I just installed Lubuntu's latest version (14.04.1), but it fails to boot on startup. A blinking cursor is the only thing that appears. No access to GRUB.
Curiously the Live CD works smoothly, but nothing happens when installing and booting it.
The same happened when previously I installed Debian. I suspect a hardware problem. I had problems with the Graphic Card in the past. I use an ACER T135-S97Z with AMD Sempron - 512MB RAM.
Downgrade the kernel.
The kernel that came with 14.04.1 was 3.13.0-32-generic. The kernel that worked was 3.13.0-24-generic. It is available in the repositories.
How to get it?
Boot from a LiveCD/flash drive and open a terminal.
Now, we need to load ourselves into the computer's new, non-functional OS:
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys sudo chroot /mnt
After the final command all commands you type are now executed as though you had actually booted up the computer. This is handy, because it means we can use:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade
To grab the latest packages and install them.
We can think downgrade the kernel with:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic sudo apt-get install linux-image-extra-3.13.0-24-generic
We can then be sure that GRUB is updated using:
sudo update-grub
If initramfs complains about things, you may need to run:
sudo update-initramfs
After installing the kernel and updating grub, reboot.
Start-up will probably fail again by showing a blank screen or one with a single blinking cursor in the upper left. Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart a second time.
Now, the GRUB menu will show. Head to Advanced Options for Ubuntu, and boot into the older kernel.
