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View Full Version : [SOLVED] 19.04 has changed my login and I have access to nothing



Fsirett
August 9th, 2019, 08:49 PM
First, I upgraded to 19.04 about two weeks ago, so it is a fairly new install. Second, I have been having problems with the electrics and the switch has been snapping off frequently, but I do have an UPS (for all the good it does, it gives me no time to save when it goes down. I changed the battery but it does no good) so I should have good surge suppression.

What has happened is that this morning, after the breaker went AGAIN(!), I turned on the machine and found my login name was not there, but another was in its place. It happened to be my first and last name, if that is of any help.

this new user seems to accept my password, but then it just returns to the login screen and asks for my password again.

I now have no access to my files. I keep my /home folder on a separate partition, but the system, using a tempuser does not want to give me access to any of the system files.

I used Boot Repair, but it did not seem to work. I also tried:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-ubuntu-login-loop/

I was unable to load the recovery mode (before boot repair) so I found this one was a useful.

I tried their key strokes to call up the login screen. This screen actually was happy to accept my original user and password and let me carry on. that was not a problem. I then made up a tempuser account using their methods and had no problem getting that to work.

The user files looked quite normal for what I might expect, looking at what they presented as normal.

I went ahead and renewed the permissions for my original name, better safe than sorry, I thought,

However there was no luck there. So I signed in as tempuser and looked at the /tmp files. Not being completely certain what I should expect, I chmod the lot, as described.

I did not change the display manager, however, I am not certain that would do much since the tempuser works.

As a last bit, I took the new file name and changed it to my original file name, thinking that would be a good work around, but it worked, not at all.

I am at my wit's end now. i would really rather not lose everything I have done. If It logged in I figure I can point it to the old /home file, but as it is, I am at a loss. The system originally had one username and password, so there is no interference on that front. The login screen disappears and all seems to be going well then the login screen re-appears. I tried to go to safe mode by holding first the shift key, then the escape key and third the spacebar.

Do you have any suggestions?

To recap, on boot up, It displays a log in name and when I add my password, it seems to accept it but then returns to the login screen and asks for the password again until I get frustrated.

I notice that a chap had a similar problem with Kubuntu, and I thought I might clarify a touch. My home folder had some 15 Gb of space yesterday, and I do not htink there was anything pending to fill it like that.

Now I think about it, since I have had about ten electrical outs a day over the last few days, could this have filled my system with broken files that might need to be removed? No idea if that is plausible, but straws look like strong trunks in the present current.

Fsirett
August 10th, 2019, 09:36 PM
A quick update, I burned a new live USB and I can now get some things to work, like boot repair. I am told there was an error but my expertise at repairing these things tends to be limited to swearing threats of violence and treacherous looks while holding instruments of destruction.

I know I can just reinstall and repoint to my /home folder, although I do not see it labelled as such and that does concern me somewhat. At present i am being cheap and waiting for 500 GB SSDs to drop below €50 for a decent brand and then I am going to install my OS on an SSD. I know 500 is overkill, but it will last a long time. I would rather not reinstall at this very moment, if there is an alternative.

In any case, the report from Boot Repair is at:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/rh4tBjSWKK/

I have some concern about lines 252 to 264. I do not remember ever seeing a number of "loops" together

As well, I should mention that SDB is a dead drive that is just taking up space until I get an SSD. Stupid, I know, but I am also lazy.

I am now going through some of the old advice I have had from you and selecting reports that might be of use.

I cannot seem to be able to get "boot info script" to run, so I am unable to give that information.

I ran sudo fdisk and that returned:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.9 GiB, 2027323392 bytes, 3959616 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop1: 89.3 MiB, 93581312 bytes, 182776 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop2: 53.7 MiB, 56315904 bytes, 109992 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop3: 151 MiB, 158343168 bytes, 309264 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop4: 4 MiB, 4218880 bytes, 8240 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop5: 14.8 MiB, 15462400 bytes, 30200 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop6: 1008 KiB, 1032192 bytes, 2016 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop7: 3.7 MiB, 3821568 bytes, 7464 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EARS-00Y
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb7293253

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 683593727 683591680 326G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 683595774 1953523711 1269927938 605.6G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 683595776 878905343 195309568 93.1G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 878907392 1953523711 1074616320 512.4G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EFRX-68J
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0000bb53

