Weird login behaviour
I can't think of anything I did that could explain that strange new behaviour. Whenever I log into Trisquel with as a normal user (my usual username, not as a guest), I need to enter my password several time (from 1 to 7 or 8 somtimes) before it gets actually accepted. At first I thought that I had mispelt it but actually no. When I try another random password, I then get the message saying the password is wrong (which proves that although my correct password doesn't give me access before a few tries, it is yet recognized as the proper one).
This is getting really annoying. Have you got any clue what is going on ?
I guess you have no problem logging in the terminal you obtain with Ctrl+Alt+F1, have you? To log out of the terminal (and maybe try again to log in), execute the 'exit' command. To come back to the graphical session, press Alt+F7.
Are there other users of the system? Do they have issues logging in? If so, it probably relates to Xorg. Reading /var/log/Xorg.0.log would then be instructive.
If everything is fine according to /var/log/Xorg.0.log, or if other users log in without any problem, then it probably is related to an issue in the configuration of your desktop environment. An issue that makes it crash. I would then try to rename ~/.config (that is the hidden folder ".config" in the home directory of the user). Many applications would be back to their default settings. If that solves your issue, you can try to put back in ~/.config the configurations for your applications (brasero, evince, evolution, gedit, libreoffice, liferea, pitivi, totem, transmission, etc.). Unless you automatically launch one of them when logging in, they cannot be the culprits.
Actually, I haven't got the chance to try as when I now turn my Macbook on and off again, I only get the Grub menu in very low resolution screen and have no other choice but to choose the Trisquel line.
When the graphical interface shows up, resolution is still low and I have no control whatsover on th keyboard ! Doesn't sound good to me.
I wish I could at least install Trisquel again (in case that would solve the problem), but holding the C key at startup has no effect, so I can't boot on the Trisquel DVD...
Any help will be very precious !
You can check your RAM and your disk (see my post in another of your threads) from a Live system.
Well, that's the problem : I can't boot on anything else but Trisquel in Grub2. Neither DVD nor USB. So I can't use any kind of rescue disk, live CD, ...
Properly with the Trisquel 7 amd64 iso burnt on a DVD. I could then boot on DVD by holding the C key. I can't anylonger. I get the expected white screen for a few seconds (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MactelSupportTeam/AppleIntelInstallation#Avoid_long_EFI_wait_before_GRUB), then the Grub menu (in low resolution screen), then when I enter the "*Trisquel GNU/Linux" line, I get a black screen fr a few second, the Trisquel splash screen, then the Trisquel graphical login page (still in low resolution as if in a "rescue mode").
Whatever the moment or the duration, holding the C key during that whole process won't have the system boot on DVD drive anylonger. Plus, when at the Trisquel login page, the cursor in the login field blinks for a few seconds, hen freezes with the rest of the screen. I also get a message saying the wifi connection can't be established. Could that have to do with the last but one bullet point at https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/macbook : "When resuming/powering on, the keyboard is dead in the payload/GRUB2. If your GRUB2 image is configured to boot a default menu entry after a few seconds of no user input, it then starts GNU/Linux-libre nicely. That is, the keyboard works to enter for example the LUKS passphrase which then unlocks the swap partition and the machine's state from before hibernate gets restored." ?
I wish I could just have access to a command-line terminal...
Thanks Magic Banana for taking so much of your time for a problem that seems unsolvable.
I did try the Ctrl+Alt+F1 method to get a terminal but once the system has booted and I get a graphical interface, not one key would answer.
But during the init process, mesing with the keyboard did display the "verbose" of the process. And the first thing it read was about not finding the i8042 controller. Duckduckling this message, I found out that it has to do... with th keyboard - which makes sense. I even got a solution here (someone who's also installed an Ubuntu-flavoured system on a Macbook) :
http://askubuntu.com/questions/655719/i8042-no-controller-found-error-while-trying-to-install-ubuntu-on-mac-book-pro
But still, I'd need access to either the grub edit option or to a terminal, so to no avoid.
Free at last !! It took me a lot of time and hassle but I managed to get my system back. I couldn't boot on the Trisquel DVD anymore, but I managed to boot on my Snow Leopard OSX. From there, I was going to erase the hdd, re-install OSX, then re-install Trisquel instead as I did initially. But I didn't need to go through that as when I tried to boot on the Trisquel DVD again, it worked ! I had a look at /etc/grub.d/01_PASSWORD and memorized the username and the password. From there, when I booted again, I could choose another kernel (the default one was 4.2.0-30), which I did and it went (nearly, because I still have a login issue in graphical mode) flawlessly.
So, I'm wondering... Would that be possible that any aspect of the problem I encountered were due to the latest kernel (4.2.0-30-generic) on my machine ?
There is one last detail that I can't explain. How come I still have the graphical login interface although I switched on the "automatic login" in "users accounts" ?
Moreover, when I boot my computer and that it comes to logging in, I need to enter my password twice (or three times). When I enter it, although it is not said to be wrong, it falls back to the login interface again.
Any idea ? Thanks.
Well, we are back to the first message! See https://trisquel.info/forum/weird-login-behaviour#comment-92246
Indeed ! So I renamed ~/.config ~/.config-OLD and let the system create a new ~/.config . When logging in again, I got the same problem, i.e. having to enter my session password several times before it got accepted.
That leaves me with /var/log/Xorg.0.log . I don't really know what to check there as I have no understanding of what's in there. I just checked if there was any error ("EE"), and ther's none. Just a few warnings ("WW"). Shall I copy/paste the file here ?
To not lose your personal configuration, you can remove ~/.config and rename ~/.config-OLD back to ~/.config. Can you log into a real terminal (such as the one you get with Ctrl+Alt+F1)? Does it require several attempts too?
Yes, I can log in via any console (F1-F6) on first attempt (tried it several times and it was successful each time). I also created a new user, just to check if it is linked to my main user. The new user can log in via graphical interface on first attempt (tried several times too and it was successful each time too).
Do you have any "Startup Applications" (in the "System Settings") that may provoke the crash?
I had added Evolution on top of the already existing SSH Key Agent, GPG Password Agent, Indicator Application and Indicator Messages.
It's the same thing, with and without Evolution. Shall I un-tick the 4 others and try again ?
You can try. My theory is that an application is launched when you start your graphical user session and crashes it. But I may be wrong...
One solution (since you have already tried it) is to create a new user and to move your data to its home. If you want to retrieve some user configuration, move them one by one (so that you may actually identify a problematic setting that would be the cause of your problem.
Thanks, I'll try asap and let you know.
I am a member!
I recommend getting rid of the GRUB password by removing this file: /etc/grub.d/01_PASSWORD. Back the file up if you are worried that you will change your mind later. Normally, however, I see no reason why you--or nearly anybody--would want a GRUB password. In fact, I have had several problems that were solved by getting rid of this file. Over the last 14 years I've probably tried a dozen distributions and I don't recall any of them having this password on by default.
I commented out the lines, but I might as well delete it, as you suggest. Thanks !