upgrade to 24.04.01 lts from 22 stuck at black screen login

[rapattack]

btw i am still in the same position so the commands havent made me able to login via the gui

[rapattack]

interesting when i do the command sudo shutdown --halt now it turns the screen off but the computer is still running. i can hear it

[daren3]

I had a similar situation that happened when I tried to upgrade to 24.04.1 lts on my older Asus laptop that has a dual boot setup with Ubuntu 22.04 lts and Windows 10. I received a prompt from the system which informed me of the available upgrade. I made sure everything was updated and upgraded (via apt) before I clicked on the “Upgrade Now” button and started the process, which was surprisingly quick relative to the warning of a potential multiple hours process.

The installer/upgrader told me when it was ready to reboot. When the system rebooted, I was met with this screen (borrowed from the Internet):


This is typed from the picture I took of my laptop’s screen (please be aware, there might be typos):

Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
 ALERT! UUID=e2ce86bd-7099-4e0a-bb94-219047401534 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
 
 BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu1:1.30.1-7ubuntu3.1) built-in shell (ash)
 Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
 
 (initramfs)

From there, it took me about four hours to solve the issue. Yep, four hours. FML. Yes, Ubuntu, I still love you, but you’re on my short list right now. Here’s what I had to do to solve the problem:

Step One: Get the PC to boot into the new 24.04.1 installation:

1. Find yourself a live Ubuntu DVD or USB drive and boot it. I used an older 20.04 live DVD I’ve had on-hand for a while, and I chose the “Try Ubuntu” option.
2. Once at the live desktop, I first established a network connection and then I opened a terminal and sudoed to root by typing: “sudu su -” (without the quotes).
3. I used fdisk to find the correct hard drive. At the root prompt, I typed: fdisk -l and looked for the EFI and Ubuntu partitions on my HDD. My laptop’s hard drive (sda) has six partitions:
   sda1 = Windows recovery environment
   sda2 = EFI System
   sda3 = Microsoft reserved
   sda4 = Microsoft basic data (main Windows 10 partition)
   sda5 = Windows recovery environment
   sda6 = Linux filesystem
   
   I noted that sda2 and sda6 were the two needing help.
4. Continuing as root (su), I mounted the two partitions in the mount directory /mnt:
   
   1. root@ASUS-laptop:~# mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
   2. root@ASUS-laptop:~# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi
      
      I then mounted /dev, /dev/pts, /proc, /sys, and /run in the mount directory:
   
   
5. root@ASUS-laptop:~# for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
   
   I Chrooted into the mount directory:
6. root@ASUS-laptop:~# chroot /mnt
   
   I needed to update initramfs, but I got a warning saying the “EFI variables cannot be set on this system.” So I had to mount them manually:
7. root@ASUS-laptop:~# mount -t efivarfs none /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
   
   Then I updated initramfs:
8. root@ASUS-laptop:~# update-initramfs -u
   
   I installed Grub on the sda drive:
9. root@ASUS-laptop:~# grub-install /dev/sda
   
   Then I updated grub:
10. root@ASUS-laptop:~# update-grub
    
    Doing this allowed Grub to find the Linux images and Windows 10 installation.
    I then checked to make sure the Ubuntu installation was the first choice on the list:
11. root@ASUS-laptop:~# efibootmgr
    
    Doing this, I was able to verify it was going to boot into Ubuntu. I then exited the prompt and rebooted:
12. root@ASUS-laptop:~# exit
13. root@ASUS-laptop:~# reboot

This allowed the laptop to boot into the new Ubuntu installation but, to my dismay, I was greeted with a terminal login rather than the desktop login. I logged in using my regular credentials, and also found the laptop no longer had a network connection. Here’s what I was able to do to get the network up and running and restore the Ubuntu desktop environment:

Step Two: Get the network connection up and running:

1. When logged in, I ran the command [userchanged]@ASUS-laptop:~$ sudo dhclient
   Doing this fired up the hardwired interface and allowed the laptop to join the network.

