Fix Linux Mint booting to the black screen issue

Numerous Linux Mint users have reported seeing a dark or blank screen upon startup. This issue can be challenging to resolve, especially for Linux users with less technical skills. This problem appears to be connected to the Nvidia video drivers. Fortunately, there are several relatively straightforward ways for resolving this particular visual problem, as seen in this article guide.

Fixing the Linux Mint booting to black screen issue

Below are some of the tips you can employ to repair the Linux Mint booting to black screen issue

Restart the computer

The first issue with a dark or blank screen is that you usually cannot access any Linux Mint menus or launch a terminal. Therefore, hold down the power button for 10 seconds to switch off the computer.

Obtain GRUB menu access

Then, after restarting the machine, continually hit the F1 key to open the GRUB menu. Select “Advanced settings” from the GRUB menu by pressing the down arrow key.

Advanced Grub issues

Choose the appropriate recovery mode from the list.

Linux Mint recovery issues

Restore broken packages

Repair Damages packages

Press Enter after scrolling to “dpkg Repair damaged packages.” Continue after reading the warning notice that displays next.

Accept prompt yes

Continue scrolling up to “Resume regular boot” and press Enter.

Use Nomodeset to edit the GRUB menu.

If fixing corrupted packages does not resolve your black or blank screen problem, restart your system and use F1 to reach the GRUB menu. The nomodeset argument asks the kernel to delay loading the video driver until X begins loading it. Press “e” to modify the menu when it displays. Scroll to the point that begins with “Linux” and then to the line’s conclusion. Type “nomodeset” immediately after “silent” and “splash” (without quotes). To restart, use CTRL-X or F10.

Nomodeset

Alternatively, you might utilize a modeset tailored to your computer’s graphics hardware. For instance:

nvidia.modeset=0

nouveau.modeset=0

radeon.modeset=0

Drivers for graphics devices should be reinstalled

As with the previous step, navigate to the GRUB recovery menu and scroll down to “root Drop to root shell prompt.”

The procedure for uninstalling and reinstalling your graphics drivers varies according to your computer, graphics card, and installed graphics drivers.

As with the previous step, navigate to the GRUB recovery menu and scroll down to “root Drop to root shell prompt.” Take extra caution while using this prompt. Any command you write here will be executed as root and may cause modifications to your operating system that render it useless.

Then, using the command “ubuntu-drivers devices,” determine the video card you have and the installed drivers.

driver devices

For instance, if you have an ATI Radeon graphics card, you can attempt the following:

aptitude purge xserver-xorg-video-radeon

aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-radeon

If you have an Nvidia graphics card, you can attempt the following:

aptitude purge ~nnvidia

or

apt-get purge nvidia*

aptitude install nvidia-340

First, change the driver’s name to be installed if necessary depending on the “ubuntu-drivers devices” output.

If you’re using a standard terminal, make sure to prefix each of these instructions with “sudo.”

Conclusion

This article shows a quick fix to the Linux Mint booting to black screen issue. If you are a victim of this error, please try out the methods provided herein, and in case of any challenges, please let us know via the comments section below. Thanks for reading.