Blank screen after installing nvidia restricted driver

I've installed the current nvidia restricted driver and rebooted my machine and now I get a black or blank screen.

How can I fix this?

Solution 1:

Remove all Nvidia-related packages

1. Log in to a terminal: Ctrl+Alt+F1 (terminal is visible with a blank screen)

2. sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*

Start from scratch

1. sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv

Reinstall everything

1. sudo apt-get install nvidia-common
2. sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
3. sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core

Reconfigure the X server

1. sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Source: Ubuntu Wiki

Solution 2:

1. Remove any drivers that may be causing the issue,

2. open the terminal and type ( open it from the dash, using the ubuntu icon on the left corner)

    sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia
   

   or

    sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-current
   

   (Depending on which one you have installed) or deactivate them from the restricted driver settings.

3. reboot.

4. then on a terminal type this:

    sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/updates
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings
   

5. reboot.

Solution 3:

In my case it was a problem with the monitor giving my Nvidia GPU a bad EDID

To debug your error, you can add this line to the screen section in the the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

Option         "ModeDebug" "true"

Now check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.

If you find an error like this:

NVIDIA(0): Unable to get display device DFP-0's EDID; cannot compute DPI

Then you can resolve it by adding this line to the device section

Option         "IgnoreEDIDChecksum" "DFP"

Solution 4:

Maybe Ubuntu IT'S working but using another card output. For me, my nVidia GeForce 7300 has 2 output, a VGA and a DVI. It seems like the default output when you install the drivers is to DVI but I don't have a DVI monitor so I managed to get to Recovery Mode (available in GRUB when you boot) and type this:

nvidia-xconfig --twinview --twinview-orientation="Clone"

Now Reboot.

This command directs the same graphics to both outputs. From there on, you can keep experimenting with this nVidia utility until you get what you want. For more information type:

nvidia-xconfig -A | less

Hope that helps.