I'm a first-time Linux user and recently installed Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. Everything was working fine initially, but now when I turn off my laptop and back on, it just shows a blank black screen and I can't do anything. I managed to get it working before by pressing the escape key during startup to enter GRUB, then exiting, but that solution isn't working anymore. I think it might be related to the NVIDIA driver I selected, which was labeled 'recommended' during setup. By the way, I'm using a Dell Inspiron laptop. Any advice on what I could do?
1 Answer
It definitely sounds like a graphics driver issue. First, try booting into a virtual terminal. You can do this by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 when the blank screen appears. This should bring you to a text-based login screen. From there, you can uninstall or reinstall your video drivers.
If there’s a splash screen during boot (like the Linux Mint logo), hit the escape key to view any diagnostic messages that might help you figure out what's going wrong.
You can also try booting into an older kernel or a rescue mode if those options are available in GRUB. If you need to recover your files, consider using a Live USB to access your data and back it up before you reinstall the OS.
When I boot, I see the Dell logo but not the Mint logo, and Ctrl+Alt+F1/F2 doesn’t do anything. Pressing escape takes me to GRUB with options like 'Linux Mint 22.1 Cinnamon'. How do I access the rescue boot or older kernel?