Fixing Ubuntu Login Loops - nimh-nif/SCNI_Toolbar GitHub Wiki

1. Update aptitude

  1. From the Ubuntu login splash screen, press Ctrl + Alt + F3 to open a command line
  2. Login as "root" (usual admin password)
  3. Run the following command: aptitude update ; aptitude upgrade -y

2. Re-install NVidia drivers

  1. cd /home/lab/Downloads/ ls -la
  2. As of January 2019, all SCNI Ubuntu PCs are installed with NVidia GeForce GTX1080 cards and use 64-bit Linux driver version 384.98. If these drivers are not already in the local PC's downloads folder then copy them as follows: cp /projects/SCNI/DataPixx/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98.run /home/lab/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-384.98.run (N.B. It is possible to download newer drivers from the NVidia website, but this is not recommended due to NVidia's long and illustrious history of releasing unstable drivers that contain bugs and will ruin your experiments and your life).
  3. After copying (or -at your own risk- downloading) the appropriate drivers, change permissions for the drivers: chmod 755 NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-3XX.XX.run
  4. Run the driver installation by typing ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-3XX.XX.run -no-unified-memory
  5. At each prompt in the NVidia driver installation process, select "OK".

3. Copy a working Xorg config file

cd /etc/X11/ cp xorg.conf.nvidia-xconfig-original xorg.conf

4. Remove files from Lab user directory

  1. Change directory: cd /home/lab
  2. List all files in directory: ls -la
  3. If any of the following files exist, delete them: rm -rf .compiz/ rm -rf .ICEauthority .Xauthority .gnupg