In an effort to fix/figure out why my Lenovo ThinkPad E585 will not let me adjust the screen brightness, I tried to install the AMD drivers (amdgpu-pro-install).

After rebooting, I now have a blank screen that is not responsive. I see an intermittent terminal cursor flashing, but there's no text displayed and I'm unable to enter any commands. I am also unable to get any response when pressing Ctrl+alt+F2. My keyboard requires me to hold a "Fn" key to use the F1, F2 keys, so I'm not even sure the system is recognizing my Ctrl+alt-F2 attempts anyway...

At any rate, I'd like to avoid a fresh install of Ubuntu, so is there any way I can uninstall the drivers at this point?

Thanks in advance, people 🙂.

4

1 Answer

The root of this problem is that, quite simply, the drivers aren't working properly. There can be all sorts of reasons for this, but the way to fix this is to remove the proprietary drivers and rely on the open source drivers.

As you're unable to get into the system the normal way, you'll have to use the recovery mode.

First, reboot the computer. While the computer is still booting, just as the BIOS screen is ending (some timing is required here) press SHIFT or ESC.

This will bring up a GRUB option screen. On that screen, select Advanced Options and press ENTER. Follow this by selecting (with the arrow keys) recovery mode and press ENTER again.

This will bring up a new screen and you'll select root and press ENTER once more. This will put you at a login prompt where you'll login with your username and password.

Note: When you type your password, nothing will appear on the screen - not even asterisks. This is the normal behavior and the expected behavior.

Once you have logged in, you'll uninstall your drivers. You'll run:

amdgpu-pro-uninstall

Followed by ENTER.

When that's completed, you can go right ahead and reboot.

sudo reboot

Again, press ENTER.

Rebooting should bring you back to the OS pre-driver installation. After doing this, you can wait until the next version of AMD drivers are released, install them anew, and see if they work properly. In the interim, you can see (see here) if xrandr will help you get the resolution you are aiming for.

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