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First time I'm totally lost with linux :/ I guess there must be a first time for everything! :P

The problem I'm having is I cannot boot into elementary. I select it in the grub and the after the elementary logo the screen stays black. I have a windows 10 dual boot if it matters...

I've tried recovery mode, but honestly I dont know how to fix it from the console since I dont even know what the problem is...

Last thing I did was creating a folder in /etc/X11/ trying to modify the synaptics driver. After failing I removed it, but as far as I know I did it correctly, so it shouldnt be the problem. I also updated the system through the app center.

Any help on where should I start to detect the fail?

Thanks in advance, I looking fordward to continue using it!

EDIT: Well, it looks like I did mess it up with the synaptics driver. After booting into the terminal, I executed startx and I saw there was an error related to 40-synaptics.conf file. I deleted all the text I added and voilá!

Thanks everyone!

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2 Answers 2

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Are you able to tell whether is just the screen staying black or the whole OS not booting ? I've been having a similar issue on Macbook Pro with an AMD chipset, I was able to tell it had something to do with the graphics since I was able to hear elementaryOS when changing volume, the following link helped:

Black screen when installing OS

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  • Thanks Guillaume. I have no idea what rEFInd is. Is it a Mac thing? Anyway I dont understand whi the drivers stopped working suddenly...
    – jpm92
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 17:48
  • rEFInd is useful only for Macs. Don't worry about it if you're not using one.
    – Axel Advento
    Commented Feb 20, 2017 at 13:43
  • Well, I guess I will have to format and reinstall. I can boot into the recovery mode, I've tried boot-repair and apt update and upgrade...with no success :(
    – jpm92
    Commented Feb 20, 2017 at 14:52
  • rEFInd is indeed a mac thing, but the discrete graphics issue might be for any machine
    – Guillaume M
    Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 9:57
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You might try loading a different kernel version ( if you haven't run a sudo autoremove after upgrade, these kernel files must be present)

Go for 'advanced options' in grub and select a previous kernel version in the boot options.

The OS should successfully boot now.

If it still stays in black, it should be a graphic driver problem

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  • Well, it looks like it's a graphical problem then, same black screen with older kernel. What I dont know its what caused it since I didnt change any drivers.
    – jpm92
    Commented Feb 19, 2017 at 17:47
  • So, you could try the following. Press 'e' while in grub , with the selection over elementary os in the list and add 'nomodeset' before the commands 'quiet spash' so that it looks like this 'nomodeset quiet splash' Now hit on Ctrl+X and boot
    – Shankar
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 9:04
  • As I wrote on the EDIT it was s touchpad thing, I booted from the console and edited the file from there and it worked! Thank you all anyway :)
    – jpm92
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 10:10

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