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[Note: I know there are many questions on nvidia and blank screen, but none so far have brought me closer to a solution, I've tried a lot, see below]

Problem:
Running Xubuntu 18.10 on a Dell XPS 9570 (which has a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti card, along with built-in Intel graphics), the nvidia 410 and 415 drivers stopped working.
All I get when I start Linux after the scrolling boot messages, is a black screen with (non-blinking) white cursor on the upper left corner. nouveau drivers work fine, but they only allow me to use the built-in laptop screen but not ones attached to the laptop via HDMI.

It used to work (if you can call it that, when it boots to a working desktop environment 2 out of 3 times, and stays black otherwise) until today morning (when I did an apt upgrade, which installed linux-image-4.18.0-13.

What I have tried so far to resolve this:

• tried booting the linux-image-4.18.0-12, same issue


• as recommended here, I added nomodeset kernel option to be set through grub (I already set this a while ago, this was required to get it working in the first place)


• as recommended most of the time on blank screen related nvidia questions, I tried purging everything nvidia-related (everything listed by dpkg --list | grep nvidia), and reinstalling 410 drivers


• I also added graphics-drivers ppa and installed 415 drivers from there (https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa) (a few times with purging in between)


• Tried Bumblebee: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee (the guide there doesn't seem to activate the nvidia driver, right? At least for me it didn't, nouveau still was used)


• As for the issue mentioned above, when the GUI would only load every 2 out of 3 times, I tried xdm, gdm, lddm - but with them, I got a black screen all the time; only lightdm (where I remember an issue a while back causing exactly the symptoms I saw) seems to work togehter with nvidia driver...

As for errors in the journal, I see something regard to the nvidia-persistenced and some bumblebee reference (the latter only after installing bumblebee, of course). There don't seem to be any real nvidia-related errors now (and there weren't previously on the occasions when the screen stayed blank):

$ journalctl --since today | grep -i nvidia | grep -i "(err|fail)"

Dez 21 07:04:45 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.23  Thu Dec  6 21:34:12 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 13:44:00 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.23  Thu Dec  6 21:34:12 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 13:44:00 nertha nvidia-persistenced[743]: nvidia-persistenced failed to initialize. Check syslog for more details.

Dez 21 13:44:00 nertha nvidia-persistenced[749]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 121 has read and write permissions for those files.

Dez 21 13:44:00 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Dez 21 13:44:00 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 13:47:49 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.23  Thu Dec  6 21:34:12 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 13:47:49 nertha nvidia-persistenced[772]: nvidia-persistenced failed to initialize. Check syslog for more details.

Dez 21 13:47:49 nertha nvidia-persistenced[780]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 121 has read and write permissions for those files.

Dez 21 13:47:49 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Dez 21 13:47:49 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha nvidia-persistenced[875]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha nvidia-persistenced[912]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha nvidia-persistenced[951]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha nvidia-persistenced[971]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'start-limit-hit'.

Dez 21 13:47:50 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 13:58:06 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.23  Thu Dec  6 21:34:12 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 14:09:52 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.25  Wed Dec 12 10:22:08 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 14:09:52 nertha nvidia-persistenced[754]: nvidia-persistenced failed to initialize. Check syslog for more details.

Dez 21 14:09:52 nertha nvidia-persistenced[759]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 121 has read and write permissions for those files.

Dez 21 14:09:53 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Dez 21 14:09:53 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 14:10:53 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.25  Wed Dec 12 10:22:08 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 14:10:53 nertha nvidia-persistenced[809]: nvidia-persistenced failed to initialize. Check syslog for more details.

Dez 21 14:10:53 nertha nvidia-persistenced[811]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 121 has read and write permissions for those files.

Dez 21 14:10:53 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Dez 21 14:10:53 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[912]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[920]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[926]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[956]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[975]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[988]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1016]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1058]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1068]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1089]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1105]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1113]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1121]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1131]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:10:54 nertha nvidia-persistenced[1142]: Failed to unlink PID file: No such file or directory

Dez 21 14:31:05 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  415.25  Wed Dec 12 10:22:08 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 14:31:05 nertha nvidia-persistenced[756]: nvidia-persistenced failed to initialize. Check syslog for more details.

Dez 21 14:31:05 nertha nvidia-persistenced[759]: Failed to query NVIDIA devices. Please ensure that the NVIDIA device files (/dev/nvidia*) exist, and that user 121 has read and write permissions for those files.

Dez 21 14:31:05 nertha systemd[1]: nvidia-persistenced.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Dez 21 14:31:05 nertha systemd[1]: Failed to start NVIDIA Persistence Daemon.

Dez 21 14:31:06 nertha systemd-udevd[403]: Process '/bin/mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255' failed with exit code 1.

Dez 21 14:31:06 nertha systemd-udevd[403]: Process '/bin/mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidia0   c 195 0' failed with exit code 1.

Dez 21 14:31:06 nertha bumblebeed[783]: [    5.548701] [ERROR]Failed to unload module 'nvidia_drm' (ref count: 2).

Dez 21 14:31:06 nertha bumblebeed[783]: [    5.548716] [ERROR]Failed to unload module 'nvidia_modeset' (ref count: 2).

Dez 21 14:31:06 nertha bumblebeed[783]: [    5.548724] [ERROR]Failed to unload module 'nvidia' (ref count: 77).

Dez 21 14:48:44 nertha kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  410.78  Sat Nov 10 22:09:04 CST 2018 (using threaded interrupts)

Dez 21 14:48:45 nertha systemd-udevd[427]: Process '/bin/mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255' failed with exit code 1.

Dez 21 14:48:45 nertha systemd-udevd[427]: Process '/bin/mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidia0   c 195 0' failed with exit code 1.

Dez 21 14:48:45 nertha bumblebeed[804]: [    5.564388] [ERROR]Failed to unload module 'nvidia_drm' (ref count: 2).

Dez 21 14:48:45 nertha bumblebeed[804]: [    5.564420] [ERROR]Failed to unload module 'nvidia_modeset' (ref count: 2).

Dez 21 14:48:45 nertha bumblebeed[804]: [    5.564428] [ERROR]Failed to unload module 'nvidia' (ref count: 77).

I really would like to use nvidia drivers again, as with nouveau, external screens don't seem to be recognized. What else can I try? If you need more info, let me know!