Logon Problems

Hello,

We will need more information to help you.

What did you do before that could have triggered this problem ?
After you try to login, go to a terminal with <CTRL><ALT>F2
and type this command:
tail -n 30 /var/log/messages
report the output here.

root@lars-desktop:/home/lars# tail -n 30 /var/log/messages
Jun 13 14:35:15 lars-desktop kernel: [ 57.690416] NFSD: Using /var/lib/nfs/v4recovery as the NFSv4 state recovery directory
Jun 13 14:35:15 lars-desktop kernel: [ 57.690880] NFSD: starting 90-second grace period
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 58.748535] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.11
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 58.748617] NET: Registered protocol family 31
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 58.748620] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 58.748625] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 58.786540] Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.8
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 58.786545] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 59.071965] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 59.071984] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop kernel: [ 59.071986] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
Jun 13 14:35:16 lars-desktop pcscd: pcscdaemon.c:533:main() pcsc-lite 1.3.3 daemon ready.
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop dhcdbd: dhco_input_option: Value -1 cannot be converted to type L
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop dhcdbd: dhco_parse_option_settings: bad option setting: new_dhcp_lease_time = -1
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop dhcdbd: message_handler: message handler not found under /com/redhat/dhcp/eth0 for sub-path eth0.dbus.get.host_name
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop dhcdbd: message_handler: message handler not found under /com/redhat/dhcp/eth0 for sub-path eth0.dbus.get.domain_name
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop dhcdbd: message_handler: message handler not found under /com/redhat/dhcp/eth0 for sub-path eth0.dbus.get.nis_domain
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop dhcdbd: message_handler: message handler not found under /com/redhat/dhcp/eth0 for sub-path eth0.dbus.get.nis_servers
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop kernel: [ 60.534594] agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop kernel: [ 60.534968] agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
Jun 13 14:35:18 lars-desktop kernel: [ 60.535228] agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:02:00.0 into 8x mode
Jun 13 14:37:51 lars-desktop gconfd (lars-6019): starter (versjon 2.18.0.1), pid 6019 bruker «lars»
Jun 13 14:37:51 lars-desktop gconfd (lars-6019): Slo opp adressen «xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory» til en skrivebeskyttet konfigurasjonskilde i posisjon 0
Jun 13 14:37:51 lars-desktop gconfd (lars-6019): Slo opp adressen «xml:readwrite:/home/lars/.gconf» til en skrivbar konfigurasjonskilde i posisjon 1
Jun 13 14:37:51 lars-desktop gconfd (lars-6019): Slo opp adressen «xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults» til en skrivebeskyttet konfigurasjonskilde i posisjon 2
Jun 13 14:37:51 lars-desktop gconfd (lars-6019): Slo opp adressen «xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/debian.defaults» til en skrivebeskyttet konfigurasjonskilde i posisjon 3
Jun 13 14:37:51 lars-desktop gconfd (lars-6019): Slo opp adressen «xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/defaults» til en skrivebeskyttet konfigurasjonskilde i posisjon 4
Jun 13 14:38:44 lars-desktop hpiod: removing usblp driver interface=1 for hp:/usb/PSC_2100_Series?serial=MY2CQF547R0F io/hpiod/device.cpp 504
Jun 13 14:38:44 lars-desktop kernel: [ 267.551458] drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: removed
Jun 13 14:38:46 lars-desktop hpijs: WARNING: color pen has low ink
root@lars-desktop:/home/lars#

You didn't answer my first question, what did you do between the last time you could login on your desktop and when you couldn't login ?
Did you removed or installed any packages ?

You should try to run this in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop ubuntu-desktop

I tried that. Got me some new graphics on the logon screeen, but otherwise I still got the same problem
Is there an easy way for me to move my docs from the harddrive and do a complete reinstall?

All I did yesterday was to install some update packages.

Probably your users settings are messed up.
Try to create a new user by login into the text console and typing:

sudo useradd -m fixme

(Which adds a user named fixme and create a new home directory.)

sudo passwd fixme
newpass
newpass

so you setup a password for that new account.

Now try to log into your new account. If that works please let me know so I can tell you the next steps.

Bye
Lars

Hi Lars,

I know this thread is old, but I used your suggestions and I would really like to have the next steps.

I am a new Linux user. For me, my problem was that I was running Kubuntu and deleted some things then installed an update, and after that I could not log in again. At that time, I only had an administrator login. When I would enter my administrator password on the graphical login screen, it would run the "working" icon and then return to the graphic login screen. The admin login and password seemed to work in the console mode but I could not get to the desktop.

For me, it was necessary to follow your suggested step of installing the Ubuntu desktop. Making a new account did not work until after I had done that.

Now I am running the Ubuntu desktop on the fixme account, but I need the next steps the previous user did not request so that I can fix my admin account.

Thanks so much!

Hi Julia,

since you can now work with your fixme-account you are aware that it isn't the system, that's messed up but the filestructure within the user's home dir. If the desktop environment doesn't come up it is usually within its file structure, so you should move to the text console and log in as the user.
If the desktop environment doesn't find any relevant files in the user's home dir it will create a fresh and working structure. So you are now to identify, which one of the many directories in the home dir are related to the desktop KDE.
I am not using KDE but if I remember correctly it should be something like

.kde
.kderc

rename those directorys one by one with the command

mv .kde .kde.old

(do that for every kde directory you notice)
After each rename try to login again and after the one with the damaged file it should work again.
You are not losing files, since the old directories are not deleted. You may loose your kde settings like background, preferences but that's the price...

Hope this works for you!

Hi Lars,

Thanks for your answer. I am not sure I understand; I am sorry, I
don't understand everything so well (student in legal history...) and
unfortunately I don't have time at the moment to teach myself-- I need
to fix it as soon as possible. :) The main difficulty is that the
computer is at home and I am checking on instructions at the office.
The computer at home is running so slowly now with the problem that I
can't easily use the web at home even with a faster, fully functional
OS (we also have a very slow connection in the Studentenwohnheim).

May I ask a few questions to make sure before I begin trying?

> since you can now work with your fixme-account you are aware that it isn't the system, that's messed up but the filestructure within the user's home dir. If the desktop environment doesn't come up it is usually within its file structure, so you should move to the text console and log in as the user.

Do you mean the "user" as in my administrative account or as in the
fixme account? (P.S. after following the 2007 directions, I seem to be
using Ubuntu on the fixme account and Kubuntu on the admin account)

> If the desktop environment doesn't find any relevant files in the user's home dir it will create a fresh and working structure. So you are now to identify, which one of the many directories in the home dir are related to the desktop KDE.

How do I see/find these directories? (with what command?)

Thank you again so much!

Best,

Julia