[Bug 1968402] Re: Ubuntu 20.04.3 boots to black screen, no TTY available

[Daniel van Vugt]

** No longer affects: wayland (Ubuntu)

** Also affects: xorg-server (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

** No longer affects: xorg (Ubuntu)

** No longer affects: grub2 (Ubuntu)

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1968402

Title:
  Ubuntu 20.04.3 boots to black screen, no TTY available

Status in gdm:
  New
Status in gnome-session:
  New
Status in grub:
  New
Status in os-prober-efi/trunk:
  New
Status in shim:
  New
Status in subiquity:
  New
Status in tty:
  New
Status in mutter package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in nvidia-graphics-drivers-450 package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in xorg-server package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  A fresh attempted install failed utterly, just as 20.04.1 failed two
  years ago.  Has anyone been paying attention?

  Ubuntu 20.04.3 burned just now to a USB stick and attempted to be
  installed.

  The first fail was that the stick booted to a couple of impenetrable
  boot-time messages and hung.  Really.  I'm not making this up.  It
  didn't just open the installer, as it should.

  The second fail was having just to guess that rebooting and trying
  another GRUB menu option might work and give that a try.  Really.  I'm
  not making this up, either.  The installer was entirely incapable of
  providing any direction

  The third failure was that the installer was incapable of detecting
  the video configuration and proceeding accordingly.  This is 20.04.3,
  the third attempt at getting this right, and it still fails.

  The fourth fail was an error message insisting on a designation of
  where root should be, even after the destination partition already had
  been specified.

  The fifth failure was that no obvious means existed to satisfy the
  installer about the root specification, which of course already had
  been made by specifying the destination partition.  All one could do
  was to see whether a context menu existed for any object on the screen
  that might possibly drill down through a few layers to something
  approximating what the content of the error message suggested.

  The sixth failure was that no GRUB menu appeared during boot,
  notwithstanding that the EFI system partition had clearly been
  identified in the installer.

  The seventh failure was that the machine booted only to a black screen
  with a non-blinking _ midway toward the upper left.  No login
  screen/display manager.  No GUI at all.  Just this little _.

  The eighth failure was that Ctrl-alt-f2, ctrl-alt-f5-f12 have no
  effect.  No TTY is available.  There is no way whatsoever to interact
  with the system.

  Expected behavior:  The software would install and the computer would
  work.

  Actual behavior:  The installer bricked my workstation.

  Obviously, no debug information is available BECAUSE THE SOFTWARE
  FAILED.  This post is being made from a borrowed Windows laptop.

  Any thoughts about how to get a working system would be appreciated.
  I am not optimistic about the prospects for 22.04.

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