Ubuntu 20.04.2 Boot issues (Potential cause: Nvidia driver, Xorg/Xserver)

After installing some updates my Ubuntu system (Dell Inspiron 7540) is stuck at the Black screen. It simply says “dev/sda…”
This is similar to what I’m seeing

I’m able to access tty from here and I hear a lightdm beep sound whenever it boots to the black screen.

However, uninstalling the proprietary drivers (using the default nouveau driver) allows me to boot. But
it won’t let met hook up to my external monitors. Reinstalling the proprietary drivers only reverted to the black screen as mentioned above.

Steps I’ve taken:

  1. Purge nvidia drivers and reinstall (I tried all drivers from 460 to 390)
  2. Install lightdm (Switch from gdm3, no luck)
  3. Reinstall xserver-xorg
  4. Checked /var/logs/Xorg.1.logs looks fine
  5. restarting lightdm from terminal (goes back to same situation)

Hardware:

  • Dell Inspiron 7540
  • Nvidia MX250
  • Intel i5
  • Ubuntu 20.04.2

Edit:
Ubuntu Pastebin (nvidia-bug-report)
Ubuntu Pastebin (nvidia-smi not sure if it’ll be any use)

If there’s any /etc/X11/xorg.conf please delete it. if that doesn’t help, please run nvidia-bug-report.sh as root and attach the resulting nvidia-bug-report.log.gz file to your post.

If you have internet connection, you can use pastebinit to upload it from console.

  • install pastebinit (sudo apt install pastebinit)
  • unzip logfile (gunzip nvidia-bug-report.log.gz)
  • upload logfile (pastebinit -i nvidia-bug-report.log)
  • note down and post the url you’re given

@generix Thanks for the speedy reply. I’ve attached the pastebin to my original post.

Please remove the ‘nomodeset’ kernel parrameter.

I have it removed already in /etc/default/grub. where else should i remove it?

Hey, I switched to an older kernel 5.4.0-65 => 5.4.0-64. It’s working now. Not sure why tho. Thanks @generix

After removing the parameter from grub config, you have to run
sudo update-grub
to apply the changes.

Switching kernels can trigger building dkms modules and regenerating the initramfs, maybe upgrading the kernel again now would work?