Ubuntu – Blank screen on TTY7 after upgrading from 14.04 to 14.10

14.10bootdo-release-upgradegnomexorg

I upgraded my 14.04 to 14.10 via "sudo do-release-upgrade" without strange messages.

After rebooting and entering the password for the encrypted system partition in the graphical form, TTY7 keeps blank. I can use TTY1 to TTY6 without problems.

My machine is a Thinkpad T400 with Intel Chipset Graphics.

Update 1:
Tried to reinstall the kernel (sudo apt-get install –reinstall linux-image-$(uname -r)), but get an error:

reinstallation of linux-image-3.13.0-37-generic is not possible, it cannot be downloaded

Update 2:
Followed the instructions in (Statement) "Ubuntu 14.10 won't work because black screen" solution described here (sudo apt-get install –reinstall xserver-xorg-video-intel), but without success.

Update 3:
By coincidence, some graphics appeared on screen (TTY7) after hitting the combination Super+SPACE, which is a shortcut for changing the keyboard layout. Seems like it should work, but doesn't?

Update 4:
Tried the approach from Ubuntu 14.10 no GUI or term login (adding "init=/lib/systemd/systemd" to the boot parameters), but without success.

Update 5:
Tried removing the package "xserver-xorg-video-nouveau", as suggested in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2245436. No success…
Also, that thread suggested downgrading "xserver-xorg-video-intel". Downloaded and compiled the trusty sources (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/2:2.99.910-0ubuntu1.1/+files/xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.99.910.orig.tar.gz), but also no success.

Update 6:
Sound is also broken.

Best Answer

tty7:

Inspired by the answer from Vembu, I reinstalled my default window manager gnome-shell (apt-get install --reinstall gnome-shell). Then, I rebooted and ran 

gnome-shell --replace

on tty1. Output:

gdk_mir_display_open
Failed to connect to Mir: Failed to connect to server socket: No such file or directory
Window manager error: Unable to open X display

After that, tty7 showed my gnome-shell again. Mouse pointer was invisible, showed up after relogging in. Unfortunately, this was no permanent solution. The procedure had to be repeated on every boot.

After further investigation, I stumbled upon the following remark in the [release notes of 14.10][1]:

Note. If you were using the gnome3-team/gnome3-staging PPA, you should run

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging

before upgrading.

I purged the ppa, reinstalled gnome-shell, added the ppa and ran dist-upgrade. Finally, I set gdm as default display manager (thanks Xieerqi). It works again!

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