Ubuntu 18.04: Boot Freeze / Purple Screen Hangs

boot 18.04 vmware freeze

9,771

I had the same problem after an update today. Solution was to disable wayland:

Unable to login to account in ubuntu 18.04 vmware workstation 15, after update

9,771

Dave

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Dave over 1 year
Just today when I started Ubuntu 18.04 (Linux Kernel 4.15.0-51) in VMware Workstation Player 14 (14.1.7) the boot freezes just before the login prompt. The mouse cursor is visible and the Ubuntu logo at the bottom center is just being rendered as is visible in the attached screenshot. (Depending on the exact moment of the freeze the Ubuntu logo appears more or less bright.)

I am able to boot if I enter recovery mode and simply resume the boot. However, I am not able to set the display resolution to the hosts' nor is the host's display device detected.

To resolve the issue I reinstalled the VMware tools as well as the open-vm-tools. I also tried to extend the "Unit" section of /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/open-vm-tools.service with Requires/After=graphical.target to no effect. Lastly, I attempted to check the filesystem which failed:
```
/lib/recovery-mode/recovery-menu: line 80: /etc/default/rcS: No such file or directory
fsck from util-linux 2.31.1
/dev/sda1 mounted.
e2fsck: Cannot continue, aborting.

Finished, please press ENTER
```
Boot freeze on purple screen before login prompt:
- Simon Sudler almost 5 years
  
  What happens if you press F12?
- Dave almost 5 years
  
  Nothing happens. It appears the system is completely stuck. Though I can shut down the guest properly.
- Simon Sudler almost 5 years
  
  When you in the grub boot loader, press c on the default Ubuntu target. There is a line linux ... vmlinuz... quite splash. remove this quite splash and boot the modified configuration. Make a screenshot of the output and add to your question.
- Dave almost 5 years
  
  I removed the "quite" at the end of the line (there was no "splash"). While I see a lot more output before the purple screen, the result is the same.
- Simon Sudler almost 5 years
  
  Can you post that output? It might help to identify the issue...
- Dave almost 5 years
  
  Is there a way to hide the purple screen or read the log after a recovery/resume boot? Otherwise, I am only able to get glimpses at the output.
Dave almost 5 years

Yes, you are correct. This resolved the issue for me. Thank you so much!
Dave almost 5 years

3D acceleration did not have an effect in my case. Disabling Wayland (as root in recovery mode), as @tsp and you suggest did word.