Fixing a black screen after doing a Kali Linux update

Kali Linux is a rolling Linux distribution designed for security and penetration work. You can find details on it here: www.kali.org .

We run this excellent product for a range of different security work and it's been great. I built the image in VMplayer, then shared it to the team and we've all been at it since.

A recent update broke it though - black screen, no network and completely unresponsive.

There are lots of posts about similar things - mostly to do with graphics adaptors, however, we found that executing the following at a root prompt fixed it. But how to get to the root prompt from a blank screen?

Linux has a number of terminals available to the user - most of us use the graphical one to do our day to day, but you can access a command line prompt without much trouble. Simply hold CTRL-ALT and then F2 or F3 down at the same time and it drops you to a command line login.

BOOM. Time to fix it up. For me, and for the other fellas in the team, all it too was to issue this command:

apt --fix-broken install

And then reboot. Back to a graphics interface and networking is online again.

Enjoy

Lenovo E540 won't start or boot - solved

Recently a client called saying their fairly new E540 wouldn't turn on or respond at all. The red light that makes up the "i" in ThinkPad would light up but that was the extent of the functionality.

I tried removing the battery and booting off but no dice. The computer was totally unresponsive. It turns out there is an issue with Lenovo for Small Business software that causes this.

To fix it, remove the BIOS battery - this is located under the compartment to the left in this photo:

Stick the battery back in and give it the berries. The laptop should boot and complain about the time and date. Set those and start the laptop. Log in, go to Uninstall Programs and ditch the Lenovo for Small Business. Once that's done, it's probably a good idea to update the BIOS. Try not to screw that up by killing power or anything mid upgrade. The recovery process is incredibly annoying and not guaranteed to work.

A reboot and you should be right to go. Enjoy.