Logging in fails after update to latest kernel [4.2.0-39]

[mrcannibal]

Fresh install with almost no program additions or settings. Works fine out of the box with the kernel included in the DVD (4.2.0-27). First update adds kernel 4.2.0-38 and 4.2.0-39. With 0-39, grub loads perfectly fine but after the black kubuntu logo screen it never gets to the login screen and the screen stays black without responding to any keys. The only options are to go to a tty but startx creates the same problem or to hit the on/off switch which simply shows the kubuntu logo again and shuts down.

The 0-27 and 0-38 kernels work perfectly well however.

[GreyGeek]

I had that happen with the kernel update just before the last one.
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...098&viewfull=1

[mrcannibal]

I'm not sure if it's the same problem. I get a blank screen but no mouse pointer and alt-f2 doesn't work either. I'm pretty sure that for some reason X doesn't start up and trying to start it from the tty fails. I did a cli update and hist-upgrade but nothing really changed. Experimentally I did an autoremove which removed the headers for kernel -24 and left me with -38 and -39. Booting with -39 still breaks the system.

[elijathegold]

Try going to a tty and, if it exists, renaming /etc/X11/xorg.conf to something else and then starting X. If it works, try rebooting.

[mrcannibal]

Try going to a tty and, if it exists, renaming /etc/X11/xorg.conf to something else and then starting X. If it works, try rebooting.

The first step of that worked. I renamed xorg.conf to xorg.congOLD and then did startx. Went straight to the SDDM loading screen and the system loaded fine. But when I rebooted the same black screen came up instead of the login screen.

The new xorg.conf generated after I rebooted was identical with the old one.

[GreyGeek]

A black screen without mouse or keyboard activity usually means that the ~/.Xauthority got owned by root. Boot into the recovery mode with the file system mounted and use chown to change the ownership of /home/youracctname/~.Xauthority to yourname:yourname. Then reboot.

[mrcannibal]

A black screen without mouse or keyboard activity usually means that the ~/.Xauthority got owned by root. Boot into the recovery mode with the file system mounted and use chown to change the ownership of /home/youracctname/~.Xauthority to yourname:yourname. Then reboot.

Still owned by my account. rw -- --

[elijathegold]

A black screen without mouse or keyboard activity usually means that the ~/.Xauthority got owned by root. Boot into the recovery mode with the file system mounted and use chown to change the ownership of /home/youracctname/~.Xauthority to yourname:yourname. Then reboot.

Or a some kind of graphics driver problem which the fact it works after renaming the xorg.conf supports. @mrcannibal, are you using proprietary drivers?

[Snowhog]

Post the contents of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf so we can take a look at what is being included.

[mrcannibal]

Or a some kind of graphics driver problem which the fact it works after renaming the xorg.conf supports. @mrcannibal, are you using proprietary drivers?

Yeah, the blob type nvidia drivers. I was suspecting that might be it but I wasn't sure because I could log in just fine with kernel -38 using the same drivers. The drivers panel from system settings gives 3 options. nvidia-352 (recommended), nvidia-352-updates and xserver-xorg-video-nouveau which was the default. I don't remember when (if I even did that) I selected the nvidia-352-updates package but it was the one selected. When I used the rm xorg.conf to log in using kernel -39, I tried to switch to nvidia-352 through the drivers panel, the muon package driver and by trying to install them with apt but all three methods failed.

I then booted again with -38, the drivers panel didn't have any problem switching to nvidia-352, rebooted with -39 and logged in normally. The only odd thing now is that the xorg.conf file is missing. I renamed the xorg-confOLD into xorg.conf and rebooted and it disappeared again. Instead, I've got two identical files, xorg.conf06152016 and xorg.conf06162016

Kinda hoping X won't start generating a different xorg.conf for every day of the year.

Post the contents of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf so we can take a look at what is being included.

No xorg.conf but these are the contents of both the xorg.conf* I've got in X11/

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout"
    Screen 0 "nvidia"
    Inactive "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "intel"
    BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
    Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "intel"
    Device "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "PCI:4@0:0:0"
    Option "ConstrainCursor" "off"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Device "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on"
    Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"
EndSection

[elijathegold]

The Nvidia drivers should be updated when the kernel is, especially if installed from the driver manager. When booted into your new kernel you could try running

sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-352

or

sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-352-updates

depending on which you have selected and then rebooting. Just for more information, what is the output from the command

apt policy nvidia-current

[mrcannibal]

The Nvidia drivers should be updated when the kernel is, especially if installed from the driver manager. When booted into your new kernel you could try running

sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-352

or

sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-352-updates

depending on which you have selected and then rebooting. Just for more information, what is the output from the command

apt policy nvidia-current

Reconfiguring nvidia-352 went fine and rebooted without issue. Apt policy nvidia-current returns

E: Invalid operation policy

[elijathegold]

Reconfiguring nvidia-352 went fine and rebooted without issue.

Excellent!

Apt policy nvidia-current returns

E: Invalid operation policy

Try

apt-cache policy

instead. Although it probably doesn't matter if it's working now and your OK with reconfiguring after the occasional kernel update.

[mrcannibal]

Excellent!

Try

apt-cache policy

instead. Although it probably doesn't matter if it's working now and your OK with reconfiguring after the occasional kernel update.

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Pinned packages:

Has worked fine so far. I'll see if the problem continues after I re-install and fiddle around a bit.

[mrcannibal]

Update: Tried fresh install, since I thought I had worked out all the kinks and was going for a permanent one this time, update everything plus kernel to 0-41, restart goes well. As soon as I activate nvidia-352, it broke again and reconfiguring the package didn't fix it this time.

Seems like every kernel update is going to break the graphical system if the nvidia drivers are in use. This is becoming more trouble than it's worth.