VMWare Esxi 6.5.0 and Ubuntu 24.04 web console Black screen

Support and Help
1

We have 2 Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS VMs running on VMware ESXi 6.5.0. If VMs are not used for a while and try to access the Web Console, it just shows a black screen as shown below:

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Some users in the link: https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools/issues/725 have mentioned that using WaylandEnable=false /etc/gdm3/custom.conf solves the issue. However, once I do this change and restart the GSM service I am never able to access GUI login screen as I am presented with a black screen as shown below:

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I have also tried to use lightDM as well but upon logging in system logs me out. As a temporary solution I have set the Power Saving to never turn off. With this setting issue does not occur however having a proper fix would be greatly appreciated

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2

Hi Igrech,

It doesn’t look like it is an Ubuntu 24.04 problem but a VMware one or of your underlying OS running out of resources. What is your main OS you are running VMware off?
I suspect that you will get better answers from the VMware lists


HTH
Nikos

3

Hi nibal,

Thank you for your reply. The impacted VMs are running on VMware ESXi, 6.5.0, 13932383 and VMware ESXi, 6.7.0, 13006603. I believe that this is not an issue of underlying OS running out of resources, due to the below:

  1. Both VMs were upgraded from Ubuntu 22.04 to Ubuntu 24.04. Prior to this upgrade this issue was not present.
  2. One of the VMs was moved to another ESXI host running ESXI 6.7.0 and issue persists.
  3. Other VMs running on the same ESXI hosts do not encounter this issue (there are VMs running Ubuntu 22.04)
  4. Issue does not happen if Screen Blank is set to Never. Issue seems to happen if the VM lock screen appears.

Thanks and Regards,

Luke

4

Any update on this? I just performed an upgrade from 22.04 to 24.04 and am now stuck with a black screen upon “successful” login.

5

In this link https://askubuntu.com/questions/1514757/issue-with-ubuntu-24-04-black-screen-with-cursor-on-login someone suggested the below:

" n ubuntu 24.04,lts the display manager which used is ‘gdm’.I changed the gdm to ‘lightdm’ now everything works fine for me.

To change the display manager from gdm to lightdm

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt install lightdm

During the installation, you might be prompted to choose the default display manager. If not, you can manually reconfigure it:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

You will be presented with a dialog to choose the default display manager. Select lightdm or gdm3 as per your preference.

Restart your system:

sudo reboot
```"
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6

That worked for me - thanks!

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