Ubuntu Freezing after login, can't install gdm3, other solutions not working

Question

I am on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS, and the computer freezes after I enter in my login information.

I have looked thoroughly at the solutions presented on Ubuntu gets stuck in a login loop but none of them work for me. I changed the ownership on ~/.ICEauthority and I don't have a ~/.Xauthority

I am using gdm3, not lightdm. I switched to lightdm, but then uninstalled it.

Now I cannot install gdm. Package 'gdm' has no installation candidate. What?! I've also tried gdm3 which doesn't appear to exist either. Solution here How do I switch from LightDM to GDM? doesn't work

per Freeze after login Ubuntu 18.04 I tried sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa I get errors that this bionic Release does not have a Release file.

as suggested on other pages, I've done sudo ubuntu-drivers devices which outputs

==sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-7/1-7:1.1 == modalias: usb:....... vender: Realtek Semiconductor Corp. driver : rt18812au-dkms - distro free

the output of apt-search gdm3 is that I have gdm3/bionic-updates,bioinc-secuirty, now 3.28.3-0ubuntu18.04.4 amd64 [installed] GNOME Display Manager

output of sudo apt-get check shows no problems.

output of sudo lshw -C memory:

*- firmware
 description: BIOS
 vendor: LENOVO
 physical id: 0
 version: 3JCN19WW
 date: 08/10/2016
 size: 128 KiB
 capacity: 6016KiB
 capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13flopppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
 *-cache: 0
 description: L1 cache
 physical id: 5
 slot: L1 cache
 size: 128KiB
 capacity: 128KiB
 capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified
 configuration: level=1
*-cache: 1
 description: L2 cache
 physical id: 5
 slot: L1 cache
 size: 512KiB
 capacity: 512KiB
 capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified
 configuration: level=2
*-memory
 description: System Memory
 physical id: 24
 slot: System board or motherboard
 size: 8GiB
 *-bank:0
  description: SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2133 MHz (0.5ns)
  product: M471A5244BB0-CPB
  vendor: Samsung
  physical id: 0
  serial: 00000000
  slot: ChannelA-DIMMO
  size: 4GiB
  width: 64 bits
  clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
 *-bank:1
  description: SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 2133 MHz (0.5ns)
  product: M471A5143EB1-CRC
  vendor: Samsung
  physical id: 1
  serial: 974F4E14
  slot: ChannelB-DIMMO
  size: 4GiB
  width: 64 bits
  clock: 2133MHz (0.5ns)
*-memory UNCLAIMED
 description: Memory controller
 product: Sunrise Point-LP PMC
 vendor: Intel Corporation
 physical id: 1f.2
 bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
 version: 21
 width: 32 bits
 clock: 33MHz (30.3ns)
 capabilities: bus_master
 configuration: latency = 0
 resources: memory:bi224000-bi227fff

output of free -h

        total   used   free   shared   buff/cache   available
Mem:     7.7G   355M   6.8G      106M       574M      7.0G
Swap:    7.9G     0B   7.9G

now I'm totally stuck. How do I get my Ubuntu back?

