Can't login in Ubuntu Mate

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hello,

Since this morning I can’t login in Ubuntu Mate.

I run a dual boot on a ssd Ubuntu Mate / Windows 10, and when I choose Mate at start up I have to input my password, which I do, though usually it doesn’t ak for a password. Then nothing, after 30 seconds it asks me again for a password.

And so on.

The password is correct.

Thanks for any help,

Arnauld

#2

Hi
Can you please boot into recovery mode, drop to a root shell, then check if you have a .Xauthority file owned by root in your home folder?
If you do, removing it should get you out of the login loop.

#3

hello,

thanks for your quick reply.

I am new to Linux, that’s why I have a dual boot.

So, after booting in recovery mode, I checked if I had a .Xauthority file using locate .Xauthority and I found 2. One is located at /home/userxxx/.Xauthority

So I tried to delete it using rm /home/userxxx/.Xauthority but I have a message saying tis file is a read only file. I also tried sudo rm /home/userxxx/.Xauthority but I still have this message.

So no sucess…

#4

First please check if it is owned by root using ls -al /home/userxxx/.Xauthority
Then for that error message: it’s because during recovery, the root filesystem is mounted read-only.
You have to first re-mount the filesystem in read/write mode using:

mount -o remount,rw /

1 Like
#5

Hello,

so now, after having tried to remove .Xauthority, I have no login screen at all, just a black screen, unless I choose the recovery mode.

Any idea…

thank you,

#6

thank you ouroumov for your reply. I reinstalled a complete image of my ssd using clonezilla, I do a full image backup everyweek, then reinstalled a backup of my files and folders using duplicity, I backup everyday.

It is working fine now.