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Ubuntu no longer lets me login. I type my password into the login screen and hit enter and the screen goes black then brings me directly back to the login screen. It gives me no messages either. I know for a fact I am typing the correct password. Anybody know whats going on? My home folder is also encrypted and I am running 11.10

Thanks

7
  • If you press Control+Alt+F1 you should see a text-mode login screen. Can you test that to make sure it's accepting your username and password.
    – Oli
    Oct 20, 2011 at 0:50
  • Logging in through the console appears to work perfectly fine. I'm totally lost as to what is going on.
    – matthew
    Oct 20, 2011 at 0:54
  • Sounds to me like X (the graphical server) is crashing at some point and it's just reloading (that's why you're being pushed back to the login screen). If you have a network connection please run sudo apt-get install pastebinit, then pastebinit /var/log/Xorg.0.log and then post the URL it generates back here so we can see what X did last time it loaded.
    – Oli
    Oct 20, 2011 at 1:04
  • Ok i seem to have solved the problem. I was unable to access my home directory when I was using the console so i changed the permissions of it to 777. When i restarted my computer i was able to login. Very weird.
    – matthew
    Oct 20, 2011 at 1:12
  • Very odd indeed. Glad you fixed it.
    – Oli
    Oct 20, 2011 at 1:16

3 Answers 3

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(Comment from OP fixed issue)

Sounds to me like X (the graphical server) is crashing at some point and it's just reloading (that's why you're being pushed back to the login screen). If you have a network connection please run sudo apt-get install pastebinit, then pastebinit /var/log/Xorg.0.log and then post the URL it generates back here so we can see what X did last time it loaded. – Oli♦ Oct 20 '11 at 1:0

Ok i seem to have solved the problem. I was unable to access my home directory when I was using the console so i changed the permissions of it to 777. When i restarted my computer i was able to login. Very weird. – matthew Oct 20 '11 at 1:12

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  • "Fixing" anything by setting the permissions of your home directory to 777 is like leaving the front door open when you leave your house - because you once lost your key.
    – guntbert
    Mar 26, 2014 at 15:32
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I’ve had the same graphical login problem (on Ubuntu Precise 12.04). The cause was also permission-related but slightly different from the OP’s cause: the .Xauthority file in my home directory was owned by root. Removing that file from a text-mode login screen (e.g., Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in, then sudo rm .Xauthority) solved the graphical login problem for me.

-2

Same prob with .Xauthority owned by root.

Fixed by removing it.

Possibly caused by starting vncserver as root.

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