Driver 375.39 gives blank tty1 to tty6 for fresh Ubuntu 16.04 install. How to fix this?

I have tried a fresh Ubuntu 16.04 install on a new M.2 NVME SSD. Using the default Noveau driver, I am able to use tty1 to tty6, i.e. login and run commands there.

However, when I switch the graphic driver to with Nvidia’s 375.39 (proprietary, tested) driver, I am given blank/black screen for tty1 to tty6.

Switching back to Nouveau’s driver, I regain access to tty1 to tty6.

How can I fix this? Nouveau’s graphic driver did not give such an issue. Is a bug in 375.39 causing this phenomenon?

I asked the latter question because I had earlier reported about getting black screen for tty1 to tty6 after having updated from 375.26 to 375.39 in this forum. [url]black screen in tty1 - Linux - NVIDIA Developer Forums Strangely, I did not receive any reply or help?

Here is roughly how I fixed the problem.

I am use Acer Aspire E5-575G-53VG 15.6-Inch Full HD Laptop (Intel Core i5, NVIDIA 940MX, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Ubuntu 16)

  1. ctrl + alt + 1 or safe mode root commandline
  2. Trouble began with me when I used GDM. So I am going back to lightdm
    sudo apt-get install lightdm
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
    Use lightdm instead of gdm3
  3. sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
  4. sudo reboot

For my graphics card, NVIDIA 940MX in linux 64 bit env,

I had to do “sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-361”

I think you might be the victim of the same bug as myself, which I described here: I, too, am using gdm, however and while the screen indeed goes blank (instead of switching to the console) whenever I try and reboot the computer from gdm, there are other cases in which I get a blank screen too: it actually happens when shutting down X11 while its screen is active.

For example, if I type “service dm stop” from a X terminal, I get a blank screen. Same thing if I kill X11 with CTRL ALT BACKPSPACE. In the event you also see the same thing happening (even with lightdm instead of gdm), then you are most probably hit by the very same bug…

Hi @sportinggoods and @dinosaur. Thanks for sharing. I am using lightdm. gdm is not installed in my system.

In my case, I think lightdm isn’t causing the issue because I am able to access tty 1 to 6 when using Nouveau driver but not when using Nvidia 375.39 driver.