Mint boots into Blackscreen [SOLVED]

[Bobowm]

Hi,

I got a question that got asked many times before but none of the suggested solutions works for me.
Up until last weekend my 64bit Mint 18 with MATE worked well, but after an update it started booting into the infamous blackscreen with the blinking courser in the top left corner.
From what i read it seems that my OS starts but my DM doesn't, right?
If I start recovery mode and type startx the following is the end of the output lines before going back to the command line:

x server lost type "one_level" has 1 levels, but <ralt has 2 symbols

i tried deleting .XAuthority but it says it doesn't exist
i tried deleting /opt/.X0-lock but it also doesn't exist
i tried reinstalling gnome-sessions but it had no effect
i tried register gnome sessions with the gconf-schemas command but it says /usr/share/gconf/schemas/gnome-session doesn't exist
my lost and found folder is empty
i tried reinstalling xorg but with no effect
i tried update and upgrade with apt-get but it had no effekt on my problem
i reinstalled grub, guess what: no effekt

i have a 32bit Mint 17 with MATE in the same computer which still works and which i can use for troubleshooting
if anyone has an idea or needs more information, please let me know. It is probably hard to do so with such little information but if i shall copy paste a file content or a specific output, just let me know which one and i'll do so.

thx and greetings
Bob

[deepakdeshp]

Please copy paste output of command

• inxi -Fxz

in code tags

[kc1di]

I suspect it may be the video driver in 18.3. then command given in the above post will reveal what might be needed.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

startx will not work with the new windows managers like it used to.

[Bobowm]

so i just noticed that

Code: Select all

service lightdm start

will cause the blackscreen as well, thus this IS the problem

adressing your request:
how can i copy something either in the recoverymode rootshell or the startupmode commandline and paste it to a textfile so that i can reach it when booting my old mint so that i can post it here?

I suspect it may be the video driver in 18.3. then command given in the above post will reveal what might be needed.

btw i got mint 18.2, at least that is, what the grub tells me

[kukamuumuka]

Fixing the black screen after grub boot-up -> https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/842

[Bobowm]

Fixing the black screen after grub boot-up -> https://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/842

yeah i tried that already but it has no use, i still get the same black screen (that was actually the very first thing i tried)

[kc1di]

so i just noticed that

Code: Select all

service lightdm start

will cause the blackscreen as well, thus this IS the problem

adressing your request:
how can i copy something either in the recoverymode rootshell or the startupmode commandline and paste it to a textfile so that i can reach it when booting my old mint so that i can post it here?

I suspect it may be the video driver in 18.3. then command given in the above post will reveal what might be needed.

btw i got mint 18.2, at least that is, what the grub tells me

take a picture if you can I'm mostly interested in the report about the gpu enter

Code: Select all

inxi -G

hand type results if you can card name and driver are most important. thanks

[Bobowm]

how can i copy something either in the recoverymode rootshell or the startupmode commandline and paste it to a textfile so that i can reach it when booting my old mint so that i can post it here?

take a picture if you can I'm mostly interested in the report about the gpu enter

Code: Select all

inxi -G

hand type results if you can card name and driver are most important. thanks

i was hoping to learn of a way to actually select the output and paste it in nano or something like that
i use an AMD Pitcairn XT Radeon HD 7870 graphic card
display server: X.org 1.18.4
drivers: ati,radeon,intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)

i guess intel is for my onboard card that i dont use
any photo i made was too big for the attachment even after scaling it down to 500px which was so small you couldn't read anything anymore, i'll have a look for one of these sides that let you upload your stuff for free

[kc1di]

do you know if the update you did installed a newer kernel. you can check which kernel your running by this command

Code: Select all

uname -r

if it's kernel 4.13 your video card is not support on that kernel yet. you have have to go back to kernel 4.4.x series. and reinstall video drivers.
or if the older kernel is still installed. you can boot into the older version and see if it works.

