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My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it?

before going to reinstall the system again I decided to open a new thread here because I realized that after a few days from a fresh install Ubuntu will become again unbootable.

The iter is always the same. After a fresh install, the system works fine except some rare case where the boot get stuck on "Checking battery state...". When this happen, a simple start lightdm is enough and I'm ready to go.

After a few days or one week of usage, the following events/symptoms always occur:

1 - Once I end to work and I need to reboot or power off, nothing happen when I click on the gui buttons. I can only restart or power off from terminal.

2 -During reboot the system get stuck on "Checking the battery state". The trick start lightdm works, but instead of loading the desktop, the login screen appear. I enter my password, but nothing happen. All I get It's just the login wallpaper with the Ubuntu 11.10 logo on the bottom left.

3 - I reboot again the system without touching anything, the Ubuntu logo with loading bar is showed as usual and once done the screen become black with visible and working mouse cursor.

This is what I've tried so far:

  • Ctrl+Alt+F1: unity --replace and the results are the same described in point 2, but when I return to terminal I can see the following errors:

    WARNING: no DISPLAY variable set, setting it to :0
unity-panel-service: no process found
compiz: ../../xcb_io.c:528: _XAllocID: Assertion 'ret != inval_id' failed
aborted
Rebooted, retried again with the same result, but with a different error on terminal:
WARNING: no DISPLAY variable set, setting it to :0
unity-panel-service: no process found
(compiz:1505): Gdk-WARNING **: compiz: Fatal IO error 11 (resource temporarily unavailable) on x server: 0

  • service lightdm restart: the command restart the service, but again black screen with visible mouse cursor

  • Removed quiet splash parameter from boot and added nomodeset: same black screen with visible mouse cursor

  • Started in recovery mode: again black screen

I'm very frustrated because I know that if I reinstall Ubuntu again, I will only have a system that will stop working after a few days, maybe a few weeks if I'm lucky!

Thanks to all

Community
  • 1
Mark55
  • 21
  • I tried also the following additional solutions and none of them worked:

    sudo -s cd /etc/X11 mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.backup echo -ne "Section "Device"\n\tIdentifier\t"Default Device"\n\tOption\t"NoLogo"\t"True"\nEndSection" >> xorg.conf restart -r now

    link

    sudo apt-get purge nvidia* sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

     – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 17:20
  • Now just appear the terminal that ask for login. Once logged I enter the command "start lightdm" and I receive "Checking battery state..." and nothing else.

    I don't think the problem is related to nVidia drivers because I had the system fully working for days with them.

     – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 17:43
  • I've never seen in my life an operating system becoming corrupted just after a few days of usage. And this also happen in another computer. I will have to live with the fact that Ubuntu is just unstable and can stop booting in every moment and without apparent reason. It's free and I cannot pretend it works fine like Microsoft or Apple operating systems. – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 17:43
  • Very strange behavior... the other computer is the same model as the 1st? Maybe it's an hardware incompatibility with something you install, configure or gets automatically updated. – laurent Jan 15 '12 at 18:52
  • Thanks for your answer. The other pc it's an AMD. If it was an hardware incompatibility why the system run fine for days or weeks before deciding to not boot anymore ? I have no other choice than trying to install again. This time I will install the latest 280 drivers directly from nvidia because the ones that comes with Ubuntu are outdated. If Ubuntu stop booting again I will try with the nouveau drivers. If even this way will not work I will have no other choice than close my experience with Ubuntu for ever and trying another operating system like Fedora. – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 18:55
  • Ubuntu had a few installation problems/tricks in the past (2-3 years ago) with nvidia drivers but I didn't had any problems on the newer versions and yes, I think installing drivers from nvidia is better (at least it was in the past). – laurent Jan 15 '12 at 19:07
  • This is what I exactly do everytime I reinstall Ubuntu 11.10, maybe there's something I should avoid:
    • Full update from Ubuntu software center
    • Deletion of nouvean drivers: apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
    • Installation of nVidia drivers through "System > Additional Drivers" (Version current)[Recommended]
     – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 20:07
  • Enabling native resolution of 1280x1024 because drivers only recognize 1024x768:

    • I create a new xorg.conf file and add manually HorizSync and VertRefresh values taken from monitor manufacturer. With this change the resolution appear as an option in the xServer settings and I can enable native resolution without any problems.

    • Fix the missing logo at startup with the following:

    "echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash" "sudo update-initramfs -u"

    • Installation of cairo dock from software center (openGL version)
    – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 20:07
  • I also install GrubCustomizer and enable a startup resolution of 1280x1024. At first reboot appear the message "Checking for battery state...". With "start lightdm" the system succesfully boot and load the desktop.

    apt-get install gtk2-engines-pixbuf (without this I always get "Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap"). From software center I remove the following because not needed:

    • ubuntu one (I also remove daemon and dependecies by typing apt-get remove ubuntuone-client)
    • all games
    • unity 2D
    • unity 2D launcher
    • unity 2D panel
    • unity 2D places
     – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 20:08
  • Nothing new is installed while this happen and the system run without any changes for days. No freeze or hangs, everything works as always when appear the first symptom. I can't just reboot and I don't think this is related to graphics drivers.

    I only know that I cannot spend my life on reinstalling Ubuntu every few weeks and switching to an older version does not make sense. I will try again with different configurations and if I will fail again I will have no other choice than end my Ubuntu experience here.After all this is linux and fortunately there are plenty of distributions to choose!

     – Mark55 Jan 15 '12 at 20:10
  • It is preferred if you can post separate questions instead of combining your questions into one. That way, it helps the people answering your question and also others hunting for at least one of your questions. the FAQ on asking questions.Regards, – Ringtail Apr 07 '12 at 05:03