Login Problem

[kubuntu.linux]

I have Kubuntu 13.10. For the first time, I created a new non-admin user account. After I restarted my computer I could not log in

again.

1. When I try to log in the new user account, it says wrong password, while I know the password is right.

2. When I try to log in the admin account, it takes the password and tries for a second to log in but returns the login page without

any error message (if I enter a wrong password then of course it complains Wrong Password).

3. There is a default guest account on the system which was generated by installation process automatically and does not have a

password, if I click Guest account, it logs in without problem. Of course I cannot change any password in that Guest account.

How can I get back into my admin account again?

Thanks.

[Snowhog]

See How to reset your password in Ubuntu

[kubuntu.linux]

When I enter passwd Myusername, it prompts for new passwrod and its confimation, after that says:
"passwd: Authentication token manipulation error"
"passwd: password unchanged"

[SteveRiley]

The first result when Googling for "passwd: Authentication token manipulation error" has a number of suggestions. Have you tried these?

[kubuntu.linux]

in the recovery mode I entered:
mount -rw -o remount /
passwd USERNAME

successfully changed the password for both the admin account and the additional user account. Now I can log in the user account but

the behavior is the same for the admin account: it takes the password (does not complain of being wrong), tries to log in then returns

the log in page, no messages. This happens only for the admin account.

[vinnywright]

in the recovery mode I entered:
mount -rw -o remount /
passwd USERNAME

successfully changed the password for both the admin account and the additional user account. Now I can log in the user account but

the behavior is the same for the admin account: it takes the password (does not complain of being wrong), tries to log in then returns

the log in page, no messages. This happens only for the admin account.

try deleting the .Xauthority file from the admin acct's /home

VINNY

[kubuntu.linux]

I cannot find any .Xauthority file. Could it be because I cannot log in the admin account? I have also seen other people looking for this file and not finding it. Is it supposed to be on every new installation of most recent versions and exactly in which directory?

[SteveRiley]

for the admin account: it takes the password (does not complain of being wrong), tries to log in then returns the log in page, no messages. This happens only for the admin account.

I presume you're trying to log in using the graphical login manager. Try with a TTY instead:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2

2. Enter root for the account name <-- I assume when you say "admin account" you mean root, right?

3. Enter the password

Does this work?

[vinnywright]

I cannot find any .Xauthority file. Could it be because I cannot log in the admin account? I have also seen other people looking for this file and not finding it. Is it supposed to be on every new installation of most recent versions and exactly in which directory?

the .Xauthority is a hidden file in your home directory and is a magic cookie that lets you connect to the X server .......it gets created when you log in , BUT if it becomes owned by some one elce (root) you will not be able to log in to the GUI .......anyone that has loged in to the GUI will have this file in their ~/ ,,,,,thats /home/you .

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ pwd
/home/vinny
vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ ls -la
total 92704
drwxr-x---+ 67 vinny vinny     4096 Jan 28 16:03 .
drwxr-xr-x   5 root  root      4096 Sep  4 23:29 ..
-rw-r-----   1 vinny vinny   161814 Dec 24 11:38 02.png
drwx------   3 vinny vinny     4096 Dec  3  2012 .adobe
drwxrwxr-x   2 vinny vinny     4096 May 13  2013 A-IP-file
drwx------   2 vinny vinny     4096 Jan  7 23:30 .aptitude
drwxrwxr-x   3 vinny vinny     4096 Jan 19 22:19 .aqemu
drwxrwxr-x   3 vinny vinny     4096 Aug 25 15:32 .audacity-data
>snip< 
>/snip<
drwxr-xr-x   3 vinny vinny     4096 Oct 26 18:09 Videos
lrwxrwxrwx   1 vinny vinny       22 Dec  7  2012 Videos 1 -> /mnt/disk/vinny/Videos
lrwxrwxrwx   1 vinny vinny       17 Dec  7  2012 Videos 2 -> /mnt/disk1/Videos
drwxr-x--x   2 vinny vinny     4096 Jan 20 17:36 .virt-manager
drwxrwxr-x   4 vinny vinny     4096 Oct 19 17:15 .wine
drwxrwxr-x   4 vinny vinny     4096 Oct 12 19:54 .wine-browser
drwx------   2 vinny vinny     4096 Dec 11  2012 .WorldOfGoo
-rw-------   1 vinny vinny       57 Jan 28 16:03 .Xauthority
drwxrwxr-x   2 vinny vinny     4096 Nov 25 22:22 .xinput.d
-rw-------   1 vinny vinny    34125 Jan 28 16:35 .xsession-errors
-rw-------   1 vinny vinny    50714 Jan 28 06:55 .xsession-errors.old
vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$

some times opening a GUI app with sudo instead of kdesudo and doing things in your ~/ will cause this file to be owned by root and prevent you from logging in

?? is this "admin-account" a root account or just the first account made during install and so the admin-account" ??

VINNY

[Simon]

This is probably why I check the automatic login box during setup.

I just need to correct something that Steve missed in step 1 Press Ctrl+ALT+F2 otherwise ALT+F2 doesn't give you TTY it will give you the Linux command line box.

[SteveRiley]

I just need to correct something that Steve missed in step 1 Press Ctrl+ALT+F2 otherwise ALT+F2 doesn't give you TTY it will give you the Linux command line box.

Thanks, Simon. I always screw that one up!

[kubuntu.linux]

[ I presume you're trying to log in using the graphical login manager. Try with a TTY instead:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2
2. Enter root for the account name <-- I assume when you say "admin account" you mean root, right?
3. Enter the password
Does this work? ]

I did log in using this way and could also change the password for both the root and the first account established in the installation process. Yet I cannot log in the first account established using the GUI

[kubuntu.linux]

I could delete the
.Xauthority file. This did not have any effect. In fact I could establish other admin level accounts
prior to this delete. I can log in these accounts but not the first established account in the installation process.

[SteveRiley]

Would you please do the following:

1. Using the GUI, attempt to log in to the account that isn't working

2. Using the GUI, log into an account that is working

3. Drop to a command prompt and run:

sudo apt-get install pastebinit

sudo pastebinit /home/[i]USER[/i]/.xsession-errors

Where USER is the malfunctioning account. The command uploads the .xsession-errors to Ubuntu's paste bin and returns a URL. Post that URL here so we can take a look at the file.

[kubuntu.linux]

Although I was very much interested to see how this issue can be resolved on its own, I was
experiencing other problems like missing internet connection in other accounts. I could not afford to
have it dragged on more. So I reinstalled Kubuntu. So I just wanted to thank for all the the responses
offered, I certainly learned thru them. I will start a new thread for after installation problems.