[kukamuumuka]

How about if you bypass the login screen pressing Ctrl Alt F2 and login in the command line and run starx -- :1 ?

Note that there is a cap between -- :

[Bobowm]

do you know if the update you did installed a newer kernel. you can check which kernel your running by this command

Code: Select all

uname -r

if it's kernel 4.13 your video card is not support on that kernel yet. you have have to go back to kernel 4.4.x series. and reinstall video drivers.
or if the older kernel is still installed. you can boot into the older version and see if it works.

i've been using 4.13.0-x for quite a while now, never had that kind of problem
now i use 4.13.0-37 and i also tried 4.10.x but got the same error

How about if you bypass the login screen pressing Ctrl Alt F2 and login in the command line and run starx -- :1 ?

Note that there is a cap between -- :

same problem here. as i said i tried it via the startup command line without any luck, only now i added the -- :1 but it didn't make any difference

[asinoro]

Try this from your 32bit Mate

Code: Select all

sudo su

Find your os of Mint 18 partition with,

Code: Select all

blkid

and then,

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fsck -y /dev/sdxx

where sdxx is your os root partition,
after that
reboot

[Bobowm]

Try this from your 32bit Mate

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sudo su

Find your os of Mint 18 partition with,

Code: Select all

blkid

and then,

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fsck -y /dev/sdxx

where sdxx is your os root partition,
after that
reboot

it said it was clean
after a reboot nothing changed
but i came up with the idea to

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sudo apt-get install --reinstall lightdm

but it didn't help me, i end up with a

Code: Select all

X server lost Type "ONE_LEVEL" has 1 levels, but <RALT has 2 symbols

error, which I don't understand

[kukamuumuka]

Code: Select all

X server lost Type "ONE_LEVEL" has 1 levels, but <RALT has 2 symbols

error, which I don't understand

Reinstall basic video-driver like xserver-xorg-video-vesa. Boot to recovery mode and drop to the root prompt and run

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mount -o remount,rw /
nmcli dev status
apt-get update
inxi -G
dpkg --get-selections | grep xserver-xorg-video
apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-*
rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-vesa
sync
reboot

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=267072&p=1453215#p1453215

[Bobowm]

Code: Select all

mount -o remount,rw /
nmcli dev status
apt-get update
inxi -G
dpkg --get-selections | grep xserver-xorg-video
apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-*
rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-vesa
sync
reboot

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=267072&p=1453215#p1453215

okay this didn't help as you wrote it but it helped me with comming up with an idea to slidely change it:

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mount -o remount,rw /
nmcli dev status
apt-get update
inxi -G
dpkg --get-selections | grep xserver-xorg-video
apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-*
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-all
sync
reboot

and here we go! I am back in MATE

[XP-refugee]

I've got this happening after a new install of LM 18.3 MATE, followed by updating.
Unfortunately for me the posts above might as well be in rongo-rongo, Chinese characters or Cryllic for all the sense they make to me.

While I might eventually be able to follow instructions through, the 4 days that I'd have to devote to that pursuit are otherwise allocated.
I'm off to re-install and then not update the kernel till that happens automagically with 18.4.

[FT277002]

My Mint 19.2 PC crashed due to a power outage. (I actually have a UPS, and it was beeping, but I was stubborn and didn't shut down soon enough.) When power was restored, Mint booted to a full-screen terminal, no video. I thought it was a video driver issue, but couldn't reinstall Nvidia from the terminal, got some error about a component being locked, or something. I realized that the crash caused some problems with permissions for a few components. After some research and trying one or two things, the simple solution was to boot with the DVD and run Timeshift. I'm happy to say that this worked Perfectly, and was very quick. In fact, Mint 19.2 seems even better after the restore, like something besides the problem was fixed. Anyhow, this is my high praise for Timeshift!

(Also I will mention that my Timeshift backups are done to a different SSD than the one which has Mint 19.2 on it. I initially tried to run Timeshift from the Terminal boot, but it couldn't mount the secondary drive to access my backup.)