Black Screen After Graphics Package Removal – Recovery Steps Not Working
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I recently encountered issues with some packages on my Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon system, particularly libgl. To fix them, I uninstalled all packages and then selectively reinstalled some. However, this process accidentally removed many graphics-related packages (I use AMD GPU). After realizing this, I rebooted.
**What Happened After Rebooting:**
- GRUB Menu Appeared: I selected my usual Linux Mint 22 Cinnamon
option.
- It booted into a TTY terminal instead of the graphical interface.
- Reinstalling Graphics Packages in TTY: I logged in, installed the
missing packages, and resolved held packages by downgrading certain
dependencies.
- Instead of rebooting, I ran
sudo systemctl restart lightdm
. This
resulted in a black screen with only an underscore. Keyboard
shortcuts like Ctrl+Alt+F1/F3/F6
did nothing, so I forcefully
powered off the system.
After Powering On Again, the system now shows a completely black screen immediately after boot. One click on the power button turns the PC off. I think this confirms that the problem with the gpu.
**Recovery Mode Attempt:**
- I rebooted, entered recovery mode, and selected the latest kernel.
- Enabled Networking: It mentioned that this would remount the root
filesystem as read/write and mount all filesystems from /etc/fstab.
- Root Shell Access: I dropped into the root shell instead of pressing
Ctrl+D for maintenance mode.
- Tried Reinstalling AMD GPU Packages (Failed): In recovery mode, I
tried reinstalling the missing AMD GPU packages, but the system keeps
saying they aren’t installed, and I can’t proceed further.
**System Configuration:**
Primary SSD (Partitioned as follows):
- Root (/)
- Home (/home)
- A second partition (auto-mounted via /etc/fstab)
Secondary HDD (3 partitions, also auto-mounted via /etc/fstab, but not related to Linux).
**Final Question:**
As a last resort, I am considering reinstalling Linux Mint on the root (/) partition while keeping the same username to match my existing /home partition.
- Will this preserve my data in /home and the second SSD partition?
- Are there any other solutions before attempting a reinstallation?
Would appreciate any guidance on how to recover my system without losing data.
Asked by Kareem Noureddine
(11 rep)
Feb 13, 2025, 11:59 AM
Last activity: Feb 13, 2025, 06:52 PM
Last activity: Feb 13, 2025, 06:52 PM