[SOLVED] Only kubuntu splash screen post upgrade to 5.3.0-28-generic

[t0nym]

Hi All,
Seeking some assistance, if I may.
It began with me attempting to fix wifi connectivity issues, then NVidia issues and eventually came across the big kernel upgrade which (post research) I did:

apt-get reinstall --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-18.04 xserver-xorg-hwe-18.04

... and then all seemed well (got connected screen up and running... Yaayyyy!).
However, noticed the laptop screen wasn't working past the Kubuntu splash screen.
So another NVidia sourced issue?
Purged NVidia drivers:

sudo apt remove --purge nvidia-*

... and laptop screen worked again (Yayyy...!)
Reinstalled nvidia drivers again:

ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

...where laptop screen stopped working as before (Booo...!) and since kinda has me flummoxed somewhat, as I generally see non-functional additional monitor issues, but not this way around.
So turning to this forum to enquire if anyone else has experienced/seen this issue before, given the above?
Additional (hopefully helpful?) info:

$ lshw -c display
*-display                 
    description: VGA compatible controller
    product: GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile]
    vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
    version: a1
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
    configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
    resources: irq:128 memory:d2000000-d2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:d3000000-d307ffff
*-display UNCLAIMED
    description: VGA compatible controller
    product: Intel Corporation
    vendor: Intel Corporation
    physical id: 2
    bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
    version: 04
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
    configuration: latency=0
    resources: memory:d4000000-d4ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff
---------
$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 591b (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] (rev a1)
---------
lsmod | grep -E 'Module|591'
Module                  Size  Used by

... hmmm, appears there's no driver loaded for the laptop screen. Pls don't tell me it's as obvious as that?

Just to add, this combo was working all fine and dandy up 'til a few days ago - I'll now pop off and do some more poking around...

TiA
t0nym

[t0nym]

OK - this is now fixed:

$ sudo lshw -C display
*-display                 
    description: VGA compatible controller
    product: GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile]
    vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
    physical id: 0
    bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
    version: a1
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
    configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
    resources: irq:129 memory:d2000000-d2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:d3000000-d307ffff
*-display
    description: VGA compatible controller
    product: Intel Corporation
    vendor: Intel Corporation
    physical id: 2
    bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
    version: 04
    width: 64 bits
    clock: 33MHz
    capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
    configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
    resources: irq:128 memory:d4000000-d4ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

Basically, my concluding hypotheses seems to have been correct - Intel driver wasn't installed properly or was munged.
So, in short - removed NVidia drivers:

apt-get purge nvidia*

... to concentrate on installing and configuring correct Intel driver.
Ended up breaking (not intentionally) xserver, so embarked on fixing that:

sudo tasksel install kubuntu-desktop

... which seemed to do the do AFA installing the right Intel driver.
Then installed the specific recommended NVidia driver I needed:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-440

Removed network-manager and reinstalled wicd (preferred) and now currently purring like a kitten, with a decent kernel upgrade to boot.

Hope this helps any one of whom is similarly perturbed...

Regards
t0nym