How to fix elementaryOS after installing an nvidia driver update

Also using Bumblebee to handle your display server? Tried to install a new nvidia update, but it bricked your system and you can't login anymore, just like me? Here's how I fixed it!

So I've ran into this problem quite a few times now, and I keep struggling to fix the damages I made, so I decided to make a guide about it :) 

Here's the problem: you try to install an update for your nvidia GPU, but when you try to reboot your system, your login screen doesn't show up anymore and your pc seems to be stuck. 

The solution that worked for me: 

1. when your screen is stuck and no login screen is appearing, press ctrl+alt+F1 to get to a command terminal

2. it may be possible that your nvidia installer created a xorg.conf file, which isn't necessairy when using bumblebee. To delete it, use the following command: 

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf

3. install ppa-purge: 

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

4. now purge all ppa's having something to do with bumblebee and nvidia. For me, that was: 

ppa-purge ppa:bumblebee/stableppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

this will uninstall your broken bumblebee installation and possible updates from nvidia


5. check if no other nvidia drivers are installed on your system using following command:

sudo dpkg --get-selections | grep nvidia

if you have any other nvidia drivers installed, you will see them appear in the list. Use the following command to install all these packages listed (except for nvidia-common, that one can stay):

sudo apt-get purge NAME_OF_THE_PACKAGE

6. now use 'sudo reboot' to reboot your pc, you should be able to access the login screen now!


7. to reinstall bumblebee and an nvidia driver, use the guide I wrote a couple of months ago, it still works!

And that is what did the trick for me. If you have any more issues, feel free to leave a comment.