Hi, I’m using Zorin OS 32 bits Lite edition from one year ago and this is my first time on GNU/Linux due to the end of Windows 7 hehe and my problem is similar with the difference that I can’t hit the keys ctrl + alt and F1 or whatever to access to the console to log in in a different way because the screen is in a loop. I was tried today some methods that you mentioned but don’t worked anyone. I uploaded a video on my youtube’s channel to try to illustrate my problem: Zorin OS don’t works good My netbook is from 7 years ago and it has some simples hardware failures due to the use. Best regards.
Hi, Following KRB’s helpful description above, I was able to log in, under the recovery option, as root, and launch the bare-bones Xfce environment. But the regular boot process remains broken. As carmar suggested, I wrote to @AZorin. Let’s hope that we hear back, since this problem is affecting more than one user and we seem to have reached a dead-end.
Hi, Folks, I may have found a diagnosis. In syslog, I found an error message referring to lightdm-gtk-gre, and ran an internet search. It seems to be a bug resulting from the recent systemd update in Ubuntu 18.04:
The solution proposed in posts ##14, 18-19 worked for me. But I don’t understand why it worked. I don’t like opening the hood and messing around with the interior without understanding what I’m doing. If anybody could explain the bug and the solution, I’d be grateful.
Many thanks cnimi for researching further and finding this workaround. It has also worked for me, so the good times with Zorin 15 carry on.
As always this was a learning experience for me (never too old to learn). At least I was in the right area with lightdm even if I then tried to blame a Zorin component unjustly. Anyway, I now have a second user set up on my system (for XFCE environment use) should the need arise in the future. Thanks again.
Some more things to try: https://askubuntu.com/questions/320691/ubuntu-boots-on-terminal-only-how-do-i-recover-the-gui-desktop
Backing up and deleting xorg.conf as well as using vmalloc=192MB to boot were two things that caught my eye.
There is also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50126179/after-upgrade-18-04-no-gui-available-only-tty mostly recommends reinstalling ubuntu desktop which is also one of the recommendations in the prior link.
Thanks everyone for letting us know about this issue!
The issue
After a period of investigating, debugging, and testing, we have found the source of the issue and fixed it. It appears that there was an error with the interplay between LightDM (the display manager & login screen in Zorin OS Lite) and the latest update to systemd on 32-bit systems. More specifically, it happened after an update patch changed the memory limits, which explains why this error only occurred on 32-bit systems.
This error appears to have only affected computers running Zorin OS 15 Lite 32-bit.
We have recently fixed this error in the latest software updates, specifically in the LightDM greeter. If you are currently running Zorin OS 15 Lite on a 32-bit system, it's now possible to update your system safely.
How to fix it
If you're only seeing a blank screen after booting Zorin OS, you can install the latest update that fixes this issue by following these steps:
- At the operating system boot menu (GRUB) enter "Advanced options" under Zorin OS and select the newest "(recovery mode)" option in the list to boot it.
Tip
If you only have Zorin OS installed on your computer as a single boot (with no other operating systems installed alongside it), you can make the boot menu appear by holding down either the Shift or Esc key immediately after pressing the power button (to turn on your computer).
- When you see the "Recovery Menu", use the down arrow key to highlight the "root" option and press Enter to select it.
- Press the Enter key again when you see the "Press Enter for maintenance" prompt
- Enter the following 3 commands to install the latest updates:
sudo service network-manager restart
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade - After the updates finish installing, enter this command to reboot your computer:
reboot
You should now be able to start Zorin OS normally.
1 Like
Thanks, carmar, for these helpful links. I think that we might have found a solution, two posts above (but I don’t know how to mark it as the solution).
Since this thread is started by @ribivi , he will have to mark the solution. I can also mark it but I’d like him to opine.
Can you also please try AZorin’s suggestion ?
I have this same problem today, and I need reinstall it.
