Help needed - Cannot log in trisquel after external harddisk not ejected properly
Hi all,
i am new to trisquel and currently stuck in a problem. I am unable to log in, when i put in the correct password, the screen flickers
(as if trying to log in) and after two blob/bleep sounds (sound which is usually associated with something wrong has
been typed in) it returns to the log in screen. I am able to go into guest mode though.
(when i type in a wrong password, then i am shown invalid password message in red, so there is no issue with correct password but issue with log in)
the following events took place in sequence before this problem arose :
- encrypted 1st partition of external hdd, copied data to it.
- encrypted 2nd partition of external hdd, WHILE IN THE PROCESS of copying data to it, i tried to format partition 1 (mentioned above)
with encryption but got an error what disk cannot be unmounted as it is in use. i clicked OK but the partition 1 did not reappear on explorer. The copying process continued without interruption on partition 2
- after the copying got completed, i tried to safely eject the disk, but got error that partition 1 was in use, although i could not see it being used for anything.
- after waiting for a while i restarted the computer, and since then i cannot log in.
Please help..
I doubt the external hard drive has anything to do with your login problem. Are you sure the keyboard layout is the same you used when you defined the password? Can you log in a terminal? To get such a terminal, press Ctrl+Alt+F1. You can then go back to the graphical session with Alt+F7.
Anyway, the solution amounts to getting a root terminal (without having to input a password) where to execute 'passwd username' to redefine the password of the user named "username" (substitute "username" with the login of the user you cannot log).
The problem is: Trisquel makes that process harder than it should be for no real advantage in terms of security. Trisquel should have no GRUB password (what you get by commenting all lines in /etc/grub.d/01_PASSWORD) and recovery mode menu entries (what you get by commenting "GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true" in /etc/default/grub). Instead you need here to boot a live system and 'sudo chroot' the directory where the root partition of the installed system was mounted.
Thanks for reply.. :)
The keyboard layout was changed after defining the password. I am able to log in through terminal and change the password through sudo passwd command. the problem still persists as i am unable to log in to Graphical interface even if i click alt+f7 after logging in through terminal (i am shown the same enter password page).
I have tried entering password in both layouts, it seems the password is not the problem as it does not show invalid password error in red. It tries to accept it but loops back to the same screen.
i am new to gnulinux and unable to follow 3rd paragraph. what will following the last line achieve ?
You do not need the third paragraph that is about getting a root terminal on your system without inputting any password (e.g., if you had forgotten it). Since you managed to execute 'sudo passwd' and the problem is not solve, I now see that it has nothing to do with the password.
It looks like your X server crashes when you try to launch the desktop. There may be relevant information at the end of /var/log/Xorg.0.log that you can read from the terminal:
$ less /var/log/Xorg.0.log
You can as well copy (with 'cp') /var/log/Xorg.0.log to a USB key and show it to us.
You can try to add a user (named "banana" in my example) and see if you can graphically log with this user:
$ sudo adduser banana
You can also try renaming the file at "/home/[username]/.Xauthority", to
"/home/[username]/.Xauthority.1".
If you are logged in with such user in one of Ctrl + Alt + F1 through
Ctrl + Alt + F6 (these are the so called virtual terminals) you can also
do:
cd
mv ".Xauthority" ".Xauthority.1"
Sorry for not being able to elaborate on this answer any further. I'm
somewhat late right now.
Respectfully, Adonay.
Have a nice day.
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I have attached the Xorg.0.log file. (in odt as log files are not allowed)
Thanks for replying Adfeno.. :)
I searched Xauthority on web and found a thread with similar problem and solution..
https://askubuntu.com/questions/300682/what-represent-xauthority-file
The solution could be relevant as i used to use sudo nautilus quite often (in order to get rights to edit files on my external HDD)
Please share your comments on it.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Xorg.0.odt | 17.8 KB |
> The solution could be relevant as i used to use sudo nautilus quite often (in order to get rights to edit files on my external HDD)
This is why you're having the issue. You should always use gksudo and not sudo to start graphical apps.
@ADFENO - i tried the solution mv ".Xauthority" ".Xauthority.1" . the problem stays the same. SHould i rename it back
using mv .Xauthority.1 .Xauthority (is the command right ?)
@Lembas- I understand now. any solutions ?
@Magic banana - i am able to add new user and log in to graphical interface. Should i elevate its status to admin, lower the original account's status to standard and delete it ?
how to transfer all my files from previous account to this new account ?
I would rather choose to have a way to fix the old account as there are many custom settings which will have to be redone.. any solutions.
