Can't log in!!

[topha.j]

I installed Kubuntu 10.10 3 or 4 days ago and it has been working fine up until today when i installed Wine to use Itunes which didn't work so i tried to uninstalled it. I rebooted the computer and now when Kubuntu starts up it asks for a user name and password then once entered it looks like its loading something up then goes back to log in. Kubuntu still works from the live CD so i guessing the system is fine but won't let me log in from the hard drive. Iv tried several things from similar forums like adding a new user, iv got the right user name and password and lots of space. Iv loved using Kubuntu and don't want to go back to windows so any advice for a beginner would be much appreciated. PLEASE HELP ME!!

[dibl]

Re: Can't log in!!

See #10 on the FAQs in my signature. You probably used your home directory to install software as "sudo", and you'll have to follow the instructions to delete the .Xauthority and .ICEauthority files.

[topha.j]

Re: Can't log in!!

Thanks for the help dibl. I read your instructions but I'm very new at this so could you please explane to me how to delete ~/ICEauthority and ~/Xauthority and do i do it from recovery mode? or is there somewhere i could read how to do it step by step. Thanks

[dibl]

Re: Can't log in!!

OK if you boot Recovery Console, on the recovery menu choose "Drop to root prompt". That should give you a text prompt that looks like "#". That is your indication that you are working as "root" -- so you have to be careful. Your normal user prompt is a "$".

So, at the "#" prompt, the first thing you need to do is change directory to your user directory, which I will assume is "/home/topha":

cd /home/topha

(Use your actual user name, of course).

You can verify that you are at the /home/topha directory with the print working directory command:

pwd

it should print on your screen the name of the directory "/home/topha". Once you have confirmed that you are at your home directory, then you can issue the command to remove the files:

rm .ICEauthority .Xauthority

If you make a mistake in typing (try to avoid it), you will get an error message:

rm: cannot remove `.xyz': No such file or directory

As soon as you have deleted the two files, you need to exit from root mode. The simplest thing for you is probably to simply restart the computer, with:

shutdown now -r

If you still can't log in normally when it restarts, then post back and we'll go the next step.

[topha.j]

Re: Can't log in!!

I tried followed instructions and it still didnt let me log in any more ideas would be great thanks

[dibl]

Re: Can't log in!!

OK.

The next step is to delete the hidden .kde directory. Follow the instructions above, except when you get to the "rm" step, you are going to issue this command:

rm .kde

After you restart the system, you will have a new default KDE desktop.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Can't log in!!

Check to see if your hard drive is full (/ or /home)

[MoonRise]

Re: Can't log in!!

Check to see if your hard drive is full (/ or /home)

I have seen a full HD do that so worth a check see.

[dibl]

Re: Can't log in!!

Check to see if your hard drive is full (/ or /home)

Yep, there's one of the other causes of the problem. Thanks, oshunluvr!

[topha.j]

Re: Can't log in!!

Hard drive is 23% used. i typed in "rm .kde" and it said "cannot remove '.kde' : Is a directory"

[vinnywright]

Re: Can't log in!!

rm -rf /home/you/.kde

but I would use

mv /home/you/.kde /home/you/.kde.old

first

VINNY

[dibl]

Re: Can't log in!!

Hard drive is 23% used. i typed in "rm .kde" and it said "cannot remove '.kde' : Is a directory"

Ooops.

Yes, since we now know the filesystem is not full, let's go with Vinny's approach:

(as root, at your home directory)

mv .kde .kde_broke

then

shutdown now -r

[KrGAce]

Re: Can't log in!!

This exact thing happened to me after I upgraded KDE to 4.6, it rebooted, and then comes to the login screen. I log in, it looks like it's trying, and then back to login screen. I follow the same approach?


"G"

[MoonRise]

Re: Can't log in!!

Yes I would try what Vinny posted:

rm -rf /home/you/.kde

but I would use

mv /home/you/.kde /home/you/.kde.old

first

VINNY

[KrGAce]

Re: Can't log in!!

tried this, this morning and I get "Configuration file/home/me/krgace/.kde/share/config/knoifyrc not writable, contact your system administrator." if I say okay, it goes back to login again.


Any suggestions? Change permissions?

Many thanks in advance.


"G"