THE PROBLEM
I recently upgraded from 23.05 to 24.02 and have great difficulty booting up. Right now the only way I can log in is to enter the second line of the boot up screen and get 'advanced options'. Here there are four lines, the fourth is recovery mode with kernel 31 (I think). I enter this and perform 'resume normal boot' This gives me a blank screen with a flashing cursor.
I perform 'ctrl alt F2' followed by the requested login and enter
'startx'.
If I am lucky this logs me in successfully. Otherwise it logs me into a
read only version and I have to power off and repeat the whole procedure.
I can perform 'ctrl alt F2' at other points but login and startx either gives me a fatal error or a white screen saying something has gone wrong.
POSSIBLE RESOURCES
I have a test system on the same computer and I had no trouble upgrading
to 24.04 on it. Booting to the test system presents no problems and if I
had the necessary knowledge and experience I could no doubt probe the problem system from the test system.
There may be commands I could use in the problem system itself if I knew how.
A CLUE?
When I upgraded the test system I answered two questions. One was to leave the Grub program alone and unfortunately I do not remember the other one
but I think I answered 'no'.
When I upgraded the problem system I answered to leave the Grub alone but
I passed the second question by simply accepting.
I'm sorry that I cannot remember the option in question but it is the only difference I can recall in the two upgrades.
THE REQUEST
I would be most appreciative if anyone can explain this mess to me and hopefully suggest a cure.
COMPUTER DETAILS
## Hardware Information:
- **Hardware Model:** Dell Inc. XPS 8910
- **Memory:** 16.0 GiB
- **Processor:** Intel® Core™ i7-6700 ×
8
- **Graphics:** Software Rendering
- **Disk Capacity:** 2.5 TB
## Software Information:
- **Firmware Version:** 1.0.4
- **OS Name:** Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- **OS Build:** (null)
- **OS Type:** 64-bit
- **GNOME Version:** 46
- **Windowing System:** X11
- **Kernel Version:** Linux 6.5.0-35-generic
On 6/10/2024 12:23 PM, Jack Fearnley wrote:dell_xps8910_3020blk_xps_8910_i7_6700_8gb_1tb_gt730_windows_10_black.html
THE PROBLEM I recently upgraded from 23.05 to 24.02 and have greathttps://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1285006-REG/
difficulty booting up. Right now the only way I can log in is to enter
the second line of the boot up screen and get 'advanced options'. Here
there are four lines, the fourth is recovery mode with kernel 31 (I
think). I enter this and perform 'resume normal boot' This gives me a
blank screen with a flashing cursor.
I perform 'ctrl alt F2' followed by the requested login and enter
'startx'.
If I am lucky this logs me in successfully. Otherwise it logs me into a
read only version and I have to power off and repeat the whole
procedure.
I can perform 'ctrl alt F2' at other points but login and startx either
gives me a fatal error or a white screen saying something has gone
wrong.
POSSIBLE RESOURCES I have a test system on the same computer and I had
no trouble upgrading to 24.04 on it. Booting to the test system
presents no problems and if I had the necessary knowledge and
experience I could no doubt probe the problem system from the test
system.
There may be commands I could use in the problem system itself if I
knew how.
A CLUE?
When I upgraded the test system I answered two questions. One was to
leave the Grub program alone and unfortunately I do not remember the
other one but I think I answered 'no'.
When I upgraded the problem system I answered to leave the Grub alone
but I passed the second question by simply accepting.
I'm sorry that I cannot remember the option in question but it is the
only difference I can recall in the two upgrades.
THE REQUEST I would be most appreciative if anyone can explain this
mess to me and hopefully suggest a cure.
COMPUTER DETAILS ## Hardware Information:
- **Hardware Model:** Dell Inc. XPS 8910 -
**Memory:** 16.0 GiB -
**Processor:** Intel® Core™ i7-6700 × >> 8
- **Graphics:** Software Rendering -
**Disk Capacity:** 2.5 TB
## Software Information:
- **Firmware Version:** 1.0.4 - **OS Name:**
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS - **OS Build:**
(null)
- **OS Type:** 64-bit - **GNOME
Version:** 46 - **Windowing System:**
X11 - **Kernel Version:**
Linux 6.5.0-35-generic
Skylake 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7-6700 processor.
8GB of 2133 MHz DDR4 RAM Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
4.2 USB 3.1 Type-C, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0
GTX 730 2GB of DDR3 VRAM HDMI, DVI-D DL, or VGA.
