Ubuntu bootloader stuck at restoring resolver state after upgrading to 14.04

Question

I upgraded after Ubuntu 13.10 to 14.04. However after the upgrade, the system restarted. But got stuck with a black screen displaying the message:

Starting VMware services: [OK]
Virtual machine monitor     done
Virtual machine communication interface done
VM communication interface socket family done
Blocking file system done
Virtual ethernet done
VMware Authentication Daemon done
Shared memory available done
speech-dispatcher disabled; edit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher
Starting VirtualBox Kernel modules ...failed!
  (modprobe vdoxdrv failed. Please use 'dmseg' to find out why)
saned disabled; edit /etc/default/saned

* Restoring resolver state...   [OK]

And the system is stuck at this point for hours. Unable to access even the console, hence unable to do anything.

I can't format my system as it contains all my project codes and other important data.

Answer 1

My Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS VM was hanging at Restoring resolver state. I found the guidance in this link helpful:Boot hangs at "Restoring resolver state."

The basic repair presented is:

1. Open a virtual console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2.  (I am not using a GUI, so I logged in using PuTTY.)
2. Log in
3. Execute sudo apt-get -f install
4. Execute sudo shutdown -r now

Repeat steps 1-4 as as necessary.

You might try interspersing step 3 with sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade until you get the desired results.

Answer 2

I realize this is an old question, but I figure this could help someone in the future (this is the first google result). Same happened to me after updating to 14.04 - I was able to Ctr+Alt+F1 to a tty and log in there, and from there I could manually sudo start gdm. This didn't strictly speaking fix the issue (which I'm still trying to track down), but it did get me to the login screen when I switched back with Ctr+Alt+F7, and at the very least access to the desktop should make it easier to back up important files before reinstalling the OS.

To be clear: This is not a solution, just a workaround. I'll update this if I should find a permanent fix.