.ICEauthority

We're kind of going back to basics here with a new thread I suspect, but that might be a good thing.

Please post the output of:

ls -la ~/* | grep ICE

In case you don't already know, you can paste the above line into a terminal window just by highlighting it with the mouse, then center click on the terminal window.

Chris

Starting over, reaching out, throwing my hands up in rage, call it what ever you like.

Thanks to all who have tried to help, and thank you Chris for wading in.

I have been working in recovery mode throughout this episode, I login as a guest to get mail and back into
recovery to type commands. As you can probably see I'm a neophyte.

I opened a terminal while log-ed in as a guest and pasted the command you sent.
ls -la ~/* | grep ICE
It just sat there with no response.

What am I doing wrong??

I'm a Gear Head not a Geek, I never have had the time to learn the nomenclature or any of the slick stuff you guys know.
If you need any help ripping open a 350,360, 400,427,440, 572 CDI motor, shaping metal, lead work, electrinics, paint work, even upholstery I can help! But computers are a gray area.

Keep I mind you're leading a blind man through a mind field with nothing but email.

Again, thanks to all.

Allen

I think that means that the file .ICEauthority does not exist at all in your home directory. It either wasn't created, or got deleted. I'm at work at the moment so I'll have to do some work on this later today and try to figure out what is going on. I'm thinking that there may be a permissions problem with creating the file, or something got missed somewhere.

Have you moved your home directory, or tried to changed your username? Is this a new install or an upgrade?

Simply to check what system you are currently using and get some general information on it, please post the result of the following commands:

uname -a
lsb_release -a

You're talking to a certified welder/boilermaker here (but have a decade or so computer industry experience). Hobbies include electronics and anything that requires tinkering with tools. You got me on pulling down engines and the upholstery work though ;-)

I'm sure we'll get you sorted out. Doing it across computers and across time zones can be frustrating, and we need to find what's going on, but we'll sort you out one way or the other.

In the meantime, can you make a new user? This will do two things: give you a new user that will work (but you won't be able to update the system or do anything else administrative) and will confirm that .ICEauthority can be created for a new user.

Chris

Just a thought:

you might have typed the first ls command while running in recovery mode, logged in as root. If that is the case try:

ls -la /home/username | grep ICE

where username is your username, the one that your home directory is named for.

Chris

I haven't moved anything that I know of, and I hope I didn't change user names (don't know how).
Here's the info you asked for.
guest-lhh3vO@Shop-Aspire-3610:~$ uname -a
Linux Shop-Aspire-3610 3.0.0-19-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 19 19:05:57 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
guest-lhh3vO@Shop-Aspire-3610:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric

As I mentioned, I don't know how to make a new user, or if I should even try. Would it help that much??

On the results of your first question, I opened a terminal while loged in as a guest, copied and pasted your command and got nothing the first time.
Here is the result of your last post and it was in a terminal while loged in as a guest.
guest-lhh3vO@Shop-Aspire-3610:~$ ls -la /home/allen | grep ICE
ls: cannot open directory /home/allen: Permission denied
guest-lhh3vO@Shop-Aspire-3610:~$

I have no way to type the vertical line between username and grep, my laptop hasn't got a key like that so I can't do this in recovery mode if that's what you want.

Let me know what's next.

Allen

Hi Allen, it's called the pipe character in Linux circles, but is also known by other names as it's used in mathematics, phonetics, and logic. You'll definitely have one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_bar

Regardless, any instructions, including ones with the vertical bar can be cut and pasted into a terminal.

I suggested making a new user because yes, it would be helpful. I think that the problem stems from some configuration problem related specifically to your default user which I take is 'allen'. If I have to I shall break one of my systems to find the best way of fixing this, but we still need to get a look at the file and it's permissions. Unfortunately the guest account is pretty useless, as it has no permissions that will enable to do much with your user home directory or its files.

Now that I know a bit more about your system we should start to make a little progress. To get a look at your .ICEauthority you'll need to boot into the recovery mode with root access. Now list specifically the .ICEauthority file:

ls -l /home/allen/.ICEauthority

should do it. Just for good measure, lets also look the user directories in the /home directory:

ls -l /home

Now, you might have trouble cutting and pasting the contents of these outputs if you logged in as root and have no graphical desktop. If it makes it any easier you can redirect the output from these commands to a file, say one on a USB stick (which gets around any permissions problems you may have). You can then open the file later and cut and pasted the contents. For ease of use, the USB stick or drive should have a volume name. The way to do it is to use the '>' character to output to a filename eg

ls -l /home > /media/volume/file1

This will put the output of the above command into a file called file1 onto the USB stick with a volume name of 'volume'. Each time you do this file1 will be overwritten, so if there's more than one command, use a different filename.

Chris

I had to laugh, looked at this key board half a dozen times and didn't see |, but as you said it was there.