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 922064896 1945333759 1023268864 488G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 2048 922064895 922062848 439.7G b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb3 1945333760 1953523711 8189952 3.9G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdc: 2.7 TiB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD30EZRZ-00Z
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: AAA8AE19-43C3-45CE-867C-65F018BF7D69

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdc1 2048 1910536191 1910534144 911G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc2 1910536192 3767033855 1856497664 885.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc3 3767033856 4817969151 1050935296 501.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdc4 4817969152 5860532223 1042563072 497.1G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdd: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EZEX-00U
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0006e6a2

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdd1 2048 922879999 922877952 440.1G 83 Linux
/dev/sdd2 * 922880000 1953523711 1030643712 491.5G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sde: 15 GiB, 16106127360 bytes, 31457280 sectors
Disk model: UDisk
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x46f8e7bf

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sde1 * 0 4095999 4096000 2G 0 Empty
/dev/sde2 4066772 4074259 7488 3.7M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/loop8: 35.3 MiB, 37027840 bytes, 72320 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$



And again, I am wondering about all those Loops, but I have no idea.

When I ran df -h I got this:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 12G 0 12G 0% /dev
tmpfs 2.3G 1.7M 2.3G 1% /run
/dev/sde 2.0G 2.0G 0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 1.9G 1.9G 0 100% /rofs
/cow 12G 567M 11G 5% /
tmpfs 12G 131M 12G 2% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 8.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 12G 0 12G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 12G 1.7M 12G 1% /tmp
tmpfs 2.3G 76K 2.3G 1% /run/user/999
/dev/loop1 90M 90M 0 100% /snap/core/6673
/dev/loop2 54M 54M 0 100% /snap/core18/941
/dev/loop3 152M 152M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/31
/dev/loop4 4.2M 4.2M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/406
/dev/loop5 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/254
/dev/loop6 1.0M 1.0M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/61
/dev/loop7 3.8M 3.8M 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/77
/dev/loop8 36M 36M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1198
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


That does not seem very concerning, but I know little or nothing.

GPARTED

From Gparted I have:


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA WDC WD10EARS-00Y (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 350GB 350GB primary ext4 boot
2 350GB 1000GB 650GB extended
5 350GB 450GB 100GB logical linux-swap(v1)
6 450GB 1000GB 550GB logical ext4


Model: ATA WDC WD10EFRX-68J (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
2 1049kB 472GB 472GB primary fat32
1 472GB 996GB 524GB primary ext2 boot
3 996GB 1000GB 4193MB primary linux-swap(v1)


Model: ATA WDC WD30EZRZ-00Z (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 978GB 978GB ext4 First Overflow
2 978GB 1929GB 951GB ext4 Seven
3 1929GB 2467GB 538GB ext4 Mar18/3
4 2467GB 3001GB 534GB ext4 Mar18/4


Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-00U (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdd: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 473GB 473GB primary ext4
2 473GB 1000GB 528GB primary ext4 boot


Warning: The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes, but
Linux says it is 512 bytes.
Ignore/Cancel? i
Model: General UDisk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sde: 64.4GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/512B
Partition Table: mac
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 2048B 6143B 4096B Apple
2 2082MB 2086MB 3834kB EFI


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 3997MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$



I am not xertain what is going on with sda. As far as I remember there is the OS and the /home folder, but that does not look right.