Step Three: Restore the Ubuntu desktop environment:

1. I first purged the gdm3 environment. This step may be optional, your mileage may vary. I decided to purge gdm3 because of a post I found/read/followed. Again, this step may be optional for you and your installation:
   
   • [userchanged]@ASUS-laptop:~$ sudo apt purge gdm3
   
   
2. [NOTICE]: I then reinstalled the gdm3 environment. Doing this, I feel, was a mistake. I rebooted after reinstalling gdm3 and I got a generic Debian environment and all the files I had on my desktop were missing. In addition, apps wouldn’t run; I couldn’t even start anything like open terminal (even using ctrl-alt-t), Firefox, etc. If you can avoid this step, you should.
3. I then installed the Ubuntu desktop environment:
   
   • [userchanged]@ASUS-laptop:~$ sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

Doing this and then rebooting the laptop brought the system back to life. All of my desktop files were there, the network connections were restored, and apps would run as normal.

I really hope this helps someone. It took me a while to research and work through the processes. It also took me a while to type all this out from all my notes. In typing this out, I may have missed a step and, if so, I apologize in advance.

Ubuntu, if you’re reading this you’re still on my short list. I hope you polish future upgrades a little more before you push them out. I don’t totally blame you though, since my dual-boot situation is a little out of the ordinary. But, I feel there’s a bunch who have a dual-boot installation like me who may not have been so fortunate to find and fix the failed upgrade path and may have chosen to completely reinstall.

[rapattack]

I had a similar situation that happened when I tried to upgrade to 24.04.1 lts on my older Asus laptop that has a dual boot setup with Ubuntu 22.04 lts and Windows 10. I received a prompt from the system which informed me of the available upgrade. I made sure everything was updated and upgraded (via apt) before I clicked on the “Upgrade Now” button and started the process, which was surprisingly quick relative to the warning of a potential multiple hours process.

The installer/upgrader told me when it was ready to reboot. When the system rebooted, I was met with this screen (borrowed from the Internet):


This is typed from the picture I took of my laptop’s screen (please be aware, there might be typos):

Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
 ALERT! UUID=e2ce86bd-7099-4e0a-bb94-219047401534 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
 
 BusyBox v1.30.1 (Ubuntu1:1.30.1-7ubuntu3.1) built-in shell (ash)
 Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
 
 (initramfs)

From there, it took me about four hours to solve the issue. Yep, four hours. FML. Yes, Ubuntu, I still love you, but you’re on my short list right now. Here’s what I had to do to solve the problem:

Step One: Get the PC to boot into the new 24.04.1 installation:

1. Find yourself a live Ubuntu DVD or USB drive and boot it. I used an older 20.04 live DVD I’ve had on-hand for a while, and I chose the “Try Ubuntu” option.
2. Once at the live desktop, I first established a network connection and then I opened a terminal and sudoed to root by typing: “sudu su -” (without the quotes).
3. I used fdisk to find the correct hard drive. At the root prompt, I typed: fdisk -l and looked for the EFI and Ubuntu partitions on my HDD. My laptop’s hard drive (sda) has six partitions:
   sda1 = Windows recovery environment
   sda2 = EFI System
   sda3 = Microsoft reserved
   sda4 = Microsoft basic data (main Windows 10 partition)
   sda5 = Windows recovery environment
   sda6 = Linux filesystem
   
   I noted that sda2 and sda6 were the two needing help.
4. Continuing as root (su), I mounted the two partitions in the mount directory /mnt:
   
   1. root@ASUS-laptop:~# mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
   2. root@ASUS-laptop:~# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot/efi
      
      I then mounted /dev, /dev/pts, /proc, /sys, and /run in the mount directory:
   
   
5. root@ASUS-laptop:~# for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
   
   I Chrooted into the mount directory:
6. root@ASUS-laptop:~# chroot /mnt
   
   I needed to update initramfs, but I got a warning saying the “EFI variables cannot be set on this system.” So I had to mount them manually:
7. root@ASUS-laptop:~# mount -t efivarfs none /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
   