I went into recovery mode and the root prompt,
typed: ls -l /home/allen/.ICEauthority
Response was: -rwx--x--x 1 allen allen 108116 2012-05-12 10:51 /home/allen/.ICEauthority
                                                                                                                      [ this was in bright green ]
Next I typed: ls -l /home
Response was: dr-xz-xz-x 55 allen allen 4096 2012-05-12 19:35 allen
                                                                                                                       [in blue]

I must confess I need to at least learn and understand how Ubuntu (Linix) deals with file creation and transfers, I had Windows down but things are a little different here.
How do I get the file > /media/volume/file1 to the stick? I tried to create a folder with a file for a location or destination but as I mentioned I'm not getting anywhere.
This is something that I can deal with on my own if it's a pain to lay it all out here.
I just wrote it all down and typed it here.

I have four cars I did the guts in this winter and they are all competing in a local show today so I'm expected to be on hand.
Not sure why, they aren't my cars, but the owners need someone to hold their hands.
I will be back this afternoon to check in with you, but don't waste a week end messin with
this train wreak.

Thanks, Allen

Chris,

I asked this question on the last post and didn't get an answer, so I thought I would bounce it off you.
Can I burn a 12.4 disk on another computer and simply over write this problem with a new OS?
It's a pain to reconfigue an OS but I've been screwing with this one problem for eight days now and I'm pertty sure I could have set up a new OS in less time than that.
Your thoughts.

Allen

Hi Allen, yes you can burn any iso on any other machine, including a Windows machine or an older Ubuntu/Linux machine.

The previous testing you did has established that the ownership of the file and the home directory is absolutely correct: allen:allen
It's a bit of a puzzle as to what is going on.

In my testing (I've been deliberately trying to break my test machine) I have been deleting .ICEauthority from my system and every single time it recreates it withough a hiccup.

Before you re-install however there's one more thing you might try: deleting .ICEauthority and seeing if the system can re-create it correctly. To do this you'll need to boot into recovery mode (guest won't be able to do this) and delete .ICEauthority:

# Change to the correct directory:
cd /home/allen
# Your prompt should now be something like the following:
# root@Shop-Aspire-3610:/home/allen $

# Make a copy of .ICEauthority
cp -v .ICEauthority icecopy

# Delete the offending file:
rm .ICEauthority

You should now reboot and try to log in as Allen. Fingers crossed.

Chris

OK,

Went to recovery mode root shell,
got root@shop-Aspire-3610; /home/allen # to come up.
Typed: cp -v .ICEauthority icecopy
Response: '.ICEauthority'-> 'icecopy'
                       cp: cannot create regular file system 'icecopy' read-only file system
Was that a good thing? Should I have kept going??

It's a good thing this isn't water and the barn was on fire.
Ashes would be cold by now.

Allen

I tried something else.

Went to recovery mode and entered "remount system files" or something like that.
Typed cp -v .ICEauthority icecopy
got '.ICEauthority'> 'icecopy' nothing else.
Typed rm .ICEauthority
and was back at the prompt, did exit and reboot, still can't sign in.

Allen

Yep, the barn has definitely burnt down. ;-)

For the file system to be mounted read only it would seem to indicate that there is a problem with the way the disk(s) are being mounted or with the file system itself. "Read only" is the default mode for re-mounting file systems when there is some sort of problem. This would appear to be the root cause of your problem - it's only manifesting itself to you as the .ICEauthority problem because this file cannot be opened in R/W (read/write) mode so the system is refusing to log you in to the DE (desktop environment) and run normally. It certainly explains all the problems you've been having.

It's frustrating for you because it's taken so long to find this out, and frustrating for me because I'm on the other side of the world (Australia) and can't get my hands on your keyboard. The time zone differences aren't helping. I have to admire your willingness to persist. It's probably no consolation, but these kinds of problems are relatively rare, and are the result of faulty hardware or really bad luck.

Do you have important data on this computer? If you have a backup drive I'm happy to assist you in making a copy of your important data if you wish. You could then re-install knowing your data is safe, at least. If you want to continue to try to fix the problem I'm happy to go on as well. It's just getting interesting. :-O

Regardless, a backup of your important data is starting to sound like a good idea.

The next step in the repair is to have a look at your /etc/fstab file. This is the file that controls how the disks are mounted at boot time. If you could copy the contents here it might shed some light on the problem. To list the file, type the following after booting into safe mode.:

cat /etc/fstab

Have you managed to make the LiveCD boot disk yet? If there is a problem with the hard drive then we may actually need to boot off the LiveCD to fix it.

Chris

Safe mode? I must be having a 'Windows' moment. I meant Recovery Mode of course.

C

That old barn was falling down anyways.

Your assessment of the problem makes sense to me, in so far as I can wrap my mind around it.

