Hello Steve, a massive thank you for your email. Tonight I'm going to follow through with your suggestions and thoughts. I could already add a little more to my dilemma but first I will carry out your thoughts.

As a by the by, I am in Cannock,  I often travel to Stafford, and my lad attended Keele on a Computing and Science degree course..... but that's another story. Not for now. So travel is not necessarily a problem. 

I'm on the case!!


Geoff


On Wed, 1 Oct 2025 at 13:25, Steven Maddox via StaffsLUG General <general@lists.staffslug.org.uk> wrote:

Hey Geoff,

I'm guessing this is perhaps Ubuntu 18.04 or higher?  And perhaps you started to get this crash shortly after updating your kernel and/or graphics drivers/card?

Basically that last thing in the boot sequence (the 'GNOME Display Manager', or GDM) is the thing that starts up X.org (which is the process that runs the graphical environment)... and since you can still see text, that must not be working.

I'd advice rebooting into recovery mode and from the recovery menu there might be an option for something like 'failsafeX' or something like that... so that you can get back into the graphical environment with a safe low-end graphics mode to fix things.

Probably a DKMS module (e.g. if you use NVIDIA or AMD graphics) didn't get re-installed from your last kernel upgrade.

Let us know if how you get on, but that should point you in the right direction.

Also from your postcode, you'll probably find WolvesLUG more local if you need to reach out to someone who lives near by (we're happy to have you here too :P)

p.s. With you mentioning pubkey errors... that's likely (at a guess) something you're seeing with APT (or something that calls it, like whichever program you install software using) and probably just means you need to update your repo's... but it's probably not related to this issue.

Steven Maddox
Lantizia
On 01/10/2025 10:48, Geoff Whiles via StaffsLUG General wrote:

Hello,


I am a user of Ubuntu and have been since the release of 12.04. I have little understanding of the workings of Linux, though I have several heavyweight tutorials and I'm not afraid to use the Terminal. I use Ubuntu as a means to an end, in day to day home computing. Forgive the terminology, but I am neither a geek or programmer.


The system has completely crashed. Attached are several pics. I won't witter further, so as not to complicate my dilemma. I should add that I also get many pubkey errors, and also whilst booting, the whole system hangs and I have to hard break to shut down.



I hope that this message lands with someone who can dig me out of this almighty hole or maybe refer me to someone who might be able to help. And of course, I am happy to pay for any work undertaken.


Kind regards



Geoff Whiles


WS11 0GU

07711014256



Notes from my machine:


Select Boot Device


P1: ST3250820AS


P0: HFS128G3AMNB-2200A



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