   Then I updated initramfs:
8. root@ASUS-laptop:~# update-initramfs -u
   
   I installed Grub on the sda drive:
9. root@ASUS-laptop:~# grub-install /dev/sda
   
   Then I updated grub:
10. root@ASUS-laptop:~# update-grub
    
    Doing this allowed Grub to find the Linux images and Windows 10 installation.
    I then checked to make sure the Ubuntu installation was the first choice on the list:
11. root@ASUS-laptop:~# efibootmgr
    
    Doing this, I was able to verify it was going to boot into Ubuntu. I then exited the prompt and rebooted:
12. root@ASUS-laptop:~# exit
13. root@ASUS-laptop:~# reboot

This allowed the laptop to boot into the new Ubuntu installation but, to my dismay, I was greeted with a terminal login rather than the desktop login. I logged in using my regular credentials, and also found the laptop no longer had a network connection. Here’s what I was able to do to get the network up and running and restore the Ubuntu desktop environment:

Step Two: Get the network connection up and running:

1. When logged in, I ran the command [userchanged]@ASUS-laptop:~$ sudo dhclient
   Doing this fired up the hardwired interface and allowed the laptop to join the network.

Step Three: Restore the Ubuntu desktop environment:

1. I first purged the gdm3 environment. This step may be optional, your mileage may vary. I decided to purge gdm3 because of a post I found/read/followed. Again, this step may be optional for you and your installation:
   
   • [userchanged]@ASUS-laptop:~$ sudo apt purge gdm3
   
   
2. [NOTICE]: I then reinstalled the gdm3 environment. Doing this, I feel, was a mistake. I rebooted after reinstalling gdm3 and I got a generic Debian environment and all the files I had on my desktop were missing. In addition, apps wouldn’t run; I couldn’t even start anything like open terminal (even using ctrl-alt-t), Firefox, etc. If you can avoid this step, you should.
3. I then installed the Ubuntu desktop environment:
   
   • [userchanged]@ASUS-laptop:~$ sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

Doing this and then rebooting the laptop brought the system back to life. All of my desktop files were there, the network connections were restored, and apps would run as normal.

I really hope this helps someone. It took me a while to research and work through the processes. It also took me a while to type all this out from all my notes. In typing this out, I may have missed a step and, if so, I apologize in advance.

Ubuntu, if you’re reading this you’re still on my short list. I hope you polish future upgrades a little more before you push them out. I don’t totally blame you though, since my dual-boot situation is a little out of the ordinary. But, I feel there’s a bunch who have a dual-boot installation like me who may not have been so fortunate to find and fix the failed upgrade path and may have chosen to completely reinstall.

sorry took me so long to get back online. covid and then an accident. i cant remember if i updated and upgraded prior. didnt know that i should have.
this seemed the longest upgrade i have done of ubuntu. i dont know why. i kept having to come back to the machine.
ouch four hours to solve gee.
ok i might have a live dvd somewhere but i dont have a dvd installed on the machine anymore. i might have chucked it out. i havent made a live usb before so this is going to take me time to get that happening. recovering from 3 major things and i keep getting interruptions. wish i could remember how to use fdisk ....i am so terrible with commands now. from memory my primary drive is sda1. i think i was able to find that out last week when i typed something.
i will come back on when i can get myself better sorted.
yes despite this experience ubuntu is my thing. been using it such a long time. not that i have experimented much with other distros

[rapattack]

so sorry havent been back on here for a while. i was able to get into ubuntu and its working well now. i cant remember exactly what did it as i had trouble with my phone as well(had lineageos installed and well volte wasnt happening so had to flash the phone with stock os)....then theres life getting in the way. anyway all good

[rapattack]

so sorry havent been back on here for a while. i was able to get into ubuntu and its working well now. i cant remember exactly what i did as i had trouble with my phone as well(had lineageos installed and well volte wasnt happening so had to flash the phone with stock os)....then theres life getting in the way. anyway all good