On the one hand it is a pain in the butt dealing with all this, on the other, it's a chance to learn a little something, and then there's getting to know someone half way around the world.
 Twenty years ago the odds of us ever having jotted a line to one another was way off the charts, and yet here we are. Pretty cool when you think about it.
The truth is there are four other PC's in the house I can use, so the fact is I should just quit whining and settle down, if you say “it's just getting interesting” I DEFINATELY don't want to miss out on that.
I just prefer my Linux PC over any Windows PC we have, and I get pissy when I don't have it. Boo Hoo!

You mentioned this could be a “result of faulty hardware”, that is a concern. I replaced the hard drive in this machine about a year ago, and one a year before that, that makes this the third drive this machine has had.
It makes me wonder.

I don't keep important data on my computer, as mentioned I've lost drives in the past, so it's just has programs on the drive. Unimportant stuff is in the cloud and personal stuff is on thumb drives.

All the liveCD boot disks I have are old, not even sure I can find them!

Here's the latest:

cat /ect/fstab
ect/fstab: static file system information
use 'blkid-0 value-s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier for a devise; this may be used with UUID = as a more robust way to name devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab (5).

<file system> < mount point> <type> <option> < dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev noexec nosuid 0 0
/dev/sdal / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

#swap was on /dev/sda5 during install UUID= 3 bed5a5d-7368-4f19-895b-c/ce 860e537d 0 0

Now there is some Geek Greek for ya!! Right over my head.

It's funny, I read safe mode and without thinking new exactly what you where saying.
We in-fact had owerselves a little Windows moment.

Allen

Hi Allen,

I only mention faulty hardware as one possible cause, but something is preventing the drive from mounting properly.

You'll need to find or make a LiveCD at this stage: to test the hard drive it can't be mounted at all.

Once you boot off the LiveCD open a terminal window (shortcut is <ctrl><alt>t) and type the following:

sudo e2fsck -fp /dev/sda1

This will rund the check on the first partition on the first hard drive (sda1). The switch -f means to check the system even if the drive flags say it is OK, and the p option means to automatically repair the drive as much as it can without human intervention. If it finds an error that is too bad to fix automatically it should print an error message about the problem and stop.

If successful you can then reboot the system and see if things are working normally.

It doesn't really matter what ISO you use to do the testing, so any boot CD should do. I think it would be best to not use anything earlier than Ubuntu 9.04 however, as I seem to recall that that was when the ext4 filesystem was introduced into Ubuntu.

If you have to burn a new CD or DVD, you should probably check the ISO if you've only just downloaded it:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

CD burning should be done at the slowest possible speed for best results:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CdDvd/Burning#Burning_Files_to_CD_or_DVD

You can also use Windows to burn the Ubuntu ISO to cd.

Checking the ISO and burning at the slowest speed might prevent a problem that will cause further frustration.

Chris

I should have said, the fstab file looks normal as far as /dev/sda1 goes. "errors=remount-ro" means that if errors in the filesystem are found then the partition should be mounted in read only mode, which is correct and apparently what it really is doing.

I'm not sure that the line that mounts the swap file is quite correct, so the swap file may not be operational. It might just have been a transcription error in the above message, but it's not a big deal in any case. We can worry about that later if necessary.

Chris.

Dug around and found a copy of ISO 11.4.

Checked my BIOS to confirm the CD drive was ahead of harddrive and restarted.
It just went to the login page, I open a file manager and tried to look at the disk and got:
Unable to mount Ubuntu 11.4 i386
error mounting: mount: block devise /dev/sro is write protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type. bad option, bad super block on /dev/sro missing codepage or helper program.
Let me know if I have an issue with the machine or the disk please.

I'll go and make a new liveCD soon as I can, I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks, Allen

Yes, it seems that there are errors on the disk. Unfortunately burned optical disks are not always as reliable as we'd like to think they are, which is why it's still a good idea to burn them at the slowest possible speed.

A bootable USB drive is also a possibility. Most BIOS's these days support booting of USB and I find it more reliable and faster. You can use the boot disk creator in Ubuntu to make a LiveUSB, or use a program called Unetbootin under either Windows or Linux.

Chris

Well this is starting to get old! It's even beginning to PISS ME OFF!!

Burned a fresh copy of 12.4 and tried to run it. The cd drive starts the screen goes blank for a while and it dumps me right back to the login page where I still can only get guest login to work.

Three ISO disks can't be bad, and has it turns out they work on other PC's.

The copy of 10.10 I have is the one I loaded the ISO on the hard drive in the first place.

What am I going to have to do here, rip out the hard drive and start over again???
How can the BIOS not work?
Is there some other kind of answer?

Please let me know what you think I should do next, before I start target practice.

Thanks, Allen

GOT IT!!

Hi Allen, sorry I haven't been as on top of this as I would like. What did you get, and how did you get it. I'm guessing a re-installation from a bootable USB drive?

Chris