Fix a Reboot Issue After Installing Nvidia Drivers on Ubuntu

in User on Linux

The Problem

After reinstalling my system, I followed a guide to install the Nvidia Driver. However, when I rebooted, the system got stuck on the logo screen with no spinning circle, instead of going to the login interface, like the following image.

This issue also occurred when I tried booting with Secure Boot enabled(How to Disable Secure Boot). The boot process got stuck at “Stuck in [OK] Started Gnome Manager”.

Solution

Since I hadn’t made any changes besides installing the GPU driver, I suspected a driver conflict. A helpful post confirmed that the new Nvidia Driver might conflict with Gnome. Here’s what I did to fix it:

  1. Access the Recovery Terminal:

    • When coming to GRUB when booting, choose the Advanced options for Ubuntu

    • Choose 2nd line: (recovery mode)

    • Click on clean, dpkg, network one by one !! (must click network to have network connection). Finally click on root

  2. On root terminal, remove Driver and Reinstall gdm
sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-* 
sudo apt purge gdm gdm3 
sudo apt install gdm3 ubuntu-desktop   
systemctl restart gdm

Finally, on root terminal, reboot your system by running reboot. The issue should be resolved !!

Reinstall the NVIDIA GPU Driver (The Right Way)

Step 1: Find the Compatible Driver Version

  • Don’t Rely on Official Website: While the Nvidia website offers drivers, they may not be compatible with your specific configuration.

  • Use Terminal to Find Compatible Version: Open a terminal and run ubuntu-drivers devices. This command will display compatible driver versions for your system.

    • For example, in my case, it list some NVIDIA GPU drivers compatible to the current system. Here I choose nvidia-driver-535-open.
      linlin@linlin-monarch:~$ ubuntu-drivers devices
  == /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:06.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
  modalias : pci:v000010DEd00002520sv00001462sd000012FAbc03sc00i00
  vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
  manual_install: True
  driver   : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
  driver   : nvidia-driver-535 - distro non-free recommended
  driver   : nvidia-driver-535-server - distro non-free
  driver   : nvidia-driver-535-server-open - distro non-free
  driver   : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free
  driver   : nvidia-driver-535-open - distro non-free
  driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

Step 2: Download the Compatible Driver Run File

Use the version information from step 1 to search the driver from the official Nvidia drivers search and download it.

Step 3: Disable Nouveau Driver

  • Open a terminal and run sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
  • Add the following lines to the end of the file and save it:
    blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
    1. Run the following command to apply the changes: sudo update-initramfs -u
    2. Reboot your system.
    3. Verify that Nouveau is disabled by running lsmod | grep nouveau in the terminal.
    • No output indicates successful disabling.

Step4: Install Nvidia Driver

Assuming the downloaded driver is in your Downloads folder:

cd Downloads
sudo chmod a+x ./<driver_file_name>.run  # Replace `<driver_file_name>` with the actual file name
sudo ./<driver_file_name>.run

During installation, answer the following prompts:

  • Prompt 1: Choose to install everything except the driver and kernel.
  • Prompt 2: The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Are you sure you want to continue? Yes.
  • Prompt 3: Would you like to register the kernel module souces with DKMS? This will allow DKMS to automatically build a new module, if you install a different kernel later? No.
  • Prompt 4: I forgot the questions, but the answer would be Install without Signing
  • Prompt 5: Nvidia’s 32-bit compatibility libraries? No.
  • Prompt 6: Would you like to run the nvidia-xconfigutility to automatically update your x configuration so that the NVIDIA x driver will be used when you restart x? Any pre-existing x confile will be backed up. Yes

Further

  • Keep the downloaded .run file in a safe location. If you encounter reboot issues again, you can run the file with the sudo ./<run file>--uninstall option to remove the driver.

Additional Notes

  • Avoid using sudo apt install or the Software & Updates GUI to install Nvidia drivers.

Hope this revised blog post provides a clear and comprehensive guide to fixing reboot issues after installing Nvidia drivers on Ubuntu!