[Bug 761830] Re: grub2 still hands off to blank tty7 on non-Server command-line-only systems and some Server systems

[Jamie]

I am seeing this bug in 17.10. If I carry out a minimal install with no
packages selected at the final stage, I see a blank screen on boot.

The first time I saw this I did a hard reset and was presented with a
boot menu. I presume this is some sort of failsafe behaviour in the
event of a failed boot. If I then selected Ubuntu from that menu, the
boot succeeded and the LVM decrypt prompt was shown.

On a subsequent reboot, the previous behaviour of displaying a blank
screen resumed. I then discovered that I could switch to a text based
tty by pressing Alt+F1, this also displayed the LVM decrypt prompt.

>From what I have read in this and other, linked, bugs I expected this
behaviour to disappear once I had installed a X and a display manager,
however after installing GNOME (apt install gdm3) the system still boots
to a blank screen except (and I swear this is reproducible) I now have
to press Alt+F2, then Alt+F1 twice before I get to a usable LVM decrypt
prompt.

I am a Linux novice so apologies if my terminology is off or if this
post is totally useless.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/761830

Title:
  grub2 still hands off to blank tty7 on non-Server command-line-only
  systems and some Server systems

Status in grub2 package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  On Natty and Oneiric non-Server command-line only systems (which can
  be installed from the Alternate and Minimal CD's), grub2 hands off to
  blank tty7 (as in bug 700686). As a consequence, a blank black (or
  purple) terminal is shown, and the system does not appear to be
  functional. This can be particularly confusing to novices, who
  sometimes assume that the system has not successfully booted.
  Switching to an active virtual console (for example, by pressing
  Alt+F1) yields a login screen and makes it possible to use the
  machine.

  This also happens on a few Natty and Oneiric Server systems. It seems
  to happen on all such server systems running on VMware virtual
  machines and installed using the VMware Easy Install automatically
  installation facility (but it does not seem to occur with VMware when
  the OS is installed manually). The most obvious explanations specific
  to that feature do not seem to apply (see
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/761830/comments/35).
  It would perhaps be worthwhile to investigate if the problem occurs on
  other kinds of unattended installations.

  Please see bug 700686, bug 695658, and this bug's original description
  for some (incomplete) details about the cause of this behavior (and
  why it did not occur in previous releases). See original description
  and comments for details substantiating the above generalizations.

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