1

I just finished installing Ubuntu Server 16.04 (latest 64Bit download as at 10/02/2018) using the ISO on a USB memory stick. Installation went without incident and is on a pretty simple installation. Intel Atom machine with 4GB RAM and a single 320GB hard drive. I followed the standard install (guided - install with LVM etc.). I also selected LAMP, standard utilities, OpenSSH Server as part of the installation.

GRUB was also installed as per default

Eventually, the machine said it's time to reboot, please remove USB media, which I did, and then rebooted. However now all I get is a blinking cursor and a completely unresponsive machine.

As per other suggestions elsewhere, I have tried the following:

  1. Boot while holding Shift (also tried Shift + e)
  2. Tried opening another terminal window by using Alt+F1 or Ctrl+Alt+F1
  3. Looked for the IP address for the machine on my network and tried to SSH to it, connection refused (even a root connection)

More or less tried everything this guy did: Black screen with blinking cursor after fresh Ubuntu server 16.04 install

Any ideas?

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

This appears to either be a problem with the automatic installation of GRUB not working correctly, and installing GRUB in a partition or drive where it shouldn't be, or GRUB is corrupted.

To remedy the problem, I booted once more from my USB stick, and selected the option to repair a broken installation. After navigating through the usual keyboard and date setup, eventually I was asked something to the effect of "rescue device to use as root file system" and i selected the bottom most entry, that effectively said "don't" (sorry about this, I'm going from memory here.)

This finally took me to a screen where I could access GRUB options, and I chose to repair GRUB. It asked where it should be installed, and I selected /dev/sda. Rebooted, and everything booted again just fine. So either at initial installation time GRUB was damaged, or it was installed in the wrong location. Hopefully this helps the developers somewhat as well.

This link, though not followed by me for this remedial work, may prove useful to whomever may need it: https://www.tecmint.com/rescue-repair-and-reinstall-grub-boot-loader-in-ubuntu/

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .