Ubuntu

Ubuntu 14.04 boots to black screen Nvidia 950 GeForce

Asked by Phil Marsh

OS: Ubuntu 14.04
Kernel: 3.13.0-137-generic #186-Ubuntu SMP Mon Dec 4 19:09:19 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
motherboard: X9DR3-F with two E2630-v2 CPUs
Graphics card: Nvidia 950 GeForce
Monitors: two 4K monitors being driven on the Displayport ports. Seiki Pro and DELL
Ubuntu 14.04

Results:

updating to the Nvidia Drivers version 384.98 results in a black screen with a flashing cursor.
In this case, the operating system appears to function normally except for the black screen and one can obtain the expected screen and remote login via a VNC and/or terminal remote connection.

Any ideas? Ubuntu 16.04 appears to work with the latest updates on this system but I'm needing to use 14.04 until I can perform a full upgrade.
Thanks, Phil

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Do any of the Nvidia drivers work OK? Your post says "updating to the Nvidia drivers version 384.98". Does an earlier version of the drivera work OK?

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Phil Marsh (marsh-pf) said : 		#2

My current nvidia driver is: 375.82
Thanks,
Phil

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Phil Marsh (marsh-pf) said : 		#3

and it does work OK as far as I know (version 375.82 nvidia drivers work OK on my system).

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

Then why not keep the 375.82 driver if it works....?

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Phil Marsh (marsh-pf) said : 		#5

Sorry, actionparsnip, but you're missing my point.

Yes, I could and have just kept running the version 375.82 and it works. BUT the general problem is that we have an Ubuntu 14.04 repository which is attempting to update the driver with one which effectively crashes the system. I was able to recover my OS from this easily because I had daily backups of the OS and could simply roll back without a lengthy reinstallation of all my configurations and additions such as an OwnCloud server and Apache server.

Imagine how and inexperienced Ubuntu user who didn't know how to backup and restore their OS files + configurations would feel about a repository update breaking their installation? They would likely have to re-install and re-configure their OS and that could be the end of their wanting to use Linux. This is a result I and the rest of the Linux community would like to avoid - and hence the reason for this posting.

Shall I move this to a bug report?

Thanks, Phil

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

A bug report sounds constructive

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