Can't log in to main account ("will") desktop session

**W-Unit** · November 6th, 2013

Hi there.

I recently upgraded to Saucy and things were going fine. I needed to do a full restart so I did so (from a KDE Plasma desktop).

After restarting I am unable to log in to a desktop session on my main account (will).
Doesn't seem to matter what type of session I select - Kubuntu, Plasma, Xubuntu, Ubuntu (Default) - none of them work.
In all cases, after typing my password and pressing Enter, the screen goes black momentarily, and then I am back at the login screen. There are no error messages or anything.
I am still able to do stuff requiring superuser privileges via the console (CTRL+ALT+F1).

The "guest session" option works fine.

Thanks

**Bashing-om** · November 6th, 2013

W-Unit; Hi !

Did the authentication change on your /home directory ?? - very often the case.
check:
At the GUI login ctl+alt+f1 -> terminal;

Code:

ls -la ~/.Xauthority
ls -la ~/.ICEauthority
ls -la /var/lib/lightdm/

If you are not the current owner, will have to "chown" them back to "you".

we will see what is

**newb85** · November 6th, 2013

@Bashing-om, are you sure about that third line? On my system, everything in /var/lib/lightdm is owned by lightdm.

**Bashing-om** · November 6th, 2013

@newb85; Thanks for checking ! // I do not have lightdm installed so I can not check, but, so long as lightdm is not owned by root, we should be good in that department. Hey, that is my thinking (??)

two heads are better than 1

**W-Unit** · November 6th, 2013

Ah, I think I figured it out... I'm able to get logged in again normally, at least, but need to fix something so that I don't have to go through these steps every time...

I think things got messed up because I tried to change my login password by using the passwd command.

So for discussion purposes we have Password1 (old password that I had since installing Ubuntu) and Password2 (new password that I set using the passwd command).

So I press CTRL+ALT+F1 and log in successfully using Password2. I do an ls command and notice that there appear to be only two files in my home directory: One of them is a ".desktop" file with a name that metions something about accessing private data, the other is a README.txt. So I open README.txt with Vim and it tells me to use the command ecryptfs-mount-private.
After running with this command, I am prompted for my password. I try entering Password2 but am told that it is incorrect. Then I try Password1 and am successful; everything goes back to normal and I'm able to log in and access the files in my home directory.

So in summary, I can log in again, but at the moment it looks like I have two different passwords: one to log in (the new one), and one to actually access my home directory (the old one). How do I change them both to the same password?

Thanks again guys!

**Bashing-om** · November 6th, 2013

W-Unit; Oh my.

Good deal you have it figured out.
Seems you have encrypted your /home directory. I have absolutely no experience in this realm and do not want to go there.

With no knowledge/experience I do not have the ability to advise further. we will have to depend on others' advise now in this matter.

my best regards