Blank screen on TTY7 after upgrading from 14.04 to 14.10

Question

I upgraded my 14.04 to 14.10 via "sudo do-release-upgrade" without strange messages.

After rebooting and entering the password for the encrypted system partition in the graphical form, TTY7 keeps blank. I can use TTY1 to TTY6 without problems.

My machine is a Thinkpad T400 with Intel Chipset Graphics.

Update 1: Tried to reinstall the kernel (sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-$(uname -r)), but get an error:

reinstallation of linux-image-3.13.0-37-generic is not possible, it cannot be downloaded

Update 2: Followed the instructions in (Statement) "Ubuntu 14.10 won't work because black screen" solution described here (sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-video-intel), but without success.

Update 3: By coincidence, some graphics appeared on screen (TTY7) after hitting the combination Super+SPACE, which is a shortcut for changing the keyboard layout. Seems like it should work, but doesn't?

Update 4: Tried the approach from Ubuntu 14.10 no GUI or term login (adding "init=/lib/systemd/systemd" to the boot parameters), but without success.

Update 5: Tried removing the package "xserver-xorg-video-nouveau", as suggested in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2245436. No success... Also, that thread suggested downgrading "xserver-xorg-video-intel". Downloaded and compiled the trusty sources (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.1/+files/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.99.910.orig.tar.gz), but also no success.

Update 6: Sound is also broken.

Solution

tty7:

Inspired by the answer from Vembu, I reinstalled my default window manager gnome-shell (apt-get install --reinstall gnome-shell). Then, I rebooted and ran

gnome-shell --replace

on tty1. Output:

gdk_mir_display_open
Failed to connect to Mir: Failed to connect to server socket: No such file or directory
Window manager error: Unable to open X display

After that, tty7 showed my gnome-shell again. Mouse pointer was invisible, showed up after relogging in. Unfortunately, this was no permanent solution. The procedure had to be repeated on every boot.

After further investigation, I stumbled upon the following remark in the [release notes of 14.10][1]:

Note. If you were using the gnome3-team/gnome3-staging PPA, you should run

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging  

before upgrading.

I purged the ppa, reinstalled gnome-shell, added the ppa and ran dist-upgrade. Finally, I set gdm as default display manager (thanks Xieerqi). It works again!

Comments

[Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy]

try installing another greeter, for instance sudo apt-get install lightdm-kde-greeter, and change it in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf ( more info here wiki.ubuntu.com/LightDM). I've had a bug on Fedora with gdm - the login screen was basically distorted, but changed greeter - and everything works

[fret]

Tried, unfortunately didn't help.

[Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy]

In that case, I suppose I'll add this to the list of answers bellow, if no one is against it , of course

[fret]

I have no NVidia graphic card, but I guess I'll give it a try.

[fret]

Inspired me to reinstall my default wm gnome-shell, though I have no nvidia graphics. Might have helped to bring back tty7, thanks. Unfortunately, no permanent solution.