Lubuntu startup goes to blank/no signal screen

Support and Help
1

Trouble with running new install of Lubuntu.

Ubuntu Version:
Lubuntu 24.04.2 LTS Noble Numbat

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
It uses Lxqt but I’m not sure that is relevant to the issue.

Problem Description:
I’m installing Lubuntu 24.04.2 to a Dell XPS 8930. The install and first reboot goes fine, but reboots after that go to a blank screen, after the Lubuntu logo and before the login screen. If I press the power button, the blue lubuntu logo screen comes back, but it doesn’t help me any because pressing the power button makes the pc shutdown a moment later. I might think it is going into sleep-mode or something like that, but pressing keys has no effect.

I also have Lubuntu installed to a jumpdrive (full os, not the live iso), and that runs on the PC with nearly no issue. It can fully boot up and run the OS.

Relevant System Information:
2018 dell desktop PC. Intel i7 CPU (8700, I think), 32gb memory, GTX 1660-S GPU, 1.8Tb HDD (no ssd), 450w PSU, no performance issues. The GPU was recently upgraded from a 1050Ti but I tried rebooting with the old GPU put back in and it did not affect the blank-screen issue. The monitor indicates ‘no signal’ so it appears to me that the pc is perhaps going to sleep as soon as the boot is complete. I don’t know for a fact any sleep-mode is happening.

What I’ve Tried:
I looked through the BIOS a couple times, everything seems right as far as I can tell.
Secure boot = disable
UEFI shows Lubuntu (or it may say Ubuntu) as the first boot option
HDD is set to AHCI. I reinstalled the OS after switching to AHCI in case that helped, but it didn’t.
I switched the gpu out for the factory one, no change in the problem.
I tried pressing keys like escape, enter, spacebar, F1, F2, just to see if some input might bring it back, there was no response.

I have read that missing GPU drivers may cause blank-screens, and my first priority after installing the main updates is to install that driver, but I don’t see how I can if I can’t use the OS.

I do have Lubuntu installed to another PC (the one I am using presently), so I know what it should look like when it is working properly. My knowledge of PCs is primarily high-level. I’ve done good enough to handle my needs for troubleshooting windows in the past, but subjects of kernels and BIOS etc. I don’t know nearly enough about to understand what is happening here. Thanks in advance to any kind person who can make a suggestion for me.

2

Do you see the grub menu when you power on?
If so, press e to edit the grub parameters
Remove quiet splash from the line beginning linux /boot/vmlinuz
F10 to boot

When the PC boots, you will see text output and, hopefully, there may be a clue when the boot process aborts?

Alternatively, add nomodeset to the same line to see if your PC boots to the desktop

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4

That got it! Thank you for your help tea-for-one.

I removed quiet splash and that didn’t fix it. I did it again and added nomodeset and the boot completed to the login and desktop. I edited the /etc/default/grub file with these changes and used update-grub and now it boots up properly every time.

One note for if somebody else needs help that involves grub parameters:
I discovered that the parameters provided are unique to the item selected in the grub menu. I didn’t know that at first and thought the parameters were wrong because there was no /boot/vmlinuz line, because I must have changed the selected menu item out of curiosity. But I figured it out on a second try and it’s all good now.

5

The Lubuntu (as well as some other Ubuntu flavors) ISOs include fewer proprietary kernel modules (aka drivers) than Ubuntu Desktop; but these can be added post-install.

In the Lubuntu manual, you’ll find it mentioned at the page https://manual.lubuntu.me/lts/A/tips_and_tricks.html

Black screens and the nomodeset option are mentioned there. When the system is running, you maybe able to ‘improve’ the system by asking it to add the extra drivers (kernel modules) automatically for you with

sudo ubuntu-drivers install

which will allow you to install (if interest is available) all of what was available on Ubuntu Desktop ISOs and more. This will hopefully also be helpful in normal boots & not needing the use of nomodeset.

Note: for some older releases, the command was ubuntu-drivers autoinstall.

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6

This topic was automatically closed 3 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

8

This is related the the support thread at Lubuntu startup goes to blank/no signal screen

… but that thread has already closed so I can’t continue the issue there.

Ubuntu Version: Lubuntu 24.04.2 the current LTS
Desktop Environment : LXQT 1.4

Problem Description:
I had to use the grub parameter nomodeset to get the pc to boot to the desktop. That PC needs to be used as an art station and use a wacom tablet, but it seems using nomodeset makes it impossible to detect display outputs from the GPU, which means the wacom can’t be mapped to a display (at least not with the xsetwacom command).

Relevant System Information:
GTX 1660 Super GPU
xrandr shows the outputs as HDMI-1 and DP-1, but everything else returns errors that the display port DP-1 can’t be found.

What I’ve Tried:
I’ve been relying on youtube videos and websearch AI for guidance on setting up the wacom tablet, including for troubleshooting. It worked fine on a pc that does not have any special grub parameters set, but not on the one using nomodeset. Both pcs use the same OS.

I don’t yet know for a fact that the nomodeset parameter is the cause of the issue, but everything I have found about possible causes points to that.

9

nomodeset is generally a temporary solution to allow the PC to boot to a desktop, then you can investigate if any drivers are needed.

Did you add the drivers for your Nvidia card?
Post no.4 from @guiverc gives more info.

If the drivers improve performance, then you can remove the nomodeset parameter from grub

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10

@tea-for-one thank you for explaining. I removed nomodset and it does indeed boot properly without that now. But, the problem remains unchanged, xsetwacom still says it can’t find the display port by the id reported with xrandr, so I guess nomodeset was not the issue afterall and now I don’t know what to do.
An Nvidia driver for the GPU was installed with the ‘other drivers’ application. It has the second-most recent driver, which is the latest one that worked properly.

@guiverc I meant to say this when I came back but I didn’t realize the topic would lock so quickly. Thank you for your suggestion about the ubuntu-drivers. I did that on this pc (not the one with the main issue) with the hope that would get the audio working properly but when I did it the response in the terminal was that all drivers were already installed. Unfortunately that gave me the wrong impression that Lubuntu did in fact come with all relevant drivers provided and I didn’t actually try it on the problem-pc until just now. It did install a mess of new drivers, including numerous things related to the gpu, and now there is no output signal to the wacom tablet at all.

EDIT
Okay! I just switched out the monitor for the wacom tablet since the signal from that port is working. I wish using both displays simultaneously could still be possible but this is an acceptable solution if not. Thanks both of you for your support!