The problem is on the lightdm and he cant solve by a reconfigure the lightdm, sometimes the computer simply cant stop looping on a black screen and the - ctrl + alt + f1 dont work so sometimes you simply cant do nothing, if the problem dont entry on a loop you need use -ctrl + alt + f1 or other tty text activation and simply put the command - startx and the session is active but the configs of Zorin Desktop like background are change.
The problem is on the update that system do on the firts update after install. But I cant find what is the real problem because in my case I try reconfigure lightdm, blacklist nouveau, aply nomodeset parameter, try to modify grub etc and nothing work.
Is a critical problem for users without experience on command line or kernel custom option at start.
If people have this problem they can access the session with the startx command.
I do some work to put here the hardware and the time of new installation, I do the update upgrade by the upgrade manager this evening at 6:00 pm (Portugal time) and then the computer crash with this problem and now I just finishing my new installation (I block the upgrade manager and install synaptic to have a better control of repositories and the upgrades that I need) .
I put here the result of some commands abut my hardware :
Blockquote
joao@joao-P4V88:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102/VT6103 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500] (rev a1)
joao@joao-P4V88:~$
joao@joao-P4V88:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 3
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
stepping : 4
microcode : 0x17
cpu MHz : 2991.839
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc pebs bts cpuid pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr pti
bugs : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips : 5983.67
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 128
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:
processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 3
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
stepping : 4
microcode : 0x17
cpu MHz : 2991.839
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fdiv_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc pebs bts cpuid pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr pti
bugs : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf mds swapgs itlb_multihit
bogomips : 5983.67
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 128
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:
joao@joao-P4V88:~$
joao@joao-P4V88:~$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 5.4.0-54-generic (buildd@lcy01-amd64-019) (gcc version 7.5.0 (Ubuntu 7.5.0-3ubuntu1~18.04)) #60~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Nov 6 17:24:36 UTC 2020
joao@joao-P4V88:~$ ls -lact --full-time /etc | tail -1 | awk '{print $6,$7}'
2020-11-27 19:18:42.963062922
lscpu
Arquitetura: i686
Modo(s) operacional da CPU: 32-bit
Ordem dos bytes: Little Endian
CPU(s): 2
Lista de CPU(s) on-line: 0,1
Thread(s) per núcleo: 2
Núcleo(s) por soquete: 1
Soquete(s): 1
ID de fornecedor: GenuineIntel
Família da CPU: 15
Modelo: 3
Nome do modelo: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Step: 4
CPU MHz: 2991.839
BogoMIPS: 5983.67
cache de L1d: 16K
cache de L2: 1024K
Opções: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc pebs bts cpuid pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr pti
Blockquote
Other problem that I idetify is that the live ISO after test on this pc and in on the first time of live USB boot result in a critical crash on the internal native system of my internal disk, the grub is corrupted and also initramfs, because this I need to install Zorin , I cant solve the problem of the system of disk in case - Lubuntu 14.04. No problem I think this problem maybe can result by the software that I use to burn the ISO - etcher.
The system works very well on this pc. Great work of Zorin team. I hope that this post can help other users.
Thanks.
Hi, I’m sorry but in my case the 3 commands don’t worked 
. I don’t know exactly why. I tried the majority of the possibles solutions but don’t worked anyone. I think that it can be due to the pack can late to arrive to all the users 
. I thought to install Synaptic too. Best regards.
1 Like
Hi, yes exactly, I uploaded a new video to my youtube’s channel for showing it. The three commands don’t worked in my case I don’t have experience with the command line either. I reinstall it from 3 weeks ago for the same issue and the OS worked good during that time untill few days ago behind an update or an upgrade. I don’t know if I should reinstall it again but Is there a guarantee that the problem will be fixed? Do you need that I pass you the specs of my pc? Sorry if my English is not very good hehe. Best regards.
Please just paste the results of the commands here in your post.
Hi, excuse my ignorance, but how do I paste the results here into my post? I can only think of transcribing them manually or taking photos.
Having previously successfully applied the temporary workaround from cnimi, I have now allowed the software updater to apply your permanent fix which has also been successful. Many thanks.
