Ubuntu Support Template
Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
Desktop Environment (if applicable):
Example: GNOME, KDE Plasma, XFCE, Budgie, etc.
Problem Description:
Selecting restart from Windows 11 and then from grub, selecting Ubuntu, I get a flashing cursor after a quick option to log in.
To repeat:
Is Fast Startup in Windows disabled (as it should be). Did Windows fully shut down?
Yes it is disabled, Windows rebooted the system, bringing up grub options.
Does Xubuntu boot normally or is this just a typo?
And what exactly do you mean when saying “I get a flashing cursor after a quick option to log in.”
I started 2 hours ago using ubuntu. I choose ubuntu from grub every time I start up the machine. I never have to type the name to log in. I used the machine for a while and then, again using grub, I selected windows 11. Used windows 11 for a while and as is normal, I selected ‘re-start’ and again, when presented with grub options I chose ubuntu.
At this point the machine presented me with a blank screen and in the top left hand corner was a flashing cursor. I noticed that it had first offered a login below the flashing cursor but was so quick it could not be used.
It really behaves like Windows’ Fast Startup is enabled…
Perhaps you disabled it but then it was re-enabled by some feature update? Please check. Meanwhile, you can try booting Windows, install any pending updates, confirm Fast Startup is disabled and shutdown Windows.
Keep us posted.
Windows update is installing Windows 11, version 25H2 (Edit: No it’s not, my nvme is not ready apparently)
I seem to remember many years ago, Windows did something like this. Many thanks.
Hibernation is ff so fast startup is off as its dependant on it.
C:\Windows\System32>powercfg /a
The following sleep states are available on this system:
Standby (S3)
The following sleep states are not available on this system:
Standby (S1)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.
Standby (S2)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.
Hibernate
Hibernation has not been enabled.
Standby (S0 Low Power Idle)
The system firmware does not support this standby state.
Hybrid Sleep
Hibernation is not available.
The hypervisor does not support this standby state.
Fast Startup
Hibernation is not available.
C:\Windows\System32>
So, I’m still locked out. It is nothing like a normal startup where you have a place to enter the info. It is just text in the top left hand corner as if you were in a terminal. When the text disappears it leaves a flashing curser.
If the grub menu is present select the advanced for Ubuntu. This offers some trouble shooting options for boot.
Yes I am aware of that but thats as far as my knowledge goes.
The implicit suggestion is to try booting an older kernel version.
Can you make a photo of that text? Maybe it provides some clues. If it flashes by too quickly, make a short video, then pause it at the right frame and make a screenshot of that.
As suggested if you can see the text please post it. You may or may not have more than one recovery kernel option on your machine and booting with a different kernel is an option. Attached is an image of the recovery menu . Sometimes during windows update on a dual boot machine grub may be affected and updating grub may help. I too dual boot but on different drives.
As an update to my previous post, which I hope, you haven’t read yet, @makem: try pressing Esc before that text appears; it should make the grub menu visible. I think, what you are seeing is some early boot message just after grub’s (blind) menu timeout and subsequent booting of the default menu entry, which is the latest kernel. You may need to try and boot an older version.
3 attempts to upload the screenshot:
Sorry, there was an error uploading screenshot.jpg. Please try again.
The file is a .jpeg and 44KB in size. It contains:
Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS makem
makem login: _
At which point it switches to the flashing curser only.
No, prior to that which I have posted above I do get the normal grub menu when I reboot or switch on and if i choose ubuntu or choose nothing, the next thig I get is the ubuntu logo spinning round slowly and the the text as shown in my attempted screenshot.
As far as I am aware no update has taken place except for the failed one when I tried to update manually.
Oh, you are lot further than I had thought.
That is the textual login prompt, which seems to briefly appear for some reason. I think I have read something a while back that it can happen that such a text login console is in the way of the graphical login screen. That’s all I can say at this point. I’ll try and see if I can dig up some info on that. Or, perhaps other readers know what to do with that nugget of info?
You can try CtrlAltF1. Or use all possible Function keys with CtrlAltF<n>. Most of them, probably F3 through F6 should get you such text logins, but F1 or F2 should be the graphical login screen, if it’s there.
I too am sure many years ago this happened to me after rebooting from windows. One clue I find in that screenshot is that it is a login for makem. The user which left ubuntu for windows was ‘test user’ and windows opens up ‘makem’ user. So, that explains why the ubuntu login is now ‘makem.
However, the system has been happily restarting from ubuntu to windows via a restart and back again until this one time when it fails.
Explanation for why the ubuntu ‘new user’:
A few weeks aga I had some corruption in the ‘makem’ user and to sort that, I started ‘new user’ as a sudoer and copied all salient data over to that user which was not corrupted. I have not even had time to remove ‘makem’ even if I can!
Don’t confuse what user and host are:
At that point the only thing the machine knows is its own (host)name, which it shows to the left of login, so you know to which computer you are trying to login — historical reasons, yada yada. 
