Hello! First time posting here and I am quite desperate!
I started using my new laptop, Acer Aspire 5, a few days ago. It came with Windows 11 preinstalled. I installed Ubuntu Mate 24.04.1 from the Live CD after partitioning the hard drive with Gparted.
The issue I am facing is that nothing happens when I turn on my laptop and select Ubuntu from the Grub menu. The screen turns gray and it stays like that. I am then forced to power down the computer and turn it on again. After I do that, everything works normally. Sometimes I have to do that twice or thrice. I do not know why.
I am afraid that this might create issues with the hard drive in the long run, and I sincerely want to avoid that.
I will appreciate all the help I can get to fix this issue.
PS: Sometimes this issue also occurs when I reboot after a software update. I am puzzled. I would expect this behaviour from an old laptop, not a new one.
PPS: I tried using the Live USB to run fsck and the file system is clean!
The first is used instead of "GRUB_TERMINAL=console".
The second gives the progression of resolutions to try, if the first (preferred resolution) fails.
The last ensures that the "boot" is not let to its own devices, using the "lessons learned" from grub to influence settings/recognition used by the Linux kernel.
I've experienced this issue in Xubuntu 24.04 and Ubuntu Mate 24.04.1 too. I recently opened a post here regarding mine as well. I've tried multiple advices from the community (Discord) but to no avail.
I've mentioned, though I doubt it will help permanently to fix this issue, I deal with it by opening my laptop's one-time boot menu (F12 in my 0932VT). Booting to BIOS will work too, and Grub (Esc >> Advanced options) using an older kernel.
I've had this for a couple of months now, I don't see any serious effects whatsoever, particularly on the drive.
(Usual disclaimer: please note that I'm just another Forum user here. I'm NOT an Ubuntu developer or an Ubuntu MATE developer)
You've asked:
Usually, it's NOT necessary to disable "Secure Boot" to run Ubuntu... BUT I think that at least some of the "Acer Aspire" laptops are a bit of a special case, in the sense that it's possible that you may need to either:
A) Disable "Secure Boot"
- OR -
B) Follow the procedure described in the following "It's FOSS" article, published on 24th Jan 2023, that was written based on a scenario using an "Acer Aspire R13":
After all this pain, I am seriously considering installing 22.04. This is becoming too much trouble for an operating system. No Ubuntu version was without flaws; this one is a colossal mess. I will try your suggestion(s), though!
You might find clues in the system log if you are able to boot the system up; e.g.:
journalctl -b -1 -r
will show the previous boot with the latest message at the top, that might help identify where the system is getting stuck - or what happened when it crashed.
[edit] you can add --dmesg for the kernel log specifically [/edit]
When you say 'forced' to power down the computer, do you mean you cannot access another terminal either when the screen goes grey (e.g. via Ctrl + Alt + F2)? Also, for a slightly gentler reboot, you could try a REISUB (see Keyboard shortcuts - ArchWiki). This usually means holding Alt + PrintScr then typing REISUB.
Actually installing 22.04 is not a bad idea if you sign up for Ubuntu Pro that extends the life of the OS. That would get you past 24.04 to the next LTS release. I was having problems with the installer and had considered doing just that, but then they worked on the installer and I got it installed. I am not sure, but I would guess you might have to do that before EOL for 22.04. We know 22.04 was a very good release. Even with24.04 I signed up for Ubuntu Pro, I love the longer OS life.
That didn't explicitly answer my question, but I will assume you mean that you tried opening another terminal (and failed), and that you also tried a REISUB, and that also failed, therefore had to power down.
