Blank start-up screen after upgrading to Etonia

17 respostas [Última entrada]
GNUbahn
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Joined: 02/18/2016

I have upgraded my T60 (i386) from Trisquel 8 to 9, by use of this command: sudo sed -i 's/flidas/etiona/' /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade (cf. https://trisquel.info/en/forum/trisquel-9-etiona-0#comment-149681).

The upgrade seems to have been successful except my T60 now boots into a blank screen with just the curser (underscore) blinking in the upper left corner.

During initial boot, libreboot tells me No suitable video mode found
I don't know if this is significant in the given case. Shortly after I can enter the password to run the OS which will in the end lead me to the blank screen.

From there I can enter terminal mode (tty1) by pressing < ctrl+alt+F1 >. Logging in and running < startx > starts the gui and the problem is solved - until the next (re-) boot.

How can I make my T60 boot directly into gui?

Vanecek
Desconectado
Joined: 01/18/2015

Hello GNUbahn,

first of all i don't have found a solution, but i faced the same problem with my librebooted X60s (i686). First i used the helpful command of Magic Banana and the upgrade went well.

After the first update of my system i noticed the same blinking cursor in the upper left corner as you did.

I couldn't boot up into the system again.

After that i decided to make a fresh install of T9 Mini, thinking it could have to do something with my upgrade.
But i ended up into the same error. The installation went well, after trying to update the system, i looked onto the blinking cursor in the left corner again.

Frustrated i installed another distro onto my machine with success, but this is not the solution.

With my other librebooted machines (x86) i'm facing in the moment the problem, that after the first boot up there is a very long delay until the login manager appears.

On one of the machines i installed today another distro and the problem with the delay disappears.

So both problems are maybe? Trisquel problems, not libreboot problems.

I'm very interested in solution.

I posted this to show that you are not alone. :-(

C.

GNUbahn
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Joined: 02/18/2016

Hi Vanecek,

Thanks for your solidarity.

I still haven't found a permanent solution but only a temporary one, as mentioned in the OP.

Have you tried those?

1: press ctrl+alt+F1 simultaneaously (takes you to terminal mode)
2: log in with your username and password
3: run the command: startx (starts the gui)

Vanecek
Desconectado
Joined: 01/18/2015

Hello GNUbahn,

it's too late to try it, because now another distro is running on that machine to use it without that issue.

When there will be a solution i will rollback to Trisquel again.

Best wishes.

C.

GNUbahn
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Joined: 02/18/2016

That's understandable. I hope your machine will some day be back in the trisquel stable.

mr.r
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Joined: 07/16/2018

Hello GNUbahn,

This is probably a waste of your time, but I saw something and remembered your post.
I looked in my MATE System monitor and see they are both started. Maybe you could see if they are started on your system after you manually 'startx'.
It comes from:
https://libreboot.org/docs/gnulinux/configuring_parabola.html#configuring-the-graphical-desktop-environment. (speaking to Parabola, so....?)

"After installing all the required packages, we need to make it so that the MATE Desktop Environment will start automatically, whenever we boot our computer; to do this, we have to enable the display manager, lightdm, as well as the service that will prompt us with a login window, accounts-daemon:

# systemctl enable lightdm
# systemctl enable accounts-daemon

Now you have installed the MATE Desktop Environment....."

GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/18/2016

Hi mr.r,

Thanks for your response. I shall see if they are running.

diopon
Desconectado
Joined: 10/15/2018

Hello GNUbahn,

I had the same problem on my HP Compaq nx7300. I tried it a few times with a new installing Trisquel 9 and upgrading from Trisquel 8 to 9. Without success.

I think it is an lightdm or X issue.

These are the steps I did and it worked for me:

1. A fresh install of Trisquel 9.
2. Don't run a system upgrade after the installation!
3. Install lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings. sudo apt install lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings. This will change a little bit your login screen.
4. Now run a system update. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
5. Reboot your system.

I hope it will work for you too.

Diopon

GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/18/2016

Diopon,

Your trick worked. Thanks!

I actually did not make a fresh install. So your trick works even on top of the ordinary release-upgrade + update && upgrade.

amenex
Desconectado
Joined: 01/03/2015

diopon and GNUbahn had some success with installation of alternative software:
Install lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings: sudo apt install lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings.

Trisquel_8 (flidas) was exhibiting similar behavior after an upgrade from Trisquel_7.

On the GRUB menu, only the two listed "Advanced Settings" would complete the bootup process,
so I first applied the recommended software install, then ran the update and upgrade steps,
followed by running update-grub and additional re-boots to both of the alternatives,
which are the only two versions of Trisquel_8 that are present. I could tell that applying
the software update to one of them also fixed the other one up with the new login layout.

After all this I tried starting the main choice of the GRUB menu, and the new login theme
came right up, exactly as for the advanced settings' startups.

northernarcher
Desconectado
Joined: 12/24/2014

I would like to try to fix this with your method. But I have a dumb question.

How did you install these things when we can't login/get past the black screen in the first place?

GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/18/2016

1: press ctrl+alt+F1 simultaneaously (takes you to terminal mode)
2: log in with your username and password
3: run the command: startx (starts the gui)

Once the OS is running, open a terminal and install:sudo apt install lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings

northernarcher
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Joined: 12/24/2014

I can't get past it. Pressing ctrl+alt+F1 only brings me to a terminal login for a second.
Then it goes back to the black screen.

doxanthropos
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Joined: 04/28/2013

Just did a fresh install of Trisquel on a X60s and faced the same problem after the first update.
Installing the lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings also worked in this case.

strypey
Desconectado
Joined: 05/14/2015

Hi folks, I hit the same issue with another old 32-bit Acer Aspire One (model ZG5) I just got hold of. I installed Etiona and it ran fine after the initial install. But after I ran "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y" and rebooted, the system was hanging with a black screen and a blinking cursor. The fix of installing lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings worked for me too.

northernarcher
Desconectado
Joined: 12/24/2014

Hello!

I've not done a full new distro upgrade, but running the latest updates also has done this to my Libreboot-ed X60 as well. I just get a blinking typeing cursor on startup. It stays like that forever and appears idle. I have multiple kernels installed and tried to boot into any of them and all of them were the same. The most recent updates seems to have killed my X60 in the same way as everyone else.

What should we do? Are the devs aware?

strypey
Desconectado
Joined: 05/14/2015

northernarcher:

> What should we do?

Try following the instructions here:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/blank-start-screen-after-upgrading-etonia#comment-154924

> Are the devs aware?

If they follow the forum. Not sure really how much they do.

amtrakuk
Desconectado
Joined: 11/25/2019

The only way i got around this with security in mind was to image the laptop with hard disk encryption and auto login. This kept security (by means of the hard disk encryption) and login automatically bypassed the problem auto logging on as a pre defined user. Else Triskel (Trisquel KDE desktop) is not affected by this issue.