Please run sudo apt update and then provide the output of apt search gdm3. Additionally, sudo apt-get check will check for broken dependencies, do you get any relevant output from that? — ofperfection, Dec 21 '19 at 22:33
A freeze is NOT a login loop. Solutions to the latter will not usually help you with the former, — user535733, Dec 21 '19 at 22:36
First... STOP! The frantic steps that you've taken are only doing damage to your Ubuntu installation. Current status please. Are you able to log into your account using gdm3? If so, edit your question and show me ls -al ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions. Report back. Start comments to me with @heynnema or I may miss them. — heynnema, Dec 21 '19 at 22:51
@heynnema the directory you mention doesn't even exist, it only goes to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/ — con, Dec 21 '19 at 23:29
@ofperfection apt search gdm3 shows that it is installed (?) and apt-get check shows no problems — con, Dec 21 '19 at 23:30
Laptop or desktop? Edit your question and show me free -h and sudo lshw -C memory and ls -al /var/crash. What video card? When it freezes, does the mouse freeze, does the clock stop incrementing, can you do anything? What ownership did you put on ~/.ICEauthority? — heynnema, Dec 22 '19 at 00:20
@heynnema this is a desktop. free -h shows that I have 7.7G total RAM, using 358 MB. ls -al /var/crash shows an empty directory. I can do absolutely nothing when the computer freezes. There is no mouse, or anything, just a blank screen. .ICEauthority has -rw-------- permissions. I think that the video card is from lspci | grep VGA 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 620 (rev 02). the output from lshw -C memory is too long to put here, what should I put? — con, Dec 22 '19 at 17:16
@con Thanks for your answer, but I need to see the entire free -h (edited into your question, not in the comments please), and sudo lshw -C memory can be pasted at paste.ubuntu.com then give me the URL. — heynnema, Dec 22 '19 at 17:24
@con Go to https://www.memtest86.com/ and download/run their free memtest to test your memory. Get at least one complete pass of all the 4/4 tests to confirm good memory. This may take many hours to complete. — heynnema, Dec 22 '19 at 17:24
@heynnema I've added the comments to the question. As for memtest86, it seems to say "Checking media_" and then nothing, and boots to the original as before. — con, Dec 22 '19 at 19:53
@con Did you build a bootable USB flash device following the instructions in the README that you downloaded, and then booted to it? See https://www.memtest86.com/technical.htm for more helpful info. If you still can't get memtest to run, remove one memory stick and try again. Report back. — heynnema, Dec 22 '19 at 20:06
@heynnema this is a Lenovo Ideapad 310-15IKB. I've tried memtest, but can't get past the "Checking media_" part. I also have a uselessly small Ubuntu partition that I was able to log in to on that laptop. I can get a GUI and everything. I don't know if that helps to diagnose. — con, Dec 22 '19 at 20:58
@con All information is useful to diagnose. In your normal account, have you modified any of the bash or profile files? Any startup applications? Please see my answer, below. We need to get memtest to work. Please describe EXACTLY how you're trying to run it. — heynnema, Dec 22 '19 at 21:35
@heynnema I've tried two different ways of installing that memtest86 on a bootable USB, neither of them worked. Is there any other alternative? — con, Dec 26 '19 at 21:39
@con The memtest that you downloaded only works on UEFI computers. If you've got an older BIOS machine, you'll have to download an older version of memtest at https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm — heynnema, Dec 27 '19 at 03:40
@heynnema the problem is that this is a UEFI system. I don't think that it's the memory, I can get into another Ubuntu install just fine, and my Windows works too. What else can I do? — con, Dec 27 '19 at 21:01
Did you update the BIOS? When you say "I can get into another Ubuntu install just fine" do you mean another account on the same Ubuntu installation, or a different version Ubuntu install on the same computer? You also didn't answer my question about bash and profile mods, or how you created the bootable memtest flash. — heynnema, Dec 27 '19 at 21:36
@heynnema a different version Ubuntu install on the same machine, from years ago. There are bash and profile mods, but I've been using the same bash script on my computer for years without any problems. I've only added perlbrew recently. I removed that, but it didn't change anything. I followed instructions for Mac & Windows installation of Memtest 86. I've updated the Lenovo BIOS, but now I don't get the option to switch to Ubuntu anymore :( so I've got to fix that first — con, Dec 28 '19 at 02:53
@con Temporarily rename the bash and profile files that you modified to something like filename.HOLD, but only rename one at a time. Reboot and see if you can log in. This will eliminate a bad mod in one of these files. — heynnema, Dec 28 '19 at 05:06
@heynnema the update to the BIOS got rid of the boot menu, I can't access the Ubuntu partition at all now. It doesn't even have the startup options that are usually F10 or F12 now, it's even worse than it was :( — con, Dec 28 '19 at 14:17
@con That's not good. Are you able to boot to ANYTHING? Windows, USB, etc? Did the BIOS update appear to go OK? There may be some BIOS settings that got reset with the update, and need manual adjustment. Does the Lenovo splash screen appear at power on? If so, does it present which function keys it looks for... like F2 to enter the BIOS? — heynnema, Dec 28 '19 at 15:49
@heynnema I've had to go across the country for a funeral :( I can get back to you on 2 January, thanks for your help — con, Dec 30 '19 at 15:13
@heynnema at this point I think it's easier to wipe the partition :( thanks for all of your help, I really appreciate it :) — con, Jan 09 '20 at 17:46
@con more details about your current status please. Last time I heard that you couldn't boot, or get into the BIOS after the update. What's up? — heynnema, Jan 09 '20 at 19:32
@heynnema I can now boot into Windows only. Neither way of installing memtest86 worked :( — con, Jan 10 '20 at 03:39
@con If you give me more details about the Ubuntu not booting... maybe I'd recommend trying boot-repair to solve it... — heynnema, Jan 10 '20 at 03:55

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 22 '19 at 21:32

Amongst other possible repairs required...

We need to test your memory.

Go to https://www.memtest86.com/ and download/run their free memtest to test your memory. Get at least one complete pass of all the 4/4 tests to confirm good memory. This may take many hours to complete.

Your BIOS is very old.

Note: have a good backup before updating the BIOS

Lenovo Ideapad 310-15IKB

You have BIOS version 3JCN19WW, and 3JCN31WW is current. See...

https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/300-series/310-15ikb/downloads/ds118500

Ubuntu Freezing after login, can't install gdm3, other solutions not working

1 Answers1