Boot loop after updating Nvidia driver on Ubuntu 18.04 with Katoolin

Question

Currently I have a non-functioning machine due to an Ubuntu update. I updated my nvidia-display driver, I ran sudo apt update, and then I rebooted.

Now I can't enter UEFI, the grub boot menu or Ubuntu 18.04.

After boot I get the following screen. This screen loops with a black screen.

I can run Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get a terminal, which gives the following screen. This screen also loops with a black screen.

^{This console doesn't look like Ubuntu, however Katoolin did this to Ubuntu 18.04 and the question is how to undo it.}

I have a dual boot of Ubuntu 18.04 and Windows 10. On Ubuntu Katoolin is installed. Probably this explains the image shown in the second screen photo since I have two OSs installed in some sense.

My GPU is Nvidia RTX 2080Ti and I have an PCI-E wireless ethernet adapter installed.

Answer 1

Start Ubuntu from a virtual console

1. Open a text-only virtual console by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+F3.

2. At the login: prompt type your username and press Enter.

3. At the Password: prompt type your user password and press Enter.

4. Now you are logged in to a text-only console, and you can run terminal commands from the console.

Warning about updates after installing Kali linux tools

The LionSec Katoolin GitHub webpage clearly warns Katoolin users to be careful when updating software.

Before updating your system, please remove all Kali-linux repositories to avoid any kind of problem.

All kinds of problems can occur if you don't do this.

---

1. Make a backup copy of sources.list.

   sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

2. Open /etc/apt/sources.list for editing in nano text editor:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list  
   

3. Replace the entire contents of your existing sources.list with the following default 18.04 sources.list:

   deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted universe multiverse  
   deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
   deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
   deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse  
   deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu bionic partner  
   

4. Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+O and after that press Enter to save the file being edited. Press the keyboard combination Ctrl+X to exit nano.

5. Run this command after changing sources.list to refresh the list of available software. This is the most important step, so please don't skip it.

   sudo apt update 
   

6. Remove Katoolin.

   sudo rm -r /usr/bin/katoolin 
   

7. Reinstall the Ubuntu desktop system.

   sudo apt-cache depends ubuntu-desktop | grep '[ |]Depends: [^<]' | cut -d: -f2 | tr -d ' ' | xargs sudo apt-get --reinstall install -y
   

8. Temporarily enable os-prober in grub by setting GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false in /etc/default/grub.

9. Install grub to the MBR of your boot drive with these commands:

   sudo apt-get --reinstall install base-files/bionic-updates  
   sudo os-prober  
   sudo update-grub   
   

10. Reboot.

    sudo reboot  
    

11. For security reasons disable os-prober in grub by setting GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true in /etc/default/grub.

12. Run autoremove.

    sudo apt autoremove
    

13. Install deborphan

    sudo apt install deborphan  
    

14. Run deborphan to show a list of packages orphaned after uninstalling Katoolin. These orphaned packages are no longer necessary except if you are still using any of the packages that were installed by Katoolin. These packages are referred to as Kali linux tools by Katoolin which gives the user some warning about the mischief that installing these packages can cause.

Answer 2

Since my eth0 was not working, I could not follow @karels answer. I decided to get a new Ubuntu intallation using a USB drive.

Thanks for the help