Please help I can't login to KDE desk top

[absolute beginner]

My son has been running Kubuntu on his machine for some time.

When he tries to login after entering his username and password, the Kubuntu desktop momentarily appears and then the login screen re appears.

I can login using the 'Console Login' option from the desktop login screen but I don't have a clue what to do from the console to fix this.

Where do I start to resolve this problem?

Many thanks in advance.

[dibl]

#10 on the "Top 20" in my signature.

[absolute beginner]

#10 on the "Top 20" in my signature.

#10 on the "Top 20" in my signature.

dibl many thanks for your help. (You can always rely on the scouts)

I tried "sudo shutdown now -r" but still the same problem when it reboots.

results of df -h

/dev/sda1 227G 15G 201G 7%/
none 497M 268K 497M 1 % /dev
none 501M 0 501M 0% /dev/shm
none 501M 76K 501M 1 % /var/run
none 501M 501M 0% /Var/lock
none 501M 0 501M 0% /lib/init/rw

If it helps I suspect the last thing that was done on the machine before it stopped working was that my son installed an application called Cairo Dock

[vinnywright]

from the console login after you login as the user in queshton type this

ls -la ~/ | grep .Xauthority

whare mine shows " vinny vinny" in this example

vinny@Vinnys-HP-G62:~$ ls -la ~/ | grep .Xauthority
-rw------- 1 vinny vinny 58 2012-04-15 20:24 .Xauthority

yours should show the user name for the login.................IF it seas "root root"then remove it with.

sudo rm -rf /home/"you"/.Xauthority

where "you" is the name of the login .............so I would have /home/vinny/.Xauthority

if this is not the case post back that .Xauthority wasn't owned by root


VINNY

[absolute beginner]

Firstly thanks for the help Vinnywright and dible!

I typed 'ls -la ~/ | grep .Xauthority'

and the response was:

-rw------------ 1 maxandnell maxandnell 271 2012-04-17 11.58 .Xauthority

Which I think suggests that the Xauthority isn't owned by the root and is owned correctly by the user that is trying to log on 'maxandnell'

Can you please assist me with the next step in analysing the problem?

[vinnywright]

first lets get a working acct. if possible ........................... log back in to the console and use "adduser" to make a new user acct. to log into.

sudo adduser username

where username is the name you want to have .

and try to login to that acct. .

did the Cairo Dock ever work .......or did that crash it?

I think I remember running that one time and it installed 2 versions 1 with open GL and one without...................I could only run the one without the GL stuff wile the kwin effects were on.......

VINNY

[absolute beginner]

first lets get a working acct. if possible ........................... log back in to the console and use "adduser" to make a new user acct. to log into.

sudo adduser username

where username is the name you want to have .

and try to login to that acct. .

did the Cairo Dock ever work .......or did that crash it?

I think I remember running that one time and it installed 2 versions 1 with open GL and one without...................I could only run the one without the GL stuff wile the kwin effects were on.......

VINNY

Thanks for the help Vinny, I have added a new user as per your instructions and I can log on successfully as the new user.

I guess this indicates that there isn't a hard ware issue.

I checked with the new login and both versions of Cairo Dock seem to be working.

However I still can't login with my son's user account.

What's the next recommended step in this process of recovering the ability to log on with his account?

[dibl]

Probably, during the installation of cairo-dock, your son created a directory and/or left files in his user folder that are owned by root. If you can take your time and examine the contents of the home folder in a terminal window, look for root privileges, especially on the "hidden" configuration files, like ~/.kde and ~/.config. If you can find all such cases, and use "sudo chown" to change them back to the correct user and group, then that should fix the problem.

[james147]

Probably, during the installation of cairo-dock, your son created a directory and/or left files in his user folder that are owned by root. If you can take your time and examine the contents of the home folder in a terminal window, look for root privileges, especially on the "hidden" configuration files, like ~/.kde and ~/.config. If you can find all such cases, and use "sudo chown" to change them back to the correct user and group, then that should fix the problem.

or run

sudo chown USER:GROUP -R ~USER

to make sure all files and folders in USER's home are owned by him, which should be the case.

[absolute beginner]

I tried the command

sudo chown USER:GROUP -R ~USER


and also

sudo chown maxandnell|maxandnell -R ~maxandnell

But just get the error message saying missing operand after maxandnell

[james147]

chown: invalid user: 'MAXANDNELL:GROUP

Use your actual user and the primary group of that user (normally the same as the username) ie

sudo chown maxandnell:maxandnell -R ~maxandnell

I used all caps to represent the parts you where meant to change sorry (except the argument -R which needs to be caps :S)

Note: ~USER is an alias for that users home directory (normally /home/USER) just like ~ is an alias to your home directory and is handy when manipulating your home directory as another user (normally root) or trying to manipulate another users home directory.

[dibl]

Was "MAXANDELL" the user who installed Kubuntu? If so, then his group name is probably also "MAXANDELL". Beware of the case -- was it really all caps when it was originally entered?

EDIT -- ooops I was typing while james was posting -- yes, I agree with james147.

[vinnywright]

just a FYI ......do NOT try to remove the maxandnell acct. (you probably cant) .....as it is the only administrator acct. as of yet .

the one we made is just a vary basic user acct........... IF it becomes necessary we can make it a administrator acct. later but you should try to fix the maxandnell acct. as @james147 has suggested.

VINNY

[absolute beginner]

Ok guys I have typed the following in

sudo chown maxandnell:maxandnell -R ~maxandnell

It then asked me for the [sudo] password for maxandnell which I entered. I could then hear the hard drive running i.e the computer seemed to be doing something and it returned with the

'maxandnell@maxandnell-desktop:~$' prompt

I then tried logging back in as maxandnell but it just returns me to the loggin screen after I enter the password and hit the enter screen. I am guessing that what we have done so far has allowed us to confirm that it is not the owndership of files that is causing the problem?

Thanks for the generosity of your help so far. What should be the next step?

[james147]

I am guessing that what we have done so far has allowed us to confirm that it is not the owndership of files that is causing the problem?

That would be right

Thanks for the generosity of your help so far. What should be the next step?

Now lets make sure your system is intact and everything that should be installed is. Run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo apt-get update                    # Grab the latest package lists
sudo apt-get install -f                # Fix any broken packages
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop   # Make sure everything that should be installed is
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade              # Bring your system fully up to date