Why am I only able to boot ubuntu from recovery mode?

Question

Basically I've tried dual-booting ubuntu with windows 10 and when I try to boot ubuntu I get stuck with the message: /dev/sda8: clean, 201385/4890624 files, 2235266/19531008 blocks - I am able to then press alt+f2 to login get to the following screen:screen after pressing alt+f2 and inputting login

If in the grub menu I choose to boot ubuntu in recovery mode I can press the resume boot option which then always me to boot ubuntu. If anyone knows how to fix this issue it would be greatly appreciated, some things I've tried already are updating the display manager, tried changing nvidia drivers but for some reason it will not let me.

Solution 1

It sounds like you're experiencing some nvidia/display driver issues as you mentioned. 9 out of 10 times when this happens it's a bad driver or a corrupt file system. If Ubuntu is not declaring to run in a read-only file system when you booted or when you try to auto-complete commands from the commandline for example, then its most likely an nvidia issue.

since you have nvidia and a laptop, I'm going to assume it has an intel processor. that makes it so that you need to use nvidia optimus to twitch between the performance and discreet modes of the dedicated GPU. It also means that probably the reason the OS is stuck on a regular boot and not the recovery mode is because the recovery mode uses the nouveau drivers (propietary intel display drivers) and while they boot more easily, they are also very bad to use, especially when you have an nvidia card.

I cannot derive from the context of your problem if the ubuntu install has worked in the past and it broke, or it has been broken since installing, but I would suggest the following:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
sudo dkms remove nvidia
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo reboot

if this does not solve the problem, first correctly install nouveau drivers, reboot so you have working graphical user interface like normal, do the steps outlined above (or install the nvidia drivers with software center, but I recommend terminal, it will actually show what is going wrong during the install and software center does not show you.) that will install nvidia drivers. after that you can blacklist the nouveau drivers.

alternatively, you can add nvidia Xorg server (the nvidia settings app for ubuntu) to start with an additional argument so it always boots on performance mode. might be useful if you play games. if not then maybe you could use power saving mode by default.

install nouveau:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

Realistically you should be able to reboot into normal ubuntu now. now from terminal again do a:

gksu gedit

From the gedit open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.

Add this line at the bottom: blacklist nouveau

Save the file, and open /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

Add these lines:

    blacklist nouveau
    blacklist lbm-nouveau
    blacklist nvidia-173
    blacklist nvidia-96
    alias nvidia nvidia-current 

Now save this file, and close gedit. Run:

sudo nvidia-xconfig
and then:
sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
followed by:
sudo shutdown -r now

Check drivers in use for search term "VGA". This should display both intel and nvidia (unless you remove nouveau, ofc.)

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -i "VGA"

Solution 2

I have also encountered the same problem and I tried the above ones but maybe due to some reason they didn't work. If that's the case with you then install the Nvidia drivers using terminal in recovery boot window. Below is the steps for installing.

" https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-install-nvidia-driver-latest-proprietary-driver/"

and voila! , it booted in normal mode after rebooting.

Comments

[Admin]

What version of Ubuntu are you using?

[Admin]

version 20.04.1

[Admin]

Does this answer your question? My computer boots to a black screen, what options do I have to fix it?

[Admin]

Does this answer your question? "dev/sda1: clean, ..." This message appears after I startup my laptop, then it won't continue booting

[Admin]

I am having this same issue and I am running AMD cards

[Admin]

I have a similar challenge. I can boot Ubuntu in recovery on my Mac Pro 2006 with EFI32 (CPU is 64 ;-) ), the graphic card is Ati/Radeon 5770. Can I just deactivate the driver at Grub? Any help is appreciated. THX in advance.

[NicLovin]

I'm starting to think that I might have more problems then just the nvidia drivers because I keep on running into problems. For reference I have just recently installed ubuntu and it is broken since installation there was no point where it was working. I tried your first suggestion, and I got the error: sudo: dkms: command not found so I tried sudo apt-get install dkms and after installation I get the message: Media change: please inset the disc labeled 'Ubunyu 20.04.1 LTS _Focal Fossa_ - Release amd64 (20200731)' in the drive '/cdrom/' and press [Enter] I have no idea what this means

[DruidicBearClan]

Yes, in that case something probably went wrong during the install. Don't sweat it honestly, I am working with ubuntu for 3 years now, but when I just started I had a problem with installing it too. especially on my laptop with intel + nvidia. but this sounds like you installed ubuntu to the wrong disk or maybe to a wrong existing partition. The easiest route from here would be to see what drives you actually have physically available, verify that you installed to the desired drive and not to the USB stick for example, I tihnk that has happened to me once in a weird way.V

[NicLovin]

I actually figured out the problem, its something to do with the cdrom entry which is apparently a known issue when allowing the third party installs when installing ubuntu. Just had to use the command: sudo sed -i '/cdrom/d' /etc/apt/sources.list and then I was able to install dkms. I'm now able to boot into ubuntu and it doesn't seem like there are any problems, thank you so much for the help I tried to upvote your answer but I don't have enough reputation.

[DruidicBearClan]

Great. And no problem, as long as the issue is solved. Enjoy ubuntu!

[David]

This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking Ask Question. To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can follow this question. Once you have enough reputation, you can also add a bounty to draw more attention to this question. - From Review

[umitu]

The link helped me. When I entered nvidia-smi Ubuntu told me to install nvidia-340 so I installed it and it broke the system. What I should have installed was nvidia-driver-510.

[Pandurang]

Great. After installing nvidia driver my issu resolved