I have the same problem using the nvidia driver (actually nvidia-96) with a GeForce3 card and a recent installation of Ubuntu 12.04. While booting up, the grub menu works fine, but after that, the screen goes blank with just a cursor. The lightdm login screen comes up with less than full resolution, but that's no big deal. The X session itself works fine. However, the tty 1-6 screens are blank with just a cursor, just like the boot console screen. I have a second 12.04 installation on another partition of the same hardware, which was upgraded from previous versions of Ubuntu. Booting from this partition, I have the same problem, except that the console and tty 1-6 show a low resolution screen with just black and white stripes and blocks, just like the original poster described, instead of blank with just a cursor. I have no idea when the problem started, because I had been using the nouveau driver for a year or two before now. However, that driver started to have its own problems recently too.
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to nvidia-graphics-drivers in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/953919 Title: corrupt boot splash and terminal console with nvidia driver Status in “nvidia-graphics-drivers” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: The following occurs more or less the same in ubuntu 11.04, 11.10 and 12.04 beta1 I have an GeForce 7300 LE card driving a 22" 1680x1050 using DVI connection on a Dell E521 After install, the nouveau drivers work fine. After activating the default "Recommended" nvidia driver the result is:- Boot splash: Black and white blocks across the screen Login and desktop: Normal Ctrl+Alt+F1 etc, random coloured pixels. Ctrl_Alt+F7, blank for several seconds then a desktop with corrupted (random pixels) untity bar and status bar. Using the mouse to force a repaint returns to a normal desktop. Using the "post-install" driver Boot splash: Black and white blocks across the screen Login and desktop: Normal Ctrl+Alt+F1 etc, blank screen. Ctrl_Alt+F7, blank for several seconds then a desktop with corrupted (random pixels) untity bar and status bar. Using the mouse to force a repaint returns to a normal desktop. Removing the nvidia drivers (back to nouveau) Boot splash: Black and white blocks across the screen Login and desktop: 1024x768 fuzzy distorted screen. The display settings cannot detect the monitor, and the only options are 1024x768 or 800x600 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/953919/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp