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I am setting up my new PC with an MSI GeForce GTX 1660 graphics card. Graphics doesn't work and I am deep into debugging and trying to install Ubuntu 19.10.

What i can do is:

  • Enter and see BIOS
  • Enter the live USB install menu
  • From that menu, I can use the "Try Ubuntu (safe graphics)" and "Install Ubuntu (safe graphics)" options. Through this, I can actually install Ubuntu.
  • After installing, I can get into the GRUB menu just once through the BIOS (I can't get there by holding SHIFT (which is a big problem).
  • From the boot menu, I can set the nomodeset kernel option by presseing e, which takes like 5 minutes as of this problem described here.
  • But then, I can actually boot - once.

What I can't:

  • The normal install mode -> purple screen, with some disrupted lines at the top of the screen
  • Hold the GRUB menu with the shift key -> possibly due to the 1 seconds slowliness?
  • Boot Ubuntu (installed with safe graphics) -> distorted video as above
  • Once I entered Ubuntu (through the nomodeset trick above), I can't get into the GRUB menu again, e.g. to set nomodeset again. Before, I could go there through BIOS, where I can select which boot menu to enter. After I entered Ubuntu once, I can't reach that menu anymore. It will always try to boot and will always see the empty/distorted screen.

So the only way for me to try something new is to install Ubuntu again. And actually I can't try much new then, because I have erased my system. The cycle time for that is around 30 minutes per attempt.

So I am desperately looking for a way how to enter the boot menu. Shift just doesn't work.

Janos
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    After you boot with the black screen, can you get to a TTY by pressing CTRL+ALT+F3 or CTRL+ALT+F4? This should take you to a TTY screen where you can log in with your username and password. From there, try running: sudo apt update; sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall It's probably best if you are connected through ethernet as wifi probably isn't set up. If you do have network problems, post back a comment as there are a few commands you can use to get that started via command line. – mchid Apr 16 '20 at 20:53
  • Hi, thanks so much for your tip! Unfortunately, I can't try your tip anymore, as I could solve the problem by now - and don't want to go back to that miserable situation I was in :D. It turned out that I could get into the Grub menu after all, when I pressed ESC at the right time. If I pressed it twice at the wrong time, I would enter Grub but enter the grub terminal. Eventually, I needed only 2 more attempts to install the Nvidia driver. – Janos Apr 17 '20 at 00:08
  • Far out my console jumped to either F7 or F8 ... wth... thanks @mchid I wasn't expecting it to jump over there – Geoff Williams Feb 17 '21 at 03:22

1 Answers1

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I guess my question and seek for help can be answered as: It is indeed possible to get into the Grub menu, when I pressed ESC at the right time. I could figure out the right time by repeatedly pressing ESC - but by that it would enter the menu, but then exit it right away into the > grub terminal, where I didn't want to be due to the massive slowliness of things.

So I had to find the moment where I could press ESC once, and from there I could move on.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to try and confirm what @mchid suggested. Sorry for that, but thanks a lot for trying to help!

Janos
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