Logging in after upgrade - how?

[Ole Juul]

My partner was running 8.04 and just clicked the distribution upgrade button and it seemed to go fine. Until reboot. It comes to the login screen and after putting in the password it shows a picture of a hard drive and then comes back to the login screen. This just repeats. How do we proceed from here?

Update: I discovered that logging in with the 26.28-17-generic kernel works. The 26.31-17 still does not though. Odd that the kernel would (seemingly) relate to the password. Now I see that many important programs were deleted as were a bunch of fonts. I hope that some can be re-installed. I just tried re-installing Dillo and it can't - very strange. Anyway, I would still like to figure out about the kernel. Any enlightenment?

[Ole Juul]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

I have to apologize for stating that this upgrade was from 8.04. I said that because the upgrade screen said "Distribution Upgrade". In actual fact it was only a VERSION upgrade. From 9.04 to 9.10. I get flustered with this complex vocabulary and names and numbers side by side - sorry.

Anyway, the "upgrade" was fine except that we still need to get a few things going, and find out what kernel we should be using. Does it matter?

[vinnywright]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

try making a new account and loging in to the new Kernel with it.... if that proceds with no trouble then the prob will be with the curent account (most likley)and not the kernel.


VINNY

[Ole Juul]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

Thanks Vinny. That's a good idea for helping to diagnose the problem. I'll do that later - the machine is being used right now. That's another thing: there don't seem to be any bugs from this upgrade! Things work fine, except for the programs which were deleted and need to be dealt with. The only real "bug" was the inability to log in with the provided kernel. Anyway, who needs the latest kernel anyway?

[Telengard]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

I think I read somewhere that the login loop problem may be related to config files in the home directory having their permissions or ownership changed.

The find command below should find all such files, assuming I've got it right. I did test this, and it seemed to work fine.

find /home/USERNAME -not \( -user USERNAME -or -perm /u=w \) -exec ls -dhl {} +

Be sure to replace the uppercase string USERNAME with the name of the user attempting to log in.

[Telengard]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

Check question #10 on dibl's Top 20 Kubuntu FAQs & Answers:. I'm pretty sure that's what I was thinking of.

[Qqmike]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

Here's what we know about the log-in loop problem. This is part of my "Disk Full?" decision tree under
Privacy 101, Reply #7
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090100.0
(btw, Privacy 101 itself is under construction, but Reply #6 and Reply #7 are new)

I don't know much about it; have personally had mixed results solving it in the past, but at least here's the links and some tips others have posted at times:

Step 5: KDE settings damaged
Re-boot, try to get to the log-in screen. If you can't get that far and you've done all the above, you will have to try something else--this guide will not help you further. Post the issue at a forum. See tips below, too.
If you can get to the log-in screen:
At the log-in screen, get a virtual console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.
You may have to log in by typing root. (If you are asked for a password, try yours; if it won't go, try to set a new one: passwd, then make one up.)
Rename your KDE folder (called /.kde):
mv /home/your_name/.kde /home/your_name/kdesaved
(the dot in .kde means it is a hidden file)
Get a graphical log-in screen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7.
You may get a KDE wizard to help you build a new KDE configuration and/or a new /.kde folder will be constructed for you and you'll be booted into Kubuntu.
Try re-booting.
If that fails, continue:

Step 6: kdm repair
Boot recovery mode, at the first pause (where you are the root user) enter the command:
/etc/init.d/kdm start
Then perform a normal shutdown/restart and use your normal boot line.
Or, if needed, another idea:
Remove / reinstall kdm and see if that works.
sudo aptitude remove kdm
sudo aptitude update&&sudo aptitude install kdm
Re-boot.

References for this problem (locked up booting, broken KDE, or log-in looping)

>>> From dibl:
Top 20 Kubuntu FAQ
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3099811.0
FAQ#16. Out of disk space, filesystem full, how can I tell where it went, etc. etc.
FAQ#10: Log-in loop
"I log in, the screen goes black, and then I get the login GUI again / Login Loops but can't log in." There are multiple possible causes, and thus multiple possible fixes. Start here, and check the linked threads if necessary. Do NOT ever perform "sudo" or root operations, such as installing software or saving files, using your user's home directory -- this is a common cause of the "login loop" problem. The permissions on the hidden files .ICEauthority and .Xauthority are easily changed by root use of your user's home directory, and thereafter the user is locked out.
>>> From Rog131:
FAQ: Free Disk Space
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3086353.0
>>> From Herman:
Fixing filesystems, damaged superblock:
Filesystems and Mounting (and fixing):
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p10.htm
>>> Log-in Loop:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3096050.0
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3097104.0
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3096050.0
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3088389.0
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=9765.0

[Ole Juul]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

It has been a long time since this topic was posted, but I think my update is relevant and may be useful information to someone in the future.

I tried all solutions above and more. We simply continued using the old kernel as a temporary fix. Now with a new installation, the problem persists. On a completely reformatted disk I installed 10.04 and there was the same login problem. I tried this twice with the same result, so I then wiped the disk again and went back to Kubuntu 9.04. Same result. An upgrade to 9.10 gave the same results. It seems that it's the MB/BIOS or other hardware configuration which is not compatible with KDE. In other words, I think there is a bug somewhere. Unfortunately it is elusive. Could the problem actually be in the kernel?