Could the solution mentioned in post https://askubuntu.com/questions/300682/what-represent-xauthority-file
work ? it says
From alt+ctrl+f1 , change the ownership of .Xauthority which is previously owned by ROOT by executing. The following command:
chown username:username .Xauthority
Since another user can graphically log into the system, I believe the problem necessarily is in one the hidden files in your home directory. One that is read at login. Maybe a file in .config. You could try, from the terminal, to 'mv .config .config.bak' and then try to graphically log in again. If it is a success then you can try to find out what file in .config raises the problem (again with 'mv'). If it is a failure than you can 'rm -rf .config && mv .config.bak .config' and try to rename another file.
i am able to graphically log in again after "mv .config .config.bak" but customizations (such as toolbar, shortcuts etc) are not restored. i am unable to find the graphical version of .config file. i can see about 8 directories and 4 files namely
dir
dconf evolution gnome-session gtk-3.0 ibus nautilus pulse update- notifier
files
monitors.xml profilemigrated user-dirs.dirs user-dirs.locale
1) should i return config file using "mv .config.bak .config" and then use alt+ctrl+f1 to move individual files
2) should i start with nautilus as i suspect my overuse of "sudo nautilus" could have been cause of problem? pls guide.
3) I may have made a mistake of using "mv .config .config.bck" instead of "mv .config .config.bak". How to check if i did so and rectify?
You can execute 'rm -rf .config && mv .config.bak .config' (or do that graphically, from the Nautilus file manager, after showing the hidden files). You can then choose one of the files in ~/.config and move it. For instance:
$ mv .config/gnome-session .config/gnome-session.bak
If you can still graphically log in after that operation, then the moved file was the culprit. Otherwise, you can 'mv' it back and try another file.
You can list the files in .config with 'ls':
$ ls .config
To list hidden files from the terminal, option -a must be used. For instance to list the hidden files in the working directory:
$ ls -a
It does not matter if you wrote ".config.bck". You can choose any file name but one that already exists. If you really wrote ".config.bck" then you can restore your old .config with 'rm -rf .config && mv .config.bck .config'. But, again, you can do that graphically now that you can graphically log in.
Discover the use of the [Tab] key in the terminal: it auto-completes. For instance, if you write 'mv .con[Tab]' then, you will get 'mv .config' unless there exists another file whose name starts with ".con" but not with ".config". In practice, when using the terminal, we press [Tab] every two keys!
the file was .bck , so i executed 'rm -rf .config && mv .config.bck .config' first. Then this command "$ mv .config/gnome-session .config/gnome-session.bck" was showing error that particular folder does not exist. So, after reading the old comments carefully, i understood that
i first renamed .config to .config.bck.
then logging in automatically created a new .config
so you would have wanted me to first executed 'rm -rf .config && mv .config.bck .config' and then to create a new .config folder and shifted files from .config.bck to .config graphically. i was able to log in everytime after all files were shifted..
I may have misunderstood the instructions, so please comment.
Also, i am attaching a new log file.the old one was from the guest user id.
Also want to thank you for answering with a lot of patience & details, the tab function is of great help.
Lastly, as this operation is taking a lot of our time, would you recommend i just redo the configuration settings on the old user or create a new user . Is there any fundamental problem which could reoccur in future if i do not find the fault file ?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Xorg.0.odt | 17.7 KB |
Again: now that you can graphically log into your user account (can't you?), you can rename the files from the file manager. You can display the hidden file from the related entry in the menu or use Ctrl+H.
The problem related to the configuration of some application in your desktop environment. Not to the X server (the logs you show us are OK).
The renaming procedure I was suggesting aims to find out what application creates the problem. If you do not mind reconfiguring to your tastes some desktop applications, then just (re)moving the whole ~/.config directory. Creating a new user would mean even more applications to reconfigure to your tastes, moving your user files and changing their owner to the new user. You had better just (re)move ~/.config.
Just to confirm, you mean just executing 'rm -rf .config && mv .config.bck .config' and continuing to reconfigure as per normal use..?
Just to add, i also had a problem of not being able to graphically see my hard disk partitions (but able to see them being filled in system settings). I had to recover the contents and reformat the disk. Do you think it is possible the problem is related to this one (or to using 'sudo nautilus' instead of 'gksudo nautilus')
I am (currently)also facing issue of not being able to see documents saved from tor browser on desktop/file explorer, but able to see them in save as window. Can it be related to this problem ?
Could you suggest good sources to learn more about trisquel (gnulinux/unix type systems) as a new user.
thanks
You can graphically log into your user account, can't you? Some applications came back to their default configuration, right? Then, reconfigure them as you wish and your are good to go. You can even remove the backup, ~/.config.bck, that takes a little space in your home directory for nothing.
ok. will do so.. thanks a lot for your help :)
this query is closed. Thanks all for help