Ubuntu 13.10 Macbook Air Mavericks Parallels 9 Black Screen

Solution 1:

Same problem here with a MacBook Pro. Here's what worked for me after I updated 13.10 and received a black screen, although the toolbar on the left was showing. It was simple, but I don't know why it worked.

1. Shut down the Ubuntu VM (13.10)
2. In Parallels 9 config for the VM, go to Hardware > Video, and disable 3D acceleration.
3. Restart Ubuntu 13.10. You will now get a completely black screen.
4. Shut down the Ubuntu VM once more.
5. Again, in Parallels config for the VM, go to Hardware > Video and reenable 3D acceleration.
6. Restart, and you're back in business (No black screen and everything properly updated).

Solution 2:

What worked for me was this:

• Switch to console (focus on black screen and press Fn+Ctrl+Alt and whilst holding that press F1)
• Log in with user parallels (or what ever user your using)
• Follow this article on installing the tools from command prompt - http://kb.parallels.com/en/113394

Basically, once I found the image and placed it on the CDROM drive I mounted within the os:

sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/<username>/CDROM

Then executed the install program and updated the tool!