#1 2019-12-08 02:09:02

swift110

New Member

Registered: 2015-11-10

Posts: 3

[SOLVED]unable to log on

After a few days of not using a particular laptop I booted it up and much to my surprise I was unable to log on to get to my desktop. I would put in my password but instead of going to the desktop the screen flashes and I end up being right back on the log in screen.

I was able to choose the tty option in grub and my password worked just fine. I was able to run updates with no trouble as well.  So I really don't understand what's going on.

Last edited by damo (2019-12-10 09:54:33)

clusterF

Member

Registered: 2019-05-07

Posts: 539

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

if you can get a tty maybe disable lightdm and startx from the console?

ohnonot

...again

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 5,592

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

So you can get to the graphical login manager?

Boot normally, reproduce the problematic behavior, then try to get to a tty with the Ctrl-Alt-F2 key combo.
from there, look at some logs. lightdm's log might be interesting among others, or just the whole journal:

journalctl -b

johnraff

nullglob

From: Nagoya, Japan

Registered: 2015-09-09

Posts: 12,666

Website

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

Quick check: sometimes people hit trouble with invisible spaces in their password window. Hit backspace before entering your password in LightDM to make sure that's not happening.

Also, as @clusterF suggested, if you can login at a tty, what happens if you then run 'startx'? If the X session fails to start, there might be some hint in the screen messages.

Last edited by johnraff (2019-12-09 01:23:25)

---

...elevator in the Brain Hotel, broken down but just as well...
( a boring Japan blog (currently paused), now on Bluesky, there's also some GitStuff )

Introduction to the Bunsenlabs Boron Desktop

linux_user

50/50 it's a spam account

Registered: 2016-11-04

Posts: 484

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

I had mentioned in some similar thread. From my experience, check your disk space. It might be too less for you to login into your GUI. You would still be able to log into tty as you confirmed it. If disk space is the culprit, just uninstall some packages or remove some files from tty.

Last edited by linux_user (2019-12-09 19:04:44)

---

"Blind faith to authority is the greatest enemy of truth."

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,673

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

I had mentioned in some similar thread. From my experience, check your disk space. It might be too less for you to login into your GUI. You would still be able to log into tty as you confirmed it. If disk space is the culprit, just uninstall some packages or remove some files from tty.

There's a log file that can cause this problem - .xsession error log file in the users home directory. The file would get so large it took up enough space to prevent a graphical log in.

I think there is a thread with a fix in this forum. The fix sets a maximum size for the file.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,673

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

@op - this a reasonably standard install with openbox? Which graphics card?

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

swift110

New Member

Registered: 2015-11-10

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

Thanks so much for the help folks!  The issue was that I had no disk space left. Once I cleared out some things that were uneeded i was able to boot like normal.

linux_user

50/50 it's a spam account

Registered: 2016-11-04

Posts: 484

Re: [SOLVED]unable to log on

Glad it is sorted out. When you have the time, please mark the thread as solved. Just edit your initial post to include [SOVED] in the title.

---

"Blind faith to authority is the greatest enemy of truth."