[SOLVED] Black screen after install

He is.

Does this machine have a Graphics card port and a motherboard built in graphics port?
If so, can you switch the cable from one to the other with the computer off, then try booting up and see what happens?

1 Like

Yes, it does. I switched from the 750Ti to the motherboard, booted, and the monitor didn’t power up at all.

1 Like

If the monitor did not power up at all… odd. It should have done something… Can you check if the power cable jiggled loose a bit when switching out the card to motherboard port?
What happens if you hit ctrl+alt+(F1-F8) during boot?

1 Like

Sorry, I meant the monitor went to standby (no signal to be precise) mode and stayed there. Bad choice of words. It goes to standby within 2-3 seconds of booting up.
No response to ctrl+alt+(F1-F8), it stays on standby.

1 Like

Usually when this happens, it is because the computer sending the signal to the monitor is out of range of the monitor specs.
Which is why I was hoping that switching to the onboard graphics might make the screen visible again where we could make adjustments.
ctrl+alt+F1 (or something) should have put a text based terminal up that would allow you to make adjustments and then reboot to see if they worked.

Have you tried a Hammer?

If utterly unable to get the screen working, may need to wipe and reinstall while connected to the Motherboard graphics and see if we can get things working that way. Then install the Nvidia drivers after that.

1 Like

A hammer would solve it because then my wife would leave me in a condition where I wouldn’t need to deal with this any longer.
I looked in BIOS and there is a dual monitor option that allows both GPUs to function but now the monitor goes to standby right away no matter whether hooked to mobo or 750Ti.
So, I’m thinking I’ll take out the 750Ti from its slot, connect to the mobo only, and then install Zorin. And then once I have it all running, I power down, reinstall the 750Ti, and then boot up with it connected. Correct?

PS - The nomodeset option you mentioned in your first post didn’t allow me to boot this time. I’m guessing that its nixed because of the updates?

1 Like

After a fresh reinstall and connecting up:
Install the drivers

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

OR open Software and Updates and click the "additional drivers" tab.

I would guess similar but I would only be guessing at this point. I am a bit confused, too. Even so, the ctrl+alt+F1 should have allowed text based input, so I am at a loss, too.

When troubleshooting becomes fun, we are not doing Misery Correctly.
Your wifes computer's not working. Come on, let's be serious.

"Ducks and runs"

2 Likes

All things crossed (I haven’t found how to cross my blankety-blanks yet! - self-moderated myself there!):

https://www.stephenwagner.com/2019/05/05/ubuntu-linux-black-screen-frozen-system-after-upgrade-install/#:~:text=After%20upgrading%20a%20computer%20from%20Ubuntu%2016.04%20LTS,that%20causes%20the%20system%20to%20halt%20or%20freeze.

Also take a look here:

1 Like

Thank you both.

I documented what Aravisian taught me as well as the permanent fix section on Swarf’s recommended site. Gonna keep the Nvidia fix suggestion as a bookmark if I need it in the future.

Removing the 750Ti did not help. But then i may have discovered why. The BIOS has a setting where if an external GPU is plugged-in, it disables the mobo integrated graphics. I disabled that to allow both GPUs to function. Then I reboot. Still on standby. On a whim, I unplugged the monitor power and replugged (the monitor also happens to be Asus). But this time I kept the monitor connected to the 750Ti instead of the mobo. Voila, it started up with full graphics. I checked for any updates and noted that Nvidia drivers are under the “other drivers” on the software updater. Then I reboot, switched off the mobo GPU again and it booted just fine.

My take - the Asus components (mobo and monitor) were being annoying. The mobo BIOS dual GPU setting (under Main->System) may have contributed but eventually this worked on the 750Ti which means the signal reception issue was a major part of the problem as Aravisian suspected. Powering the monitor off and then on again allowed it to receive signal again.

My wife is now happily on her desktop and the only machine in the house with Windows still on it is my dual boot desktop which gets powered up about once a month.

For future readers - Aravisian’s instructions in post #2 were the prerequisite to this working.

5 Likes

Carmar, great troubleshooting. Hopefully this will help others, as well.

1 Like

Thanks to Aravisian for great support as always, and Carmar for reporting he is now (or rather his Good Lady) is in Zorin heaven! You could also now give your good lady a change to give KDE a try! :wink:

1 Like

Both of us happen to like the Zorin Gnome look. But I’ll try KDE out some time - thanks for the tip. I did try Xfce several months ago but preferred Zorin’s default.
Oh, and I lied: my work laptop is the second machine in the house that runs Windows (Noooo!) but I have no control over that. :grimacing:

2 Likes

Well I managed to crash my install last night (writing from different machine as been on with ISP as no computers and no phones could get to internet even though router was displaying connected to internet. I was installing a new wallpaper in KDE and the system crashed so I need to do some repair work on it today! LOL!

1 Like

If you call an IT department, one of the classic things they are going to ask you is, “Have you tried turning it off and on again.”

While these days considered much cliche, there is also much truth to it. Back in the day when computer’s didn’t have nearly enough RAM, turning them off and on again would clear the RAM cash, which allowed the system to operate normally again.

But since monitors and TV’s have become smart devices now like mobile phones, they too sometimes need to be powered off and on again. Glad you got the annoying problem figured out.

1 Like

LOL.
I just responded in kind to your post on the other thread. Perfect timing.

1 Like

RESOLVE UBUNTU/ZORIN - LINUX OS BLACK SCREEN

This is a gnome graphic error. I think window display manager got corrupted as it can't read the display libraries.
I had this problem on my Zorin OS Lite 15.3 32bit & when I researched i found that xserver needs to be reinstalled.

Step1 : Enter to tty2 (Ctrl + Alt + F2) & login with user credentials

Step2 : sudo apt-get autoclean

Step3 : sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg

Step4 : If you get dpkg interrupted msg, run sudo dpkg --configure -a , else proceed to next step.

Step5: Reboot your machine - reboot

how do i make the 'nomodeset' permanent since my gpu is damaged?

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Add the nomodeset parameter so it is "quiet splash nomodeset":
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"
Then, ctrl+x to exit, the y key to say Yes to Save, then the enter key to save current configuration.
The terminal will revert to normal - now, run sudo update-grub and the parameter will be permanent.

2 Likes

DOES this work for 'Focal'

Yes, this will work on focal.

1 Like