Can't log in to Ubuntu 19.10, freezes upon Ctrl+Alt+F3

Question

I recently upgraded to 19.10 from 19.04.

Everything appeared to work correctly, however just last night I did a apt update/apt upgrade and some kernel updates occurred.

Now when I get to the login screen, I am unable to login. Upon entering the user password and hitting the login button, I am instantly sent back to the select user part of login.

Interestingly, if I use the GUI element to restart the computer, the warning shows that I am already logged in, even if I had not yet tried to log in after starting the computer.

Ctrl + Alt + F1-F6 freezes the screen and I am unable to do anything. Although Ctrl+Alt+Delete still works to restart the machine.

Selecting the latest kernel recovery boot from the grub menu works fine and I am immediately put into a desktop session (i3) after auto login. Once booted into recovery mode apt update/apt upgrade and dpkg --configure -a report 0 changes.

Any ideas on how to debug/fix this? I have a suspicion that my account is auto logging in, but then I am somehow bumped to the Ubuntu login screen where the strange state is causing issues.

I have a i5-4460 CPU, MS H81M-E34 (MS-7817) Motherboard, and a Geforce GTX 1050Ti graphics card. I am using the nvidia-driver-430 package.

Solution 1

Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1845801

Valtteri Vainikka (vrln) wrote on 2019-11-08:

I think Martin on to something concerning GRUB/Linux boot options, more specifically the "splash" one. With testing-updates enabled what currently happens for me:

If I set automatic login on I'm stuck with the standard infinite login loop, but with the distinction that I can now no longer enter another TTY via ctrl+alt+F3 for example to fix it straight away. The whole system now just freezes, so I fixed it via recovery mode.

Out of curiosity I then went and disabled the following line in /etc/default/grub and ran sudo update-grub:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Result: Automatic login now works perfectly, no issues anymore.

Another more radical approach is to disable auto-login.

NOTE: This grub config line keeps reappearing after some system updates that include a grub update, and you have to start again this process.

Solution 2

Same here. I've ended up removing the Nvidia driver:

sudo apt remove nvidia-*

It's not a full fix but at least I can log in again and get to a desktop.

Solution 3

I have the exact same issue on my desktop. I fixed it like this:

1. Uninstall the nvidia driver.

   I uninstalled cuda with 418 driver from cuda10 directory with uninstall script. and also from cuda10.1 directory. Then I used the script sudo apt remove nvidia-* to clean things up.

2. Disable automatic login (even if you never enabled it, it is set to automatic in 19.10 for some reason). You can find this in System Settings → Detail → Users.

3. Install the nvidia-435 driver from Additional Drivers.

4. Reboot.

Comments

[Sam Coulter]

Thats good info. I can rollback the kernel until the driver is fixed. At least I know what is broken now!

[Sam Coulter]

The nvidia driver page (nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx) indicates I should use the 430 driver package, and also shows the 435 package as being older. Do you know what the difference between the two packages is?

[Zark Fury]

@SamCoulter no idea, I was on 430, I thought 435 is newer so I installed that...

[Kevin Pei]

@TensorVortex Your solution (disabling auto login) worked for me! I had this issue ever since upgrading to 19.10 and had to rollback to nouveau on my old GTX750. Ive since upgraded to 1660 and was forced to use nvidia drivers. I had the same freeze issue with nvidia-440 installed but disabling auto login worked! Also for anyone having trouble, booting into recovery mode will allow you to access your linux to make changes

[d3rdon]

it is also possible to enable a login timeout for example of like 3 seconds. just open the file /etc/gdm3/custom.conf in your tty session and comment out the automatic login and comment in the timed login, also set the correct username. but still just a workaround

[mikeglaz]

This worked for me. However, today's Ubuntu software update broke even this workaround. So now I have to revert to disabling automatic login...

[Exile]

Also worked for me however I have a feeling the next update will break this