upgrade fails after nvidia reinstall [solved]

[turborat]

   5.5.3-towo.1-siduction-amd64 cinnamon


After a sytem update/upgrade, I tried to reinstall nvidia driver and failed.
Now system boots to a blank (black) screen.  
Can someone please help me fix this?

[dibl]

Kernel 5.5.3 is working correctly here, with Nvidia driver ver. 440.59.

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System:    Host: dibl-patience Kernel: 5.5.3-towo.1-siduction-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.14.5
           Distro: siduction 18.3.0 Patience - kde - (201805132121)
CPU:       Quad Core: Intel Core i7-7740X type: MT MCP speed: 4499 MHz min/max: 800/4500 MHz
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] driver: nvidia v: 440.59
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.7 driver: nvidia resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 440.59
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.27 TiB used: 1010.70 GiB (43.4%)
Info:      Processes: 297 Uptime: 10h 59m Memory: 31.28 GiB used: 4.02 GiB (12.9%) Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.37

[turborat]

thanks dibl,
but I don't know how to go about downloading and installing nvidia driver with a black screen.

[turborat]

forgot to mention, i had the nvidia 440.44 installed before update.
I could put the 440.59 on a usb thumb drive from another pc, but I wouldn't know what to do from there.

[dibl]

It's the nvidia-driver package from the Debian unstable repo.  No need for USB sticks or copying files.

Ctrl-C or Alt-Del-F1 to get a prompt.  Login as root.

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apt update
apt install nvidia-driver

should be all you need.

[turborat]

   Thanks dibl
Ctrl-C or Alt-Del-F1  doesn't work; screen stays black.
I used 'nomodeset' in grub>advanced>recovery and logged in as root and tried:
apt update
apt install nvidia-driver
but it doesn't work either; still boots to black screen.

[gnasch]

try ctrl-alt F1
to get a text terminal.
best, gnasch

[turborat]

"try ctrl-alt F1to get a text terminal.best, gnasch"

doesn't work

[mdmarmer]

If you have the standard siduction grub2 boot process, you should get a screen that has 2 or more lines when your system first comes up, before the kernel boots.  From that screen, select the second line, which should say something about Advanced options.  That should give you another boot screen, and the second line there should say Recovery mode.  Select that line and boot and you should be in single user mode.  press <ENTER> and then key in your root password.  You can then do apt update ; apt install nvidia-driver.  Then exit or reboot should get you back to your normal starting screen.

[turborat]

If you have the standard siduction grub2 boot process, you should get a screen that has 2 or more lines when your system first comes up, before the kernel boots.  From that screen, select the second line, which should say something about Advanced options.  That should give you another boot screen, and the second line there should say Recovery mode.  Select that line and boot and you should be in single user mode.  press <ENTER> and then key in your root password.  You can then do apt update ; apt install nvidia-driver.  Then exit or reboot should get you back to your normal starting screen.

did that; doesn't work

[dibl]

From your grub menu, the "Advanced" option should offer an earlier kernel.  If the problem is really the 5.5.3 kernel, then it will boot an earlier kernel, and from there you can work to discover what is wrong (review /etc/X11/xorg.0.log for example).

If it won't boot and start X from an earlier kernel, that will prove that the problem is not the 5.5.3, it has to do with the video driver.

Also, when the grub menu appears. with the top line highlighted you can touch "e", then move the cursor down to the end of the kernel boot line and add "3", then do Ctrl-X to boot to the tty 1 login prompt.

[turborat]

thanks dibl!

From your grub menu, the "Advanced" option should offer an earlier kernel.  If the problem is really the 5.5.3 kernel, then it will boot an earlier kernel,

booted into 5.4.16 and downloaded nvidia 440.59 and rebooted with 'nomodeset' and it installed on 5.5.3 and good as new!