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When I type in my password to my newly installed Ubuntu 14.04 computer, it returns me to the login screen. I've seen other answers but those were to Ubuntu 13.04 and older and didn't work.

jjjhfam
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    Ctrl+Alt+F1, login, rm .Xauthority, Alt+F7, login and report back. – s3lph May 27 '15 at 14:30
  • But where is the .Xauthority file, I've seen that answer before but on Ubuntu 13.04 and older. – jjjhfam May 27 '15 at 14:43
  • It is a hidden file in /home/username folder also known as your (username's) home folder. The rm command deletes the file. It will be recreated the next time you login using the GUI. – user68186 May 27 '15 at 14:51
  • As I said, I've never been in my account so when I am in that directory and type 'ls -a' I do not see it. – jjjhfam May 27 '15 at 15:41

9 Answers9

4

Press Ctrl + Alt + F1 and log in there and run:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME

Then press Ctrl + Alt + F7 and try to log in.

Hizqeel
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Praveen Kumar
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    This worked like charm on Ubuntu 18.04 with a difference of hitting Ctrl + Alt + F2 to get to text terminal session and Ctrl + Alt + F1 to get back to GUI session – Anton Matosov Mar 31 '19 at 03:16
2

I had same issue i was setting up oracle and messed up with .bashrc PATH variable, with this i could not get past the login screen. Thing that solved my issue was that, in .bashrc, I accidentally did not append $PATH: in PATH variable.

I wrote:

PATH=<other paths>

Correct format:

PATH=$PATH:<other paths>

This worked for me, if this is the case it should work for you too.

Eliah Kagan
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Piyush jain
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1

I had similar issue on fresh 18.04 install. Safemode worked well, normal mode kept kicking me out after logging in. UI also lagged during animations, so it was clear that was a graphics issue. So I just updated my Nvidia drivers and it worked.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-390
georgegach
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1

Look at here: Can't login to Ubuntu 14.04 after upgrade maybe can help you.

  1. Check the $HOME permission and owner, chown $USER:$USER -R $HOME; chmod +x -R $HOME, or try to use a Guest Session, or try adduser to create a user then login.

  2. Try reinstall Ubuntu Desktop, sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop ubuntu-session.

  3. If all above can't work, maybe the lightdm is break, try to fix sudo apt-get install lightdm --reinstall.

  4. Or, just try to use kdm & Kde desktop: sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop kde-standard. (。・_・。)

scue
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  • You seem to be having trouble typing "reinstall", but I was able to add another user account and then add myself to the sudo file. Thanks! – jjjhfam May 27 '15 at 16:30
  • Thx. Does it that mean you can login ubuntu with another account? If so, just backup your old $HOME directory, and create a new $HOME directory then replace it. (´・ω・｀) – scue May 29 '15 at 13:58
  • Yep, I just went into the virtual terminal and moved the files I wanted from old to new account. – jjjhfam May 29 '15 at 20:18
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    Don't execute chmod +x -R $HOME, it will make ALL files in $HOME executable. Please change this in the original comment. – Minras Jan 23 '17 at 10:34
  • I was able to ssh into my account, and execute the reinstall of Unbuntu Dekstop from there. I restarted the VM and it was fixed. – nixkuroi Apr 08 '19 at 19:35
  • WARNING: chmod +x should not be excecuted on $HOME, a mod should FIX THIS please! – PascalVKooten May 28 '19 at 09:25
0

I had same problem with Ubuntu 18.10 and following method help me:

  1. At the login screen use Alt+Ctrl+F3 to access the command line login method.

  2. Log in to the shell with your username and password.

  3. Uninstall and reinstall Ubuntu lightdm. Run the following (be sure to connect to the network):

    sudo apt-get purge lightdm
sudo apt-get install lightdm
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

  4. Once reconfigured, now reboot.

Kulfy
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Sadegh-khan
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0

after having lots of headaches trying to solve the same problem, adding my user to the video group solved it !

sudo usermod -a -G video {USER}

Livne Rosenblum
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0

Do experience any graphical glitches?

This might be the result of Unity not beeing able to start due to a problem with getting 3D acceleration - so your graphics-card driver is in question (thanks for nothing compiz).

Do you happen to know which graphics card you are using? When in doubt you can press CTRL+ALT+F1, login, type:

lspic | grep VGA

usually you ll get something like

you@yourPc:~$ lspci | grep VGA 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK110B [GeForce GTX 780 Ti] (rev a1)

You'll then have to update your graphics-card driver, which either might be:

ATI/AMD:

sudo apt-get install fglrx

NVIDIA:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

Intel cards usualy don't cause problems.

If this all did not help you might consider booting an older kernel from GRUB, if any is installed. (you can return to your graphical enviroment by pressing CTRL+ALT+F7)

user1078701
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0

I had the same problem in 16.04

rm .Xauthority // like the_Seppi said
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME // like praveen said
chmod +x -R $HOME

and a reboot

did it fore me

D M
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-2

In version 18 it asks for a new password for user ubuntu which I entered. I used 4-l's for my password for user ubuntu. Ubuntu wil not accept the old password or the 4-l's. Based upon the fact that I cannot login to ubuntu I will move on to another os. I like to buy my haay before it goes through the bull. My recommendation for version 18 users is wuuit ehile you are ahead.

Hugh Wardlaw
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    You are answering a question from 2015. Your answer does not provide anything useful to the poster of the original question and sounds more like a rant. – Kurankat Mar 27 '20 at 05:54