reinstalled (then selected in place of "gdm"). So it was just a matter of running "sudo apt-get install lightdm", once the system was up. Now everything boots normally.

djroff
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type startx in the terminal.

this should bring up the new environment.

Or it might give you lots of errors, that you can add to your question!

user795750
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  • As I said, I've already wiped it by restoring to a still-functional 17.10. What I want to know is what I can do differently to create an upgrade that DOESN'T go straight to a command-line terminal, not how to work around it. I want an upgrade that boots into Ubuntu's GUI. – djroff Apr 28 '18 at 23:42
  • I imagine the Ubuntu experts are up to their necks in it at the moment, so you are not going to get a proper answer. – user795750 Apr 29 '18 at 11:55