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I run Ubuntu 10.04 inside VMware on a windows host. After a power outage I can no longer log into Ubuntu. I get to the login screen, which mysteriously also changed its color theme from the standard ubuntu theme to some bluish theme. When I type in my password. It seems to do something, the screen turns black a cursor appears for a second but then it returns to the login screen. In the upper right corner appears a error message:

INSTALL PROBLEM! The configuration defaults for GNOME Power Manager have not been installed correctly. Please contact your computer administrator.

Just to be clear, if I type in the wrong password, I get the regular Authentication failure error. Any ideas of what's going on? How could I save the system?

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can you test login in tty (Ctrl+Alt+F1)? – Stefano Dec 2 '11 at 14:31
@Stefano: yep, that worked – Lucas Dec 2 '11 at 14:40
Can you select a different desktop before giving your password? – user unknown Dec 2 '11 at 15:28
Okay, I just realized that my disk is almost completely full and my problem might not be related to the power outage. I will update my question when I have taken care of it. – Lucas Dec 2 '11 at 16:23
rm -rfv is your friend. It will recursively do the job. Handle it with care! – Stefano Dec 2 '11 at 16:55

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I fixed it. Hope this will also help others. Forget about the power outage, completely unrelated. I was downloading and building lots of files over night and the disk filled up to its limts. The steps I took to fix it:

On login screen: 

Ctrl+Alt+F1 //(thanks Stefano)

commands I used:

  • to check the disk usage: df -h
  • to check directory size: du -h /home/lucas/some_gigantic_directory
  • remove a gigantic directory: rm -vR /home/lucas/some_gigantic_directory
  • and reboot: sudo reboot
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