(It also has HDMI and DP on the I/O plate for chipset graphics)
It's not strictly a GRUB problem, because you got a GRUB boot menu.
I think it is a graphics problem. My hunch-o-meter says to pull the GTX
730 (with the power disconnected from the PC), and try and bring up the machine with just the Intel graphics (HDMI/DP on IO plate area).
It's possible you are using VGA graphics or DVI-D graphics off the video card,
and the HDMI/DP on the I/O plate may not have a connector on your
monitor to do that.
I have both HDMI to VGA and DisplayPort (DP++) to VGA adapters here,
which run in the vicinity of $20 each or so. My three monitors all share
VGA as a common element, which is why I keep a few adapters here for the
more modern computers. So that may be a problem with regard to hardware flexibility when changing over.
As far as I know, driver management can blacklist the NVidia driver (automatically),
and then attempt to run the GTX 730 with "something else" (Nouveau?). It
does not seem you're engaging Wayland directly (which I think Ubuntu
uses).
Maybe your startx is causing XWayland to engage ?
sudo apt install inxi inxi -F # Dump all subsystems
inxi -G # Just the graphics section <=== will give
some idea what it is using
When copying Inxi output, remove any info violating privacy
considerations.
*******
Normally, you'd look at logs for assistance. But given your machine
isn't all that old (Skylake), I would think there isn't too much of an
excuse for it to not start. And graphics can offer minor friction to the
best laid plans.
What I do, is attempt an upgrade, WHILE I HAVE A BACKUP.
Then, when the wheels fall off, I just restore and consider my options.
Before an upgrade, I like to switch from NVidia to Nouveau. Or rather,
to put it in more correct terms "do whatever the Ubuntu people like to
do by default", whatever that is. How does Ubuntu normally arrive ?
With the latest NVidia loaded, or with Nouveau. Inxi -G would tell you.
The upgrade process now is pretty good, and not that easily knocked
over.
But I've found that leaving stray PPA files, using NVidia when I could
be using Nouveau, maybe the DKMS for my VirtualBox could cause a
problem,
I can think of a few friction points that I might deal with, before
pushing the button.
The simplest way to deal with an NVidia/Nouveau problem (as a
hypothesis),
is to unplug it and use the "Intel HD Graphics 530" instead (IO plate).
Since it's a Dell, who knows what BIOS controls are in there, to deal
with graphics changes. Some setups will auto-switch back to Intel,
when the NVidia is pulled from the x16 slot. Some Dells are snotty,
and won't let you plug a SATA card into the x16 slot, insisting instead
that graphics go in there. Whereas retail motherboards and self-built machines, don't even grimace if you do that (rando card in x16 slot).
The Dell is pretty paternal about graphics operation, at least my sample
is.
In any case, once you get in there, if Ubuntu has a Driver Manager,
I'd look at whether the selected driver makes sense. Maybe the GTX 730
uses the second-most-recent driver ? I'd check, but I'm leaving in a
couple minutes, before it rains (again).
I did the upgrade with NVidia but have subsequently switched to nouveau. I don't know if this helped or hurt. The test system was upgraded with
nouveau already specified.
On 6/10/24 13:06, Jack Fearnley wrote:
I did the upgrade with NVidia but have subsequently switched to nouveau. I >> don't know if this helped or hurt. The test system was upgraded with
nouveau already specified.
Don't know what exactly is happening here with your test system or
what "nouveau already specified" means. But install the latest
proper nvidia packages and reboot. Nouveau is no beueno.
On 6/10/2024 9:33 PM, stepore wrote:
On 6/10/24 13:06, Jack Fearnley wrote:The preliminary indication I'm getting, is the graphics support
I did the upgrade with NVidia but have subsequently switched to nouveau. I >>> don't know if this helped or hurt. The test system was upgraded withDon't know what exactly is happening here with your test system or
nouveau already specified.
what "nouveau already specified" means. But install the latest
proper nvidia packages and reboot. Nouveau is no beueno.
changed in the more recent kernel, and some older stuff isn't
supported quite the same.
I installed 21.1
On 11/06/2024 19:42, Mike Scott wrote:
I installed 21.1
mint, that is, of course. Sorry.
| Sysop: | DaiTengu |
|---|---|
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| D/L today: |
5,151 files (903M bytes) |
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