Possible Duplicate:
My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it?
I made a clean installtion of Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit without problems and after completing the install I applied all the recommended updates from "Update Manager".
I'm not sure if it was the kernel upgrade specifically that caused the problem but after applying all updates the system doesn't start anymore in normal boot mode.
After the GRUB menu the screen remains black and there are no error messages, I have to boot with recovery mode to use the system.
I did this clean install because I had the same problem after the kernel update a few weeks ago and couldn't find any solution to fix it.
My system is an HP Elitebook with Ubuntu 11.10 booting and running from an external USB HDD.
But why did you install 11.10 instead of the current version 12.04 anyway?
– jplatte Sep 06 '12 at 16:11