Hello all - I've had a bit of a nose round the forum but I'm only on a 56K dialup and it's taking ages, so I'm just asking, as a complete newby (newbie?), if anyone can explain why, after entering my password when logging in, the screen freaks out for a second and returns me to the login. I have had Kubuntu 8.04 installed on 12GB of my Intel Mac HD for about a month and it worked fine until last week. I don't know much about the goings-on with terminal, root, sudo and so on, but I'm willing to have a bash if there's anyone who can help me. My wife tells me I'm not stupid, but you'd all better treat me as such for now...
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
The first question is: "What did you change last week?"
Second: Define "freaks out"?
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
Hi
inresponse to:
The first question is: "What did you change last week?"
Second: Define "freaks out"?
Good questions, both...I haven't changed anything significant, I don't think, and certainly not with Kubuntu, and when I say 'freaks out', I just mean that the video graphics flickers and fizzles and goes black for a halfsecond (as though it was rebooting, say), then reappears at the login pane.
I'm sure I can reinstall it all but was wondering if it was just a simple fix (ha ha). Anyway, any help is much appreciated....SBComment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
There are multiple known causes for "login loop syndrome":
- full filesystem
- broken graphics driver installation
- root privileges assigned to files in /home directory (this is caused by running the file manager as root and saving stuff in your user /home folder -- files most frequently screwed up are ".ICEauthority" and ".kde". You can (as a user) rename them with the "mv" command -- see post below -- and then restart X to see if this fixes the problem)
probably others that I haven't remembered yet ....Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
Wow! I never knew that could cause login problems. Sounds like something a newb could do without realizing.root privileges assigned to files in /home directory (this is caused by running the file manager as root and saving stuff in your user /home folder)
Checking for that problem will require recovery mode login (probably in the face of the idiotic "hiddenmenu" and 3 second timeout options). Long, detailed post will follow if Original Poster is game for some command line grunt work.Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
One easy thing to try, that MIGHT cure it, is to (as user) rename the .kde hidden folder, and try a re-login. If that solves it, you won't have to resort to the more draconian things.
Open Konqueror or Dolphin, click "View > Show Hidden Files" and then in the home folder find ".kde" and rename it to .kde_bak or something like that.
Or in Konsole, at the /home/user prompt,and then restart the X server with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, and try a new login.Code:mv .kde .kde_bak
Your custom settings will be gone. KDE e-mail and contacts will still be in the backed up folder.Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
I'm game if you want to go to the effort...and too much information is much better for me than too little...
Ta.Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
Right, will try dibl's suggestion first - I must do a 'safe' login and navigate to the /home/user folder?Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
First of all, if you can get a normal user login somehow, by persistent trials, or whatever, try dibl's suggestion of wiping your .kde folder. If not, see below.
However, I just realized that you are USING A MAC! I'm not even sure that Macs use the Grub boot loader, so before we get too far can you confirm that you can get to a whit on black screen that offers a choice something like. If so, choose recovery mode. An extensive series of message that you normally don't see will fly by. eventually you will get to a blue screen with a grey rectangle entitled Recovery Menu. It will offer several choices, the top choice will be in red. This is the dreaded ncurses interface. Use the down arrow key (do macs have a down arrow key?) to get to the entry labeled "root". Hit <tab>. You should now see an area of black at the bottom of the screen that says something like (but not exactly)Code:Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.{blah,blah} Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.{blah,blah} (recovery mode)unless you name your computers the way I name mine. Enter EXACTLYroot@blackbeauty:~#you will see in your username in blue. EnterCode:cd /home ls
substituting your username for <your username>, and following dibl's suggestion.Code:cd <your username> mv .kde .kde-old
If you get this far, try to reboot normally and try to login again. If you can't get this far, because of my ignorance of macs, let me know. In fact please let us know in any case.Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
Hey many thanks for that info - I will try it tomorrow and get back you...Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
Hi Askreiger, dibl - have tried all that as suggested, but no change, still the login loop. However, the first time I tried the login screen came back but the graphics were breaking up (right across the screen), though you could still see what's going on. So I tried logging in again, and once again it looped, but the graphics came back on perfectly. Could this be related or is it something else. Perhaps I should also tell you that I use rEFIt (a boot manager?) which gives me the option of booting into OS X (2 versions on 2 partitions), or Linux (Kubuntu). I think I will reinstall Kubuntu and that'll probably sort it all out. Is there a correct way to do a clean install? Cheers...Comment
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
Hmmmmmmmmm. Well, I cannot recall any previous reference to your boot manager, and only Grub is recommended for that purpose, so that may be the problem.
In any event, I personally like to use a GParted Live CD to do the partitioning, in advance of booting the Kubuntu Live CD or Alternate Install CD, which I use just to do the OS installation. When you get to the partitioning screen, choose "manual" and then select the mount points, filesystem types (as per your GParted setup) and it's reasonably straightforward. Post here if anything is confusing, and we'll give you guidance. Make your root filesystem at least 6GB in size, and a swap partition as large as your memory, or more, up to 2X your memory if it's on the thin side. Lots of people use a separate /home partition, which you can select and mount during the partitioning step in the installation, using the "manual" mode as mentioned above.
Hope that gets you started!
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Re: Kubuntu 8.04 Login loop...
maybe $HOME/.xsession-errors could give a hint or two?Comment
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