I’m quite new to Ubuntu Studio and am still certainly getting to know the basics. I did a upgrade a week or two ago and afterwards my trackpad, touch screen and Wi-Fi no longer work. This pretty much makes my laptop useless at this point. I’ve tried absolutely everything I could find on youtube, random sites and AI browser responses. I have yet to resolve the issue.
I tried to reboot and use the Escape key to enter Grub mode but my boot loading under Advanced Options leads to a normal boot. No option to go to previous kernel, no kernels shown. In fact, it is very difficult to get to the advanced options menu when pressing escape upon boot loading as it seems to require an exact moment to complete. But numerous times seceding, it shows nothing and boots normally
I have gone to the grub file grub/default/boot, i believe it is, and changed the kernel to the previous one. Then updated grub boot loading with no results.
In addition comma I’ve tried Probably two or three other Options I was able to find online that seem to be fairly close To the mentioned above Giving no results.
I can’t do so from my laptop because it is pretty much useless without the trackpad and internet.
Is anybody aware of a relatively simple but effective way in getting either my trackpad, touch screen and Wi-Fi up and running again, or downgrading to the previous kernel that had seemed to be working just fine?
Welcome to the community, mt001 — and thanks for your first post.
From your description, this strongly looks like a kernel regression after an upgrade, not a GRUB configuration issue. When the trackpad, touchscreen, and Wi-Fi all stop working at once, it usually means the new kernel no longer supports or properly loads the required drivers/firmware.
A few important points:
If no older kernels appear under Advanced options for Ubuntu, it likely means the previous kernel was removed and is no longer installed. Editing GRUB won’t help unless the kernel actually exists in /boot.
The fastest and most reliable solution in this situation is to boot from a Live USB, connect to the internet there, then:
reinstall a known-good older kernel, or
install a stable/LTS kernel and boot into that.
If you can use the keyboard, it would also help to know:
To help narrow this down properly, we’ll need a bit more information about your system. Kernel regressions can be hardware-specific, so details really matter here.
Please consider editing your post and filling out the Ubuntu Support Template below. This makes it much easier for others to help you effectively:
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With this information, it should be much easier to determine whether reinstalling an older kernel or switching to a stable one will resolve the issue.
Thanks for the rapid response, yes I can use the keyboard. Everything seems to be fine with that but of my best understanding it’s just the trackpad, Laptop touch screen and Wi-Fi that I have noticed with the few attempts to use it. I had tried to load up from a live USB and wasn’t successful, that must have been on my end as an error because I’m just not that familiar with Ubuntu Studio yet. I’m going to try the live in just moments. But yes, the keyboard does work and everything else seems to be functioning the same as normal.
Once I load from the live boot, where do I find a stable kernel? Just before this last upgrade it seemed to have been working just fine. Generally speaking.
Are you saying that if you let the machine boot without hitting ESC, your trackpad/touchscreen/wifi don’t work, but if you boot and successfully ESC to the GRUB menu everything works properly?
A properly-configured Ubuntu system (including Ubuntu Studio) will always retain at least one older kernel precisely for the case of a new kernel not working. In fact, your system will refuse to upgrade if it cannot retain both kernels. If you had only one prior kernel, it would not be automatically deleted. That you cannot find another kernel to boot from is highly curious.
So, when your installed system (not a Live/Installer system) is working, please show us the complete output of the following commands. Simply copy/paste the entire output from the terminal into your response. Please try to retain formatting for readibility: ls -lah /boot sudo apt update
Might you, perhaps, have installed Ubuntu more than once on this machine? And another install is lurking somewhere?
Did you encounter any errors during the upgrade that you have not mentioned?
Are you currently encountering ANY other errors or curious problems on your system?
(Optional) If you plug in a USB mouse to your system while broken, does the mouse work?
The problem I have been dealing with is having done an upgrade and then trying to use my laptop as it was prior to the upgrade. The trackpad, the touch screen and the Wi-Fi or the only three things of my acknowledgment to no longer be working after this upgrade. Basically, the laptop is non-functional for me as a newbie with Ubuntu Studio, Linux.
I have not tried to update any drivers or so, I have been under the impression that it is better to downgrade kernel when a new upgrade has been installed that does not have drivers for it yet.
Might it be better to install drivers rather than downgrade kernel, this would be a preference or perhaps it would be better stated as a preferred learning experience being so new to Ubuntu studio, Linux.
And so I have tried a number of recommendations I found around the internet to downgrade to the previous kernel as a consistent solution to such problem.
Simply changing the grub boot via Advanced options was not successful. Doing so would reflect no options and rather go into a normal boot instead.
Below are some pictures of information requested by a responder to my inquiry.
Thank you, and I have been enjoying Ubuntu Studio despite of its learning curve. It’s been a wonderful experience learning to overcome such an technological fear I once had of Linux. I no longer use the windows or Mac.
!
Once I would boot from a live USB, how do I find a usable kernel or where do I find one specifically? And how would I install it? I apologize for my newbie questions and overall inquiry but this is definitely where I’m at with Ubuntu studio. Nevertheless it is being enjoyed well, it’s been extremely inconvenient at this time not being able to use my laptop.
You do seem to have two kernels properly installed.
Let’s find out if the same kernel is running in both circumstances. When the system is working properly, and again when it’s not, please run the command uname -r and show us the complete output of both.
You did not mention your numerous apt update “configured multiple times” warnings. Those look very much like you have tried to reinstall system packages, often a symptom of a previous incomplete repair. What were you trying to repair?
And please take swing at answering the previous diagnostic questions. Those answer can eliminate many blind alleys.
— and thanks for your first post.
