Freeze at login after update to Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr

Ubuntu 14.04 Upgrade problems – System freezes at login after upgrade.

UPDATE - JAN 2017

In my system, this may be also be a combination of problems--
"Kernel Panic"  and the lack of a "Shadow Frame Buffer."

Fixes described in my post on Jan 28 2017 solved a similar problem when it recurred.
Here's a link;

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4962012626403702567#editor/target=post;postID=7770906987401668553;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=4;src=postname

Background:

I have been running 32-bit Ubuntu 12.04 for several years. I was experiencing occasional system freezes and errors, so decided to upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 32-bit to see if that would resolve the issues.

The installation went smoothly, without apparent problems--

Until I went to log in.

Reproducible Problem:

I entered my password and hit [return]. The mouse pointer froze on the screen. I could not get to the Command Line Interface (CLI) in the usual way, by hitting [Ctrl][Alt][F1]. I had to power off and restart to get anything to happen. My mouse was active until I hit [Enter] after entering the password. After about 40 seconds of hard drive activity, the hard drive would stop and the mouse pointer would freeze.

Error Messages:

To see error messages, I logged in, then immediately hit [Ctrl][Alt][F1] to go to CLI. Messages include;

[30.802416] nouveau E[ pbus][0000:00:10.0] MMIO write of 0x00000000 FAULT at 0x00b010

[272.300013] nouveau E[ pbus][0000:00:10.0] MMIO write of 0x00000000 FAULT at 0x00b010

I tried a lot of different things, but what's below seemed to work for me;

Assessment:

The open-source nouveau graphics package was not getting along with my graphics driver/hardware.

After start-up, I went directly to CLI with [Ctrl][Alt][F1]

This command tells me what packages may work for each driver

sudo ubuntu-drivers devices

model: nVidia C73 [GeForce 7050 / nForce610i ]

modelias: pci:v {extremely long number here}

driver: nvidia-173 distro non-free

nvidia-304 distro non-free recommended

nvidia-304-updates distro non-free

xserver-xorg-video-nouveau distro free built in

I installed the non-free nvidia-304 drivers, using;

sudo apt-get install nvidia-304 nvidia-304-updates

then rebooted using

sudo reboot

The system background and login box came up as usual, but logging in caused the screen to go black with a white mouse pointer that could be moved around, but was not able to click on anything.

[Ctrl][Alt][F1] got me to the CLI, and [Ctrl][Alt][F7] got me back to the black screen with movable white mouse pointer. Progress any way you look at it!

Typing

sudo service lightdm

restored the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to its pre-log-in state, but logging in gave a black screen again.

Installed Cairo-Dock

It could be a Unity problem, so from CLI I installed Cairo Dock with the command;

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

After rebooting, I was now able to click on the Ubuntu wheel icon in the upper right corner of the login box. A drop down menu appears that gives me the option to login using Cairo Dock (“CD” icon).

Selecting Cairo Dock login allowed me to log into the system with the Cairo Dock appearing at the bottom of the screen, but no Unity bar. This allowed me to use my computer, but I still wanted to fix the Unity Bar.

Installing Nouveau with Bumblebee

Bumblebee is apparently a variation on the Nouveau package that helps with some graphics problems. To install it, I first enabled four Universe repositories, then installed Bumblebee;

sudo add-apt-repository “deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main universe restricted multiverse”

then

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia

then rebooted my machine.

Success!--Well, at least mostly. I am able to log in, and the system does not hang. Screen resolution is lower, and the response is slower, but it works again. One thing fixed, then on to the next.

Or You Could Switch to Kubuntu

As an aside, I installed and wiped a second hard drive, then installed Kubuntu 14.04. Initially, it had the same freeze-up problem. But installing nVidia-304

sudo apt-get install nvidia-304 nvidia-304-updates

fixed the installation with great graphics and fast speed. I will probably switch this machine to Kubuntu eventually for that reason.

Things that did not work for me, but might work for you

My nVidia card is old; The most advanced nVidia non-free driver I could install is nVidia-304. If the command sudo ubuntu-drivers devices tells you that your card can handle nVidia-331, you may want to try the nVidia installer. These directions are for the 32-bit version. The 64-bit version has slightly different commands;

1. Confirm whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit system;

uname -m

Returns i686 for 32-bit, or i686_64 for 64-bit (or something like it).

Download the 32-bit nVidia installer;

cd && wget us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/331.38/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-331.38.run

Remove previous proprietary driver

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

Stop the graphic session:

sudo service lightdm stop

Make installer executable

chmod tx NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.38.run

Start installer, follow screen prompts

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.38.run

Update all Packages and manually reconfigure

This process gratefully stolen from www.unixmen.com/reinstall-ubuntu-with-one-command

Thanks Unixmen!!

Sometimes sudo apt-get update downloads the packages, but does not properly configure and link them.

If the trouble is minor use

sudo apt-get install -f

to fix dependencies.

For major trouble, use

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh -a

to reconfigure all packages after installing. This process takes about an hour.

Summary

I hope some of this is helpful to someone. :-)

For the compulsive, here's my system;

OS: ubuntu 14.04 32-bit

Kernel: 3.16.0-33

Gnome:

Device: MSI – Micro Systems International P6NGM Series

MS 7366 Motherboard

Intel Celeron dual-core CPU E1200, 1.60 GHz x 2

nVidia MPC73 GeForce 7050/nForce 610i graphics chipset

1.9 GiB RAM

Purchased: 19 August 2008