Upgrade from 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS failed, black screen

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1

Ubuntu Support Template

Ubuntu Version:
Upgrade from 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS failed, black screen

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
Can’t get to desktop yet.

Problem Description:
Upgrading from 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS on a Ubuntu desktop.
Upgrade was done with the normal GUI upgrader, with default settings.
Entire upgrade process ran without problems until the reboot at the end.
Reboot ran, Ubuntu logo appeared, spun, then black screen.

Attempted reboot. Black screen again.

Rebooted again, pressed ESC, got

grub>

At the end,
Describe what you’re trying to do and what happens instead.
If you can easily reproduce the problem, include the steps so others can try.

Example:

Open Settings → Displays
Try to change resolution
Screen goes black

Relevant System Information:
NVidia 3070
x64
Display is plugged into NVidia 3070

Two disks - one is a 2TB rotating hard drive, and the other is a much smaller SSD.
The rotating hard drive has the OS. The SSD is just used for temporary files and is not even mounted during boot.

This system has never run Windows and has been running Ubuntu for about five years now.

What I’ve Tried:

Can get to

grub>

by pressing ESC during boot. But I can’t get the “recovery menu” described in

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode

Just the raw grub prompt.

(Later)

After a few tries, pushed ESC at the point in the cycle that got me the recovery menu.
Continued with the recovery mode instructions, and remounted the root file system RW. Went back to the recovery menu and selected normal boot.

This got me some standard warnings about potential graphics driver problems. The system booted up to a black screen with a blinking cursor at the upper left. Keyboard input does nothing.

So the machine and OS are alive, but graphics are totally down.

NVidia driver problems? What now?

2

Year-old possibly relevant article on Stack Overflow:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1526419/ubuntu-24-04-with-nvidia-driver-is-not-working

I get the impression this is a known problem. That discussion concluded with the user reverting to 22.04.

3

OK. Managed to get the system up graphically using recovery mode with nomodeset. So I’m currently in recovery mode.

What’s the recommended NVidia driver for 24.04 LTS with NVidia 3070?

I see articles recommending the 575 driver, but that’s not an available option in Additional Drivers.
Options are:

  • Open kernel 580-open (proprietary, tested)
  • Open kernel 570-server-open (proprietary)
  • Open kernel 535-open (proprietary)

and lots more.

The dialog says 1 proprietary driver in use, and the Revert button is greyed out.

I’m currently running NVidia driver metapackage 535 (proprietary), probably left over from the 22.04 LTS before upgrade.

4

Just an FYI, but you mention Ubuntu releases (22.04 to 24.04) which were upgraded, but I didn’t see kernel stack details.

Ubuntu LTS releases do have kernel stack choice; with the default set by install media which varies; with 22.04 media that installed the GA kernel stack, other media installed HWE, and some could install OEM kernel stack options… When you release-upgrade to a later release (ie. 24.04) that kernel stack follows you; so if you were using GA on 22.04 (ie. 5.15), you’ll be using GA on 24.04 (ie. 6.8).

I have a 24.04 system that doesn’t like newer kernels (not how I want it, I lose some displays to just black screens & I want all monitors working), so I just switched from HWE to GA as an easy workaround until I explore the issue further; that was long ago now and I’ve still not done it, as GA works perfectly for me. My issue related to a nVIDIA card here too (my box has two cards; I think it was nVIDIA that went black but it was long ago I upgraded to 24.04 so my memory is hazy).

Have you looked at what kernel stack you’re using? considered switching? (to older GA or newer HWE). Install media is available that has both; two 24.04 ISOs of Ubuntu Desktop were released with 6.8 (GA), one with 6.11 (HWE) & one with 6.14 (HWE) (6.17 still a little way into the future) so testing alternate stacks may require no change to your system, just booting live media… it’s where I’d explore first (not a fix, but at least a workaround; one I’ve been using on one box for over a year now)

5

After getting graphics back by booting the recovery kernel, the next reboot in normal mode seemed to restore everything to normal. Still at driver 535, which seems to work. Trying to use 580 fails with a message that some needed Vulkan library is not present. The system is up to date and valid according to Software Updater.