Ubuntu
gdm package

can't log into primary account after recent update

Asked by Marc Brigante

i installed ubuntu for my ex girlfriend on a a 2 year old dell(i think) and after a recent update when she logs in the screen goes purple and the following errors pop up:
"it seems you do not have the hardware required to run unity. please choose ubuntu classic at login screen and you will be using the traditional environment"
"nautilus could not create the following required folders: /home/gf's name/desktop, /home/gf's name/home/.nautilus."
"could not update ICE authority file /home/gf's name/ICEauthority. "
"there is a problem with the configuration server (usr/lib/libgconf2-4 g-conf-sanity-check 2 exited with status 256"
the weird thing is that the other user on the computer can log in just fine....
she is just trying to get some of her pics and videos off the computer before she switches to windows...
any help would be greatly appreciated
thanks

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Ubuntu gdm Edit question
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Drop to root recovery mode and run:

chmod 1777 /tmp; reboot

see if it helps

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

You may also want to run:

chown -R foo:foo /home/foo

replace foo with your actual username. E.g:

chown -R andy:andy /home/andy

You will get an error but this is normal. The command make the user the owner of it's own data

Revision history for this message
Marc Brigante (brigandtea) said : 		#3

i'm pretty new to ubuntu could i get a step by step on how to fix this?
thanks

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

Hold shift at boot, select recovery mode and then select root, you can then run the commands above

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