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Xubuntu 18.04, 4.15.0-24-generic, ThinkPad T430. Uses Intel HD iGPU graphics (nvidia dGPU disabled in BIOS).

Recently started having this issue with a slow boot, where the boot process hangs on a black screen for an indefinite period of time before finally displaying the normal login splash screen.

Process looks like:

  • OEM Bios select screen
  • blank, black screen (< 1 sec)
  • Blue Xubuntu title splash (< 2 sec)
  • Some grub printout (< 1 sec)
  • A black screen that has a blinking white cursor block (< 1 sec)
  • A blank, black screen with nothing on it (approx. 10 sec)
  • Finally, login splash screen

No idea why it started doing this. Was working fine before. The only thing I've noticed, which may be a red herring or irrelevant, is that there have been a bunch of updates to the mesa package lately when I apt update and upgrade.

Most other posts I've seen related to a hanging black screen on boot are either ancient (12.04) or unrelated (stuck on grub, or the flashing-cursor screen instead of blank). Though it seems like most of those posts are related to editing the grub file (/etc/default/grub line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT).

Any ideas?

For reference, my grub file reads:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nouveau.runpm=0"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

and the relevant output of lscpi -k

lspci -k
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
Subsystem: Lenovo 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915

Things I've tried:

  • change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to "quiet splash instead of "quiet splash nouveau.runpm=0"
  • GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 instead of 10
  • updating mesa, xserver-xorg-video-intel packages, both already installed and current
  • updating kernel (was already at latest, 4.15.0-24-generic)

Update:

Unfortunately was not able to figure out the source of the issue. I tried nearly every permutation of grub settings, but that did not end up changing the hanging boot issue. My guess it is probably related to the 4.15.0-24-generic. Decided to reinstall Xubuntu 16.04 for this issue and a few more I've had with 18.04.

If anyone else is experiencing this hanging boot issue and solved the issue, please provide your solution for others (and possibly me if I decide to roll the dice again when Xubuntu 18.04.1 drops).

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  • The 4.15.0-24 kernel is known to have some problems. To see if that may be a part of your problem, try moving the mouse during slow boot up, and see if it boots faster/normally. Report back to @heynnema.
    – heynnema
    Jul 9, 2018 at 17:12
  • Remove the quiet to see what's happening during the 10 seconds. Jul 9, 2018 at 18:00
  • @Wiking I took a look at the journalctl, but I did not see anything obvious, but then again, not sure if I would know if I did. Probably should have dumped here for the experts. Thanks anyway. @heynnema So the mouse thing did not change anything. But the screen generally stays black for a minimum of 8-10 sec, and it seems to persist past then if I do not mash the keyboard. @WinEunuuchs2Unix removing quiet did not change anything to the hanging black screen, which comes after the grub splash (which is <1.5 sec).
    – Alnitak
    Jul 16, 2018 at 0:55

2 Answers 2

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From the comments...

The 4.15.0-24 kernel is known to have some problems. To see if that may be a part of your problem, try moving the mouse during slow boot up, and see if it boots faster/normally.

If that improves the boot time, boot to a prior kernel like 4.15.0-23, and/or wait for a newer kernel to arrive.

Update #1:

Edit /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and change:

#WaylandEnable=false

to

WaylandEnable=false

and see if that helps.

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  • thanks for your suggestion. I bungled something during the downgrade and messed a few things up, though I do think the problem is probably the kernel. Ended up just reinstalling 16.04, for this boot lag, as well as a few other annoyances. Will reconsider 18.04 when .1 drops
    – Alnitak
    Jul 16, 2018 at 0:47
  • @Alnitak Too bad that you already downgraded. There's a setting in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf that I would have wanted you to try. It has to do with gdm3 and wayland.
    – heynnema
    Jul 16, 2018 at 13:16
  • @Alnitak I have the exact same problem: A blank, black screen with nothing on it (approx. 20 sec) @heynnema editing /etc/gdm3/custom.conf didn't help my kernel is Linux hpx360-13 4.15.0-29-generic #31-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 17 15:39:52 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux I've resized my ex4 and swap from 37GB , 8G to 44GB 1GB respectively. I have 8GB RAM but I saw that the system doesn't use it and hibernation takes less then 0.5GB space. But I think it lagged my boot though I've changed the swap partition UUID in etc/fstab according to blkid info
    – Roey
    Jul 31, 2018 at 13:47
  • @heynnema roey@hpx360-13:~$ systemd-analyze Startup finished in 2.264s (firmware) + 2.738s (loader) + 33.699s (kernel) + 11.062s (userspace) = 49.766s graphical.target reached after 10.956s in userspace is that in the normal range ?
    – Roey
    Jul 31, 2018 at 15:24
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I had the exact same problem and upgrading to 4.15.0-29 fixed it. Previously I had downgraded to 4.15.0-23 which also worked, so it seems like this was a problem with 4.15.0-24.

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