Can't boot to GUI or shut down cleanly with kernel 3.13.0-62

[Pacific Seascape]

I was prompted today to update to a new kernel, linux-image-3.13.0-62-generic, along with its accompanying headers.

I install kernel updates frequently on my system without any problems. To date, Trusty 14.04.3 LTS has been very trusty. But after installing linux-image-3.13.0-62-generic, I found my system hanging as it tried to reboot. It gave me this message:

ModemManager[833]: <warn> Could not acquire the 'org.freedesktop.ModemManager1' service name

ModemManager[833]: <info> ModemManager is shut down

It just sat there like that for a long time. Finally I powered it off.

Upon restarting, the system refused to boot to the GUI. It normally flashes an NVDIA logo before showing the login prompt (I use Kubuntu). But this time it simply showed a black screen.

I logged in to check for updates. There were none available.

I tried rebooting. The system got stuck again. I got it unstuck; still it would not boot to the GUI or shut down cleanly.

After several cycles of this I went into the recovery mode and selected the grub option. That allowed me to boot to the GUI. But still the system wouldn't shut down cleanly. It showed me a number of different messages during the various times I tested its capacity to reboot, some similar to the one above and others different. The messages were not consistent.

The command sudo shutdown -r 0 sometimes prevented the system from hanging on reboot, but not always.

At last my suspicion fell on the kernel, since it had just been updated and there hadn't been any other packages changed with it. The next go-around, I started up with the previous kernel, 3.13.0-61, by selecting it in grub on startup. Sure enough, after choosing this previous kernel, the system started with no fuss, and it shut down gracefully without hanging, too. I promptly uninstalled the kernel update and its associated headers so I wouldn't have to hold down the shift key on every boot cycle. With linux-image-3.13.0-62-generic gone, my system is back to normal operation.

I can't understand why a kernel update pushed out to a long term support release would break my system so horribly. I specifically run the LTS release on my main systems to avoid these kinds of issues.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1486378

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Pacific Seascape (seascape)]

This command can't be run because the issue concerns the system being unable to start and stop properly.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Can you see if this issue still exists in the 3.13.0-63 kernel? It can be downloaded from:

https://launchpad.net/~canonical-kernel-team/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/7801048

Note, you will need to install the linux-image and linux-image-extra .deb packages.

Thanks in advance!

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

We can perform a kernel bisect if the bug still exists in the 3.13.0-63 kernel.

[Pacific Seascape (seascape)]

The system does not fail to boot to the GUI with the 3.13.0-63 kernel, nor does it hang when restarting/shutting down. However, the proprietary NVIDIA driver fails to load when the system boots with the 3.13.0-63 kernel, and the GUI I get is distorted/using a non-native resolution.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Pacific Seascape, could you please boot into http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ , don't install any packages (ex. nvidia proprietary drivers) and then execute the following in a terminal:
apport-collect 1486378

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu Trusty) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]