Something happened and I can't get into my system (DELL Optiplex 980 with Ubuntu MATE 18.04 LTS). When I log in with my password, it is accepted, the screen goes blank, and after a short time the system loops back to the login screen. I try to log in with the password again (I don't get the message that it's the wrong password), but it loops back again like before. What happened? Is there a way around this? Thanks.
Check out this page for suggested solutions -
Good luck Loqi.
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I tried the routines you suggested but nothing changed. There was no "root" listed where they said to check, and I still had a loop in trying to login. I checked my /tmp file and that was "drwxrwxrwt" as they said it should be. Then I changed my display manager from "lightdm" to "gdm3" and that didn't help either. Have I run out of options and should I reinstall Ubuntu again? Thanks.
Try this Askubuntu page -
More answers, more possible solutions. Good luck.
Try dropping to command line and adding another user to th system then try login The GUI with the new user you created. If it works then this will tell you that you have a config file in your home folder that you have broken.
I'm fairly new to Ubuntu and I don't know how to get the machine to do what you suggest. Is there a webpage or guide available online that can help me out? Thanks.
See the page I suggested above for an answer about halfway down. See below:
Your desktop environment is failing to start (it sounds like). I would start by trying to log in as a different user.
Ctrl+Alt+F1 then login
sudo adduser testing
Once the user has been added ctrl+alt+f7 and try to log in as testing. If you can log in as testing then your mate configuration is borked and should be reset. This Question covers it. I prefer to mv ~/.config ~/.config.old .
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Something strange has happened. Before I did anything else I booted up the computer again to do what you indicated, and I was given the option of two users! One was my original username and the other was D980 which is what I used somewhere as a shortened label for my computer (DELL Optiplex 980). I tried logging in using D980 and with my password, and it looped back as before. Then I tried logging in using my original username and to my surprise IT WORKED! Now I'm afraid to shut down the computer in case I won't be able to log in again. How do you explain all this and what should I do?
If it were me, I'd test the behavior of your system by rebooting and seeing if you can login via your user name. Then I'd check to see if things looked OK in your home directory.
Then I'd see if logging in as D980 produced a loop again. Then if I was sure about everything, and only if I was absolutely sure, I'd delete the D980 "user" if it actually exists.
Otherwise, just get used to bypassing the D980 "user". That's the safe bet.
A lot of people seem to think ubuntu creates things or forgets things automatically. This is not possible.
What is possible is that you at some point created 2 accounts and possibly one is not working or something along those lines. Its kind of hard to know how you set things up retrospectively. Probably if the account works then rebooting will be fine and it will continue to work.
You guys are a great help. But I now have access to the software, and there's a few things I need to do just in case I can't get back in. After that it'll be late and I need to get some sleep. I may not have time to get back to this tomorrow, but will as soon as time opens up and I'll report back after that. Thanks a lot!
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I found some time this morning. I first tried to login with D980 and this put me in a loop again. Then I tried my original username and this worked like a charm. I guess the best thing to do now is to delete the username D980 and I think I now know how to do that. Is there anything else you can suggest for me to do to clean up the system? Thanks again for your help.
Check the home directory of D980 doesnt have any files you need before deleting it.