The only solution which we found to work using a contemporary kernel was to install Ubuntu Server 10.04 and put Fluxbox on that. We'll be happy with that until we can afford to replace the MB.

[Telengard]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

Ole, thanks for returning to this topic. It's good to know that you are serious about figuring it out.

I would hate to see you go so far as to replace the motherboard, a somewhat expensive proposition. What evidence do you have which suggests the motherboard is incompatible (outside the login loop)? IMHO if you can install any of the *buntus then Kubuntu should work on the same hardware. Oh, and what exactly is the motherboard and chipset (did I miss it?)

[Ole Juul]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

Ole, thanks for returning to this topic. It's good to know that you are serious about figuring it out.

I'm not dead yet.

I would hate to see you go so far as to replace the motherboard, a somewhat expensive proposition. What evidence do you have which suggests the motherboard is incompatible (outside the login loop)? IMHO if you can install any of the *buntus then Kubuntu should work on the same hardware. Oh, and what exactly is the motherboard and chipset (did I miss it?)

Well, the computer is getting quite long in the tooth and is overdue for some organ transplants. In several decades of playing with computers this is the ONLY computer that I have bought new and I deeply regret it. I am able to do a much better job myself of putting parts together. (/brag) It wasn't worth it. There have been all kinds of problems with this machine.

The mainboard is a K8VGA-M with an AMD Semperon 3300+, Award BIOS, and 2GB DDR ram. It originally came with XP and I soon added the memory and a 500GB drive which got Kubuntu on it. The original (NTFS) drive hasn't been accessed since the upgrades, so there is no corruption of permissions from that. (Suggested earlier as a potential problem)

Regarding evidence, It seems the login loop occurs with any kernel past the 26.28-17-generic kernel. I tried setting up and starting the X server from a terminal and the results look (to me) like there could be a video driver issue even though the login screen looks good until the loop occurs.

I didn't try adding Kubuntu desktop to the new kernel which came with the 10.04 server install but it is possible that might have worked. I have done that successfully on even older hardware, but this machine being only a bit over 1MHz I decided it was better to keep it nice and snappy by using Fluxbox. Things were getting a bit sluggish with the newer KDE. So, it is probably better to wait for a new motherboard before running KDE again.

PS: On an advocacy note; the machine is used by my better half who was used to MS-Windows. She was soon converted to Kubuntu and now she is very happy with Ubuntu Server and Fluxbox. Hehe, it warms my heart to see how easy it is for people to switch if given the chance.

[Telengard]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

If you get to the login screen then KDM is starting and X is starting, am I right? But then during the session loading process something goes wrong and KDM gets reset which throws you back to the login screen. Still right?

BTW, I think you meant 1GHz not 1MHz. My C64 ran at about 1MHz in 1984.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

If you get to the login screen then KDM is starting and X is starting, am I right? But then during the session loading process something goes wrong and KDM gets reset which throws you back to the login screen. Still right?

You got it. It looks exactly the same every time. The blinking icons in a row and it fails half way through. I'm not sure exactly which one it balks at. I was surprised to see it with a clean install of 10.04 but even more so to see it when I went back to a clean install of 9.04.

BTW, I think you meant 1GHz not 1MHz. My C64 ran at about 1MHz in 1984.

Oops. Hehe, though I recently set up a 1987 laptop with an 8MHz NEC V20 and only a 720K floppy drive to go on the net, so mega hertz are still good for something.

[Telengard]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

You got it. It looks exactly the same every time. The blinking icons in a row and it fails half way through. I'm not sure exactly which one it balks at. I was surprised to see it with a clean install of 10.04 but even more so to see it when I went back to a clean install of 9.04.

I wonder if there is a way we can disable those blinking icons to show a text display of the session loading progress. Or else maybe there is somewhere the KDE session loader logs its events. Maybe that way we could get a better idea of exactly what might be happening behind the curtain of that pretty GUI.

You may already know this, but you can also try airing this problem at the KDE user forum. Even if KDE is not itself the problem chances are farily good that someone out there has the same problem you do, and they may have some solution for you. I mention this just in case you don't find any joy here, which happens sometimes.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Logging in after upgrade - how?

I wonder if there is a way we can disable those blinking icons to show a text display of the session loading progress. Or else maybe there is somewhere the KDE session loader logs its events. Maybe that way we could get a better idea of exactly what might be happening behind the curtain of that pretty GUI.

Well I can't do it any more because we went to the Fluxbox GUI and I really don't want to take the machine out of commission after it's been carefully set up. (She'd kill me ) Anyway, for another time, I will think about looking at that. I hadn't thought about it, but now that I do perhaps one could find session messages in one of the consoles. Ctrl-F1, for example. Hopefully at this point it will be months before the machine gets rebooted.

You may already know this, but you can also try airing this problem at the KDE user forum. Even if KDE is not itself the problem chances are farily good that someone out there has the same problem you do, and they may have some solution for you. I mention this just in case you don't find any joy here, which happens sometimes.

I found quite a few with the same problem but not anyone who found a solution. Since the problem crosses versions, I have a feeling that it is because some hardware (video chip?) got left behind. Whatever it is, I can't uninstall what is there now and go back to trying things.

I am very grateful for your interest and concern Telengard, but I don't want to waste your time with what-could-have-beens at this point. My reviving this thread was intended to add the little bit of information (ie problem persists through versions) in case someone else came along and would like to know that.

PS: However, there is another problem with this current installation, but I will start a new thread.