Solved. Black screen of seeming deadness

[Ebere]

Ok, I've spent more than 12 hours reading "solutions" to this here, applying everything I can find, and still no gui screen after startup.

Let me go back to the beginning...

I was running 18.2. I had everything all set up the way I like. Firefox esr, evolution, etc.

I installed redshift. (I used the package manager in the main menu. I didn't do anything funky, or use unknown repositries, or anything like that.) Everything seemed ok. I turn my computer off at night. When I restarted the computer this morning, it took a long time to boot up. It was stuck at the LM logo with the 5 dots below it. Running through those dots over and over again. I figured something was updated, and waited patiently.

When it finally started, it was a completely different computer! Like someone had stolen my computer and replaced it with another.

When I was finished freaking out, I started analyzing.

It looked mostly like someone had taken my 'package', (mate), and replaced it with another. I don't know, KDE ? Cinnamon? Whatever. The screen looked and acted completely different. Not the same screen, with icons working differently. A completely different kind of screen.

So, I started looking for problems similar to that. Didn't find anything.

Decided that the ONLY thing that I had changed, was that I had installed redshift. So, logically, uninstalling redshift should fix it, right?

Right?

...... Right?


Um. Nope.

Rebooted.

Came back to exactly the same screen. Only thing different was that redshift was no longer there. LOL

So I did what seemed the next logical thing to do. I opened mint update, and let it run all the updates that were marked as safe.


Now...

When I reboot, it gets as far as the LM logo with 5 dots.... and just sits there. After a while, it goes to a blank screen. Not exactly black, but close to it.

So I come in here and spend the next 12 hours, going through here finding all the solutions I could find to this sort of problem... And still no joy.

It HAS changed a bit. I can now get it to go to a text login screen. Only text. No gui look to it at all.

So, after logging in, I can get as far as a screen that is essentially a terminal screen.

I've tried everything I have found here. nomodeset. nvidea.modeset. grub_gfxmode. Etc. I have used the 'terminal screen at the end, to put in commands to apt-get update. Then to apt-get install nividea-current-updates. Etc.

Seriously guys, I have tried everything I have found here.

I can not get it to get past those, (Now 4 dots, under some text. But used to be 5 dots under the LM logo.), except to get to the terminal type screen.

~~~~~~~

I finally gave it up, a couple hours ago. I left the installation on the hard drive, so it is all still there, but I went ahead and installed 18.3, and got it set up.

It took me a while, but I finally figured out how to get the old firefox with all the bookmarks, extensions, etc, working on here.

If I can't get the old installation, (18.2) working again... Could someone guide me through getting the old evolution working? I need to save all my old emails, my settings, etc. But if I can't get the 18.2 running, I can't just open the old evolution, and have it do a backup.

Is there some way to copy files from the old installation to the new one?

Thank you in advance.

[all41]

Try reverting to an earlier kernel--boot to the installation you are having trouble with and when the Grub menu appears use the down arrow key to highlight 'Advanced options' and press enter. In the next grub screen use the arrow buttons to highlight the next lower numbered generic kernel and press enter.
Does that allow you back in?

[Ebere]

Try reverting to an earlier kernel--boot to the installation you are having trouble with and when the Grub menu appears use the down arrow key to highlight 'Advanced options' and press enter. In the next grub screen use the arrow buttons to highlight the next lower numbered generic kernel and press enter.
Does that allow you back in?

I don't have that option in "advanced options".

[all41]

I thought perhaps your you may have received a kernel update unknowingly.
Try this: when you see the grub screen press 'e' (edit)
Scroll down using the arrow buttons to the line beginning 'linux' then use the right arrow to scroll to the end of 'quiet splash'
backspace to remove those two words and type in 'nomodeset'. Press F10
Does that allow you back in?
This change will be erased after reboot.

[Ebere]

I thought perhaps your you may have received a kernel update unknowingly.
Try this: when you see the grub screen press 'e' (edit)
Scroll down using the arrow buttons to the line beginning 'linux' then use the right arrow to scroll to the end of 'quiet splash'
backspace to remove those two words and type in 'nomodeset'. Press F10
Does that allow you back in?
This change will be erased after reboot.

That was one of the first things I tried.

And since then, every variation of that, that I have found. (Ergo why I included those in my OP.)

Thank you for trying.

[all41]

I thought perhaps your you may have received a kernel update unknowingly.
Try this: when you see the grub screen press 'e' (edit)
Scroll down using the arrow buttons to the line beginning 'linux' then use the right arrow to scroll to the end of 'quiet splash'
backspace to remove those two words and type in 'nomodeset'. Press F10
Does that allow you back in?
This change will be erased after reboot.

That was one of the first things I tried.

And since then, every variation of that, that I have found. (Ergo why I included those in my OP.)

Thank you for trying.

oh--yes I see that now --just thought redshift would affect graphics parameters--this may very well still be the culprit.
worst case you can get to the files by booting into a live desktop with your install usb/dvd.
Open the drive and navigate to your /home directory. Right click your username directory and choose to open as administrator.
Assuming the directory is not encrypted

[Ebere]

I thought perhaps your you may have received a kernel update unknowingly.
Try this: when you see the grub screen press 'e' (edit)
Scroll down using the arrow buttons to the line beginning 'linux' then use the right arrow to scroll to the end of 'quiet splash'
backspace to remove those two words and type in 'nomodeset'. Press F10
Does that allow you back in?
This change will be erased after reboot.

That was one of the first things I tried.

And since then, every variation of that, that I have found. (Ergo why I included those in my OP.)

Thank you for trying.

oh--yes I see that now --just thought redshift would affect graphics parameters--this may very well still be the culprit.
worst case you can get to the files by booting into a live desktop with your install usb/dvd.
Open the drive and navigate to your /home directory. Right click your username directory and choose to open as administrator.
Assuming the directory is not encrypted

I have done essentially that by installing 18.3 onto the same hard drive as the 18.2 is still installed on. I can see the files.

And using nautilus, I can copy or move pretty much any files I want to.

I have already installed evolution onto the 18.3. But I don't know what files, folders, etc, I should now copy over from the 18.2, to the new 18.3, so that the old evolution overwrites the new one.