2 Likes
Just like any other text editor. Once you run the commands, either:
- Drag-select the text using mouse and copy (Shift+ctrl +c OR Menu->Edit->Copy)
OR - Menu->Edit->SelectAll—>copy
Then paste in here (ctrl+v)
Hi, carmar,
Yes, I’ve tried AZorin’s suggestion. First I commented out the two lines that I had added to limits.conf. Then I used the Software Updater (inside Zorin) to update: lightdm-gtk-greeter:i386 (2.0.5-0ubuntu2+zorin1). Then I rebooted. The solution works. Thanks.
Hi @doz
Based on the video you uploaded, it appears that you didn’t enter the first command correctly. This prevented your computer from connecting to the Internet to download the latest package updates.
Please enter the following 3 commands exactly as they appear here:
sudo service network-manager restart
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Afterwards, you can reboot your computer by entering this command:
reboot
Hi @carmar and @AZorin thank you so much for the time and sorry for my lack of knowledge hehe. The problem was finally solved. 
I explain me, when I accessed from the recovery mode as recommended by @AZorin the results were:
Blockquote
The first command: sudo service network-manager restart
root@username-Intel-powered-classmate-PC:"# sudo service network-manager
Usage: /etc/init.d/network-manager (start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload|status)
root@username-Intel-powered-classmate-PC:"# /etc/init.d/network-manager restart
[ ok ] Restarting network-manager (via systemctl): network-manager.service.
The second command: sudo apt-get update
root@username-Intel-powered-classmate-PC:"# sudo apt-get update
Err:1 Index of /zorinos/apps/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
Err:2 Index of /ubuntu/ bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ar.archive.ubuntu.com>
Err:3 http://ar.archive.ubuntu/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ar.archive.ubuntu.com>
Err:4 Index of /ubuntu bionic-security InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <security.ubuntu.com>
Err:5 Index of /stable/ bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
Err:6 Index of /patches/ bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
Err:7 Index of /apps/ bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
Err:8 Index of /drivers/ bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
Err:9 Index of /zorinos/drivers/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
Err:10 Index of /zorinos/patches/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
Err:11 Index of /zorinos/stable/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
Err:12 Index of /ubuntu/ bionic-backports InRelease
Fallo temporal al resolver <ar.archive.ubuntu.com>
Leyendo lista de paquetes... Hecho
W: Fallo al obtener http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ar.archive.ubuntu.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-updates/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ar.archive.ubuntu.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://ar.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-backports/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ar.archive.ubuntu.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic-security/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <security.ubuntu.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://packages.zorinos.com/stable/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://packages.zorinos.com/patches/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://packages.zorinos.com/apps/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://packages.zorinos.com/drivers/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <packages.zorinos.com>
W: Fallo al obtener http://ppa.launchpad.net/zorinos/apps/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
W: Fallo al obtener http://ppa.launchpad.net/zorinos/drivers/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
W: Fallo al obtener http://ppa.launchpad.net/zorinos/patches/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
W: Fallo al obtener http://ppa.launchpad.net/zorinos/stable/ubuntu/dists/bionic/InRelease Fallo temporal al resolver <ppa.launchpad.net>
W: No se han podido descargar algunos archivos de índice, se han omitido, o se han utilizado unos antiguos en su lugar.
The third command: sudo apt-get upgrade:
root@username-Intel-powered-classmate-PC:"# sudo apt-get upgrade
Leyendo lista de paquetes... Hecho
Creando árbol de dependencias
Leyendo la información de estado... Hecho
Calculando la actualización... Hecho
0 actualizados, 0 nuevos se instalarán, 0 parq eliminar y 0 no actualizados.
Blockquote
Then I accessed the sudo startx command, this took me to the desktop from recovery mode and from there I discovered that the first command disabled my wifi, I restored it, I executed the following commands, I reboot and it was solved, the whole system is as I used it before the issues.
1 Like
Good to know. Yeah, it looks like the network manager restart kept you offline, so nothing was updated. Since you updated once you were back online, that fixed it.