After a clean install from a live USB to a laptop, 24.04.1 presents as expected. Upon the second boot, it presents a blank light gray screen.
Please provide clear instructions how to access the PC HD from a live boot with MATE 24.04 on the USB. I want to modify Grub via command line as suggested in some posts, in particular setting GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT = "" from "quiet splash". This seems to offer the highest probability of solving the problem. In short, how can I get to the files on the PC HD using a live boot or otherwise.
Admittedly, I can do a clean install again, and change Grub before shutting down - this is hindsight.
[edit]
SOLVED
I went the 2nd clean reinstall from live USB route, removed the USB and rebooted as requested, then installed Gedit(sudo apt-get install gedit), then the following line in the terminal to open editing the Grub file:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub.
I edit the lines in Grub to read:
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
Saved the file, the ran sudo update-grub and sudo update grub2. Not sure if the latter grub2 works or is necessary, but did it anyway.
Then rebooted and had the expected Desktop ready to go.