Black screens on boot up.

[isantop]

We've released a fix for the black-screen-on-boot issue. You are experiencing this bug if you boot your computer and see either:

A. A black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper right.
B. A black screen with the mouse cursor in the center.

The fix is being distributed through the System76 PPA, which should be installed if you have the latest driver (13.04.8 as of the time of writing). The update will be distributed through your Software Updater application with your regular software updates. If you're experiencing the black-screen issue, then after booting up and getting to the black screen, you can type your password, followed by enter, to log in and update.

If you don't have the latest driver, you can add the PPA for it by running these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76-dev/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install system76-driver

You can then install any available updates to install the fix.

[Dave_L]

If a "black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper right" occurs once in a while when resuming from suspend, is that the same bug?

[isantop]

It definitely could be. Go ahead and install the updates, and let me know if you're still having problems.

[Dave_L]

If it messes up the system, is there a procedure for reverting to the old version of the driver?

[isantop]

It won't mess up the system, as this is a non-invasive fix. We're actually rolling it out to all customers, whether they've reported it or not. The driver also doesn't specifically provide the fix; it's just a handy way to tell if the PPA is installed or not (which is where the fix really is).

[Dave_L]

So there's no problem with applying this fix on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (with "raring" kernel 3.8.0-29)? This recent post confused me on that issue: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...5#post12747835

[Dave_L]

$ sudo apt-get update
...
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net precise/main Sources 404 Not Found
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net precise/main amd64 Packages
404 Not Found
Err http://ppa.launchpad.net precise/main i386 Packages
404 Not Found
...
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76-de...source/Sources 404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76-de...amd64/Packages 404 Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76-de...-i386/Packages 404 Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

I suppose that answers my question, and that the fix is NOT compatible with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS?

[isantop]

12.04 shouldn't have the problem. This is a bug with 13.04's version of LightDM.

[CrammitTheFrog]

Thank you isantop. I too have those issues.

[Edward_G_Prentice]

I'm sorry, but I'm curious and I have to ask. If you get the black screen on boot, how are you supposed to download the updates? I suppose a pre-emptive strike to download before seeing the symptom would be good, but if you can't boot, you can't download, right?