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Hardware - Support => Start up and Shutdown => Topic started by: corrigun on January 03, 2017, 09:31:58 AM

Title: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 03, 2017, 09:31:58 AM
Hi All,

LL3.2 on an HP Proliant Server.

After a few updates and a reboot I now find myself at a black screen (no mouse pointer). The yellow splash screen comes up for a few seconds but then goes to black. I can crtl/alt/f1 to a prompt and login but no GUI. The server is running as I have still access to Web based apps running on Apache and I can still login to Webmin.

Is there a way to reinstall the GUI and/or login routine?

Thanks.
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: ralphy on January 03, 2017, 11:54:11 AM
After Ctrl Alt F1 and log in... can you load the desktop with startx to use the machine normally.
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 03, 2017, 12:03:36 PM
I could not. I did not grab all the details but here is the gist of it-

Server terminated with error(1)
Giving up
Unable to connect to X server Connection Refused
Server Error
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: ralphy on January 03, 2017, 01:25:37 PM
hmm... try the basic first:

Code: [Select]
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xorg
sudo rm /home/[USERNAME]/.Xauthority*
reboot

Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 03, 2017, 02:50:04 PM
Same result.

This may be a dumb question but can't I just install another GUI? Like Gnome for example?

Also could I just do a "dirty install" of LL like you can with Windows?
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 03, 2017, 04:00:21 PM
I don't know if this will help but this is the log referenced during the fail. I have attached it as a txt file.
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: ralphy on January 03, 2017, 07:45:24 PM
Question, when in Terminal... can't you launch startx not even as root?

Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 04, 2017, 09:47:22 AM
So for what it is worth I got back to my desktop. I noticed in the error log that none of the fonts were found. I reinstalled them but still no joy.

Then actually the above reply that mentioned root for some reason prompted me to try-

Code: [Select]
sudo startx
And the desktop started. If anyone has any ideas how to automate this I would appreciate the input.
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: ralphy on January 04, 2017, 01:40:35 PM
So for what it is worth I got back to my desktop. I noticed in the error log that none of the fonts were found. I reinstalled them but still no joy.

Then actually the above reply that mentioned root for some reason prompted me to try-

Code: [Select]
sudo startx
And the desktop started. If anyone has any ideas how to automate this I would appreciate the input.

From previous post... did you remove the .Xauthority file as recommended under laytonj account?

Code: [Select]
sudo rm /home/laytonj/.Xauthority*
sudo reboot
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 04, 2017, 02:10:52 PM
I did remove it. It was completely empty.
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: ralphy on January 04, 2017, 02:33:34 PM
Can you post the output of

Code: [Select]
groups laytonj
and

Code: [Select]
ls -la /dev/tty0
Also, have you tried booting up with a previous kernel? I know some of the latest updates installed a new kernel and maybe your server hardware doesn't play nice with it.
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 05, 2017, 10:06:48 AM
Groups laytonj yields-
laytonj: laytonj adm cdrom sudo dip plugdev lpadmin sambashare

ls -la /dev/tty0 yields-
crw--w---- 1 root tty 4, 0 Jan 4 09:18  /dev/tty0

I have not tried booting with a previous kernel. I'm not really sure how to do that.

Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: ralphy on January 08, 2017, 12:36:58 AM
Well, permissions look fine too :(

See if booting from a previous kernel works for you. To boot from a previous kernel, just press and hold SHIFT key while the computer is booting (right after POST) before GRUB starts loading. This will bring grub options. Select Advanced Options and an older kernel from the kernel list.

(http://i.imgur.com/us2n3gg.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/Fg8CTiK.png)
Title: Re: Black Screen/Reinstall GUI?
Post by: corrigun on January 10, 2017, 04:10:07 PM
Sorry for the delay. I got a bit of a flu bug and was out sick.

I'll try that but other than that is there an easy way to just automate the sudo startx thing?