I have the issue described here: after a sudden stop, I can no longer log in because the computer simply flashes the login screen whenever I enter the correct password.
I followed the solution described in the top answer to that question, and rebooted. However, the issue persisted.
I noticed that on login Ubuntu is asking for Alex; when I reset the password using the procedure there I was told that there is no account Alex, but cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd revealed an account alex, which I did reset the password for.
On the login screen I hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 to bring up ttyl1, which prompted me for username and password again. Entered alex and the same password as before, again, and this time it worked...I'm now logged into alex@alex-VirtualBox.
What's going on, exactly? How do I get back to logging in?
username- if you docut -d: -f1,5 /etc/passwdor (better IMHO)getent passwd alexit should clarify – steeldriver Jan 25 '17 at 03:05getent passwd alexstatesalex:x:1000:1000:Alex,,,:/hom/alex:/bin/bash. The former command says a bunch more things, but the important bit seems to bealex:Alex,,,. – Aleksey Bilogur Jan 25 '17 at 03:12alexand the new password you set? – steeldriver Jan 25 '17 at 03:28alexno longer has the permissions to run any commands,lsincluded. I logged in via thetestuseraccount and did some things withsudoto try to fix it, following the instructions on the linked thread, but to no avail, it's still stuck in a loop. Super frustrating. – Aleksey Bilogur Jan 25 '17 at 03:57