~~~

By the way:

My options when I choose "advanced options" are:

linux mint 18 mate 64 bit (on /dev/****)
linux mint 18 mate 64 bit, with linux 4.4.0-21-generic (on /dev/****)
linux mint 18 mate 64 bit, with linux 4.4.0-21-generic (upstart) (on /dev/****)
linux mint 18 mate 64 bit, with linux 4.4.0-21-generic recovery mode (on /dev/****)

I have been through all of those every way possible. Also run the (press "E" for edit), on every one of those. And then every different way that it has been suggested to edit...


Also:

None of the instructions said to backspace to delete "quiet splash", when I do the edit. Until you suggested it. So, I decided to try that.

The result was that the four dots never appeared. Instead, the startup text kept running.

And where you would normally see the four dots...

The next to last line of text says: "Started to tell plymouth to write out run time data."

The last line says: "A start job is running for"... And then 3 different device numbers are displayed. One at a time. In quick succession, over and over again, for a minute and a half.

Then it goes to the login terminal screen.


I feel like I am just THAT close to getting this thing to boot into a gui screen. Just haven't found the magic words yet...

[Ebere]

Well, I haven't found a solution to the blank screen.

But I did finally figure out how to get my data from my email program and browser into the new installation of 18.3

So I guess this is moot. I can access all the old files from the new installation. I'll probably clean it up, and delete that installation.

Thank you for your help All41!

[trytip]

find out if you have any errors in dmesg
dmesg | grep -i "error\|warn\|fail"
can you get to a terminal or is it completely blank?

[Ebere]

find out if you have any errors in dmesg
dmesg | grep -i "error\|warn\|fail"
can you get to a terminal or is it completely blank?

I do get to a terminal. (The entire thing is a terminal screen. In the end, I get nothing else but that.)

I can't believe I got that command typed in correctly! LOL Here is the result:

[ 0.000000] ACPI BIOS warning (bug): Optional FADT field pm2controlblock has zero address or length: 0x0000000000000000/0x1 (20150930/tbfadt-654)
[ 25.760674] EXT4-fs (SDA1): re-mounted. opts: errors=remount-ro
[ 27.357522] nvidea: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel

The red letters were in there exactly as you see them.

[trytip]

when you get to the terminal type
su
sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*
reboot

[Ebere]

when you get to the terminal type
su
sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*
reboot

The result:

Unable to locate package nvidea-*
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'nvidea-*'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'nvidea-*'

Reboot resulted in no change.

[trytip]

you spelled it wrong, just copy the code

[Ebere]

you spelled it wrong, just copy the code

I can't just copy the code. I have to reboot to get to that prompt. A "copy" procedure doesn't last through a reboot. LOL

I have to write it down by hand on a piece of paper. Reboot. Get to the prompt. Then type it all in.

But you were correct. I was misspelling when I was putting it in, there.

This time, I typed in what you said, and it worked.

Then I rebooted, and got to the prompt again.

Then I typed:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-340

It installed.

At one point it asked me if I wanted gdm3, or mdm as a display manager. I picked mdm. I am wondering what difference it might have made?

I rebooted. After some seeming difficulty it finally booted up and worked correctly.

I am writing this from that installation. After I post, I am going to go back to the new installation. Just because. LOL

But thank you BOTH for all your help!

Now, if for some reason, I have to come back to this install, to fix a problem in the new one, at least this one works again.