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Suddenly, I am unable to login to my user account. I have activated the root account and I am able to login to that root account, but I can't login to my user account. I am very sure it is not a password error.

When I login to my user account, the screen flickers and, again, it is showing the login screen. Sometimes a popup appears in the top right corner with an error message as you can see below:

Error Message Screenshot

Install Problem
The configuration defaults for GNOME Power Management have not been installed correctly.
Please contact your computer administrator.

Can anyone help me solve this problem? I have posted this same question in ubuntuforums, but still no solutions have helped me.

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  • The popup is too small to read anything. Can your home-partition be full? May 12, 2011 at 13:53
  • 1
    Can you login at the console? Hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get a console prompt. Then,try logging in as your regular user. That'll help us narrow things down. Also, have a look at ~/.xsession-errors and /var/log/Xorg.0.log (if you can log in from the console). Post anything that might be relevant. May 12, 2011 at 14:52
  • For the first command i don get any output and for the second command "No such file or directory"
    – karthick87
    May 14, 2011 at 10:04
  • By "no output," do you mean that ~/.xsession-errors exists but is empty? And have a look at the directory to see if perhaps the name of Xorg.log is different on your machine: ls /var/log/X*. May 16, 2011 at 11:58
  • Drop to a TTY (Ctrl-Alt-F1) then login, then run sudo dpkg --configure -a - that's fixed this issue in the past for me.
    – jrg
    May 16, 2011 at 16:05

1 Answer 1

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This is more a workaround than a solution, since a solution isn't possible until we know what the problem is (hence the troubleshooting questions I've asked above).

Clearly, some of your settings are corrupted. Try doing this from a console (Ctrl+Alt+F1):

mkdir configuration_backup

# Get rid of any possible dotfiles that might cause trouble. You
# might not have all of these, and you might need to modify this
# list a bit. The files/directories will go to the newly-created
# configuration_backup directory so you can restore them if
# appropriate.
mv .config .dbus .gconf* .gnome* .gtk* .local .metacity configuration_backup

After this, you should be able to log in graphically. However, these steps will destroy many of your settings (unless you restore everything from configuration_backup. You'll have to redo them. If you can provide more details about your situation, there might be a solution that won't destroy your settings. Or, it might be easier to just accept this workaround and simply redo your settings.

If you later decide you want to restore your settings, look in the backup directory (~/configuration_backup) and find the name of the file or directory you want to restore. If you can't see what you want, use ls -A (command line) or Ctrl+H (Nautilus) to see the hidden files. I recommend that you first backup and delete the file/folder of the same name in your home directory. Then, copy one file/folder at a time to your home directory (e.g., cp -a ~/configuration_backup/.config ~), logging out and back in each time to make sure your old config files don't break your system.

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  • Where i have to move this file configuration_backup
    – karthick87
    May 16, 2011 at 12:14
  • @karthick87: It's a folder, not a file. You can put it anywhere. The point is to get those dotfiles out of your home directory. You could even delete your dotfiles, but deleting them removes the option of restoring them if your problem isn't solved. With the dotfiles gone, then the programs that use them will create new ones with default settings. Hopefully, then you'll be able to log in. May 16, 2011 at 14:17
  • I dont want to loss my existing softwares and files. Any other way ?
    – karthick87
    May 16, 2011 at 15:06
  • @karthick87: You won't lose your software and data files. You'll only lose your settings. There's no other way I know to tell you unless we can figure out what the real problem is. Since you haven't provided the troubleshooting information I asked for above, I can't help you any further on that front until you provide more information. May 17, 2011 at 5:36
  • I have installed shutter,teamviewer and some other software. When i look into my home directory. It shows the following folders .shutter .teamviewer. But your solution doesn't backup all these softwares right ?
    – karthick87
    May 17, 2011 at 8:38

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