Black screen after upgrading from 14.04 to 14.10

Question

I upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to 14.10. I did it by following the steps on the Ubuntu site. I set my update preferences to warn me about any new version of Ubuntu. As soon as I did this, it told me the 14.10 was available and asked me whether I wanted to upgrade it or not.

First, I have to say that I'm very new to Ubuntu and I'm not familiar with names and codes and using the Terminal.

Well, it upgraded and asked me to restart and so I did. But when it restarted a purple screen appeared and then the word Ubuntu appeared with the dots under it (as if it was loading) and then it went a screen full of messages and then to a black screen with a blinking cursor on the top left corner. I discovered by accident the shortcut ctrl+alt+f1 which led me to some sort of a login screen. I logged in and a message appeared saying it could not start unity.

What should I do?

Answer 1

I solved the problem by getting another computer and downloading the same version of Ubuntu to a USB stick. When I booted from the USB stick it gave me the option to reinstall it (which would keep all my files). I did it and everything worked out great. The installation was fine and all my files were intact.