Ubuntu 14.04 stuck at console mode after graphics driver update

Question

Actually I wanted to correct the well known Ubuntu brightness issue as addressed in this YouTubeVideo

In essence, the guy says to change the Nvidia driver from open source to any other proprietary one.

But I did a mistake of cancelling the change before it could successfully do it, thus not properly assigning the new one and not even going back to the old one.

It looked somewhat like this:

And now I am stuck in the console mode. I have tried installing Nvidia-304 from there, but no luck.

I believe I need to reset some internal settings, but have no idea How To?.

Relevant log and configuration files:

I think it is 50-synaptics.conf only as it says in the log, that error in line 10 of 50-synaptics.conf. Moreover the file before it does not even have a line 10. — Akshay Madan, Feb 26 '15 at 14:39

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

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You can try to boot ubuntu in recovery mode. (For how to boot in recovery-mode see this: How can I start in safe mode?).

When booting in recovery mode you will get a low resolution X, so you can log into your desktop and do changes.

From there you can open System Settings and the Additional Drivers and try again. After this you can boot again like normal to try your new configuration.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Feb 25 '15 at 07:41

stalet

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This is a very generic solution approach, that may or may not work. – David Foerster Feb 26 '15 at 11:55
It did not, it tried to continue booting, and landed up in the console only. – Akshay Madan Feb 26 '15 at 14:18
@AkshayMadan: The recovery mode menu offers to use a failsafe Xorg configuration or even replace it with a default, which would have helped a great deal in your situation, as we saw. – David Foerster Feb 28 '15 at 09:11

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 26 '15 at 17:08

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Your /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf is malformed: it misses EndSection at its end. That's why Xorg complains that

[    23.187] Parse error on line 10 of section Device in file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf
    "Section" is not a valid keyword in this section.

With EndSection missing, Xorg thinks, it's still inside the Section from 20-intel.conf when encountering the first non-empty, non-comment line 10 of the subsequent 50-synaptics.conf, and it doesn't like to start a new Section inside another Section.

Here's how it should look:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "card0"
    Driver "intel"
    Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
    BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

You can safely delete /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf~.

answered Feb 26 '15 at 17:08

David Foerster

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I did this but now, I think the file was not complete (as there was a missing EndSection) and now it shows this. And after I press okay it shows this. I tried to reconfigure it and reset the generic settings(there was another option of backed up settings). And now the same above things appear but without mouse and little keyboard control. Though console mode still works, so if I could somehow complete the file then all this would end. – Akshay Madan Feb 27 '15 at 08:47
The issue you describe in your question (no running Xorg server at all) was caused by the syntax error in the Xorg configuration. Low graphics mode means, that Xorg is running, but it cannot load a graphics driver with hardware acceleration. This is a new issue, likely caused (as well?) by the driver installation you describe in your question. Please open a new question and include your newly /var/log/Xorg.0.log. If you want, shoot me a message with a link to it and I'll see, what I can do. – David Foerster Feb 27 '15 at 11:41
NikTh's answer to the question How to fix “The system is running in low-graphics mode” error? did it. Thanks to him and you too David. – Akshay Madan Feb 28 '15 at 03:30
Please don't forget to accept and/or upvote answers that you find useful (see What should I do when someone answers my question?). – David Foerster Feb 28 '15 at 09:09

Ubuntu 14.04 stuck at console mode after graphics driver update

2 Answers2