Here is the blkid report


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="be42c91c-5d18-4b9d-b990-44851fc461e8" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="b7293253-01"
/dev/sda6: UUID="ec7f0ef1-1603-4d79-a7e8-3bcf1d9bf451" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="b7293253-06"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Two" UUID="d976605a-6674-40fe-8857-6671710b1e95" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="0000bb53-01"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL_FATBOOT="THREE" LABEL="THREE" UUID="79FC-B7B3" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="0000bb53-02"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="Six" UUID="85b20811-2ded-4935-be38-b98fcd011a2e" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="First Overflow" PARTUUID="6bae2a75-6ad2-46ac-8c1d-5dd068147435"
/dev/sdc2: LABEL="Seven" UUID="07676f1e-7dee-4319-b347-181a61f45889" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="Seven" PARTUUID="0238e25b-c7e4-4f09-8098-25336f268bdc"
/dev/sdc3: LABEL="Eight" UUID="0b14331e-1615-43c0-a032-93d609b0bfc0" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="Mar18/3" PARTUUID="ff1117c2-3c58-481f-ab1c-3b037f5a3f0d"
/dev/sdc4: LABEL="Nine" UUID="0f6f01f6-9fc3-4d7a-a685-74df05a86aaa" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="Mar18/4" PARTUUID="ee99d689-c81a-45a6-956d-12861f43f66b"
/dev/sdd1: LABEL="Five" UUID="b896603d-f8e3-4e1e-9434-51b8f1dedcd0" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="0006e6a2-01"
/dev/sdd2: LABEL="Four" UUID="64e5b3bb-9838-4187-9fff-2afc6e7f2c92" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="0006e6a2-02"
/dev/sda5: UUID="39e8be9e-0054-4dd4-b220-48a03817ef98" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="b7293253-05"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="e0caa566-a44b-4ee7-8642-211f6a3cc496" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="0000bb53-03"
/dev/sr0: UUID="2011-05-07-22-53-27-00" LABEL="Peter Paul and Mary 05-11" TYPE="iso9660"
/dev/sde2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="039E-EF17" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="46f8e7bf-02"
/dev/sde1: UUID="2019-04-16-19-19-59-00" LABEL="Ubuntu 19.04 amd64" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="46f8e7bf" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="46f8e7bf-01"
/dev/loop8: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop1: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop2: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop3: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop4: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop5: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop6: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/loop7: TYPE="squashfs"
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

Fsirett
August 11th, 2019, 11:29 AM
Update.

In frustration, I reinstalled 19.04 and the result is...Nothing has changed. I am still getting the same login screen that demands my password, it accepts my password and then takes a few minutes and returns to the login screen as before.

At this point I am just moving my /home folder to a removable drive for a bit and then I am going to wipe that disk and do a complete reinstall, seeing no other alternative.

guiverc
August 11th, 2019, 01:51 PM
Sorry I'm tired and currently have poor concentration, but you mentioned using a separate partition for your /home partition, but in your `df -h` (disk free -human output) I don't see /home mounted. Can you login via text terminal? for gui logins require the creation of work files necessary for gui to function (these are created in $HOME or your user directory), and if insufficient space is present to create the needed files, your login aborts and you return to greeter/login screen (ie. login loop). The text terminal login doesn't require the 'work file' to be created so will allow login for exploration purpose to look for issues. If you're using a server (and thus don't have gui) sorry I couldn't detect if you were talking about server or desktop (that and I'm very tired).

fyi: loop devices are nothing to worry about - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_device

cruzer001
August 11th, 2019, 03:02 PM
/dev/loop1 90M 90M 0 100% /snap/core/6673
/dev/loop2 54M 54M 0 100% /snap/core18/941
/dev/loop3 152M 152M 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/31
/dev/loop4 4.2M 4.2M 0 100% /snap/gnome-calculator/406
/dev/loop5 15M 15M 0 100% /snap/gnome-characters/254
/dev/loop6 1.0M 1.0M 0 100% /snap/gnome-logs/61
/dev/loop7 3.8M 3.8M 0 100% /snap/gnome-system-monitor/77
/dev/loop8 36M 36M 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1198

Snap packing is used by the software center. Every time you add a snap package you will add a loop to your system. Too many snap packages can slow your system down.

Instead of snap the .deb package system can be used. To view all deb package install Synaptic package manager.

sudo apt install synaptic
And at login use "Gnome on Xorg".

You mention the Alternate ISO which Ubuntu does not have. However you can do a full install using the "Ubuntu mini.iso"

oldfred
August 11th, 2019, 04:23 PM
Your Boot-Repair report includes all the extra commands you posted. That is why we often ask for Summary report from Boot-Repair as it does everything in one report.

Your fstab in the summary report showed /home mounted, but I do not think installer is smart enough to know a previous /home should be used. You have to tell it to use sda6, if that is still correct.

# /home was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=ec7f0ef1-1603-4d79-a7e8-3bcf1d9bf451 /home ext4 defaults 0 2


While I now use UEFI with gpt partitioning, I started to use gpt partitioning with my old BIOS only system back in 2010/2011. You do have to have a bios_grub partition for grub to correctly install. With multiple drives, best not to use Boot-Repair's autofix as it installs one grub into the MBR of all drives. And then gave error on your gpt partitioned drives as you did not have a bios_grub partition on those drives. Better to use Boot-Repair's advanced mode and choose one install & one MBR.

GPT Advantages (older 2010 but still valid) see post#2 by srs5694:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1457901
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GUID_Partition_Table#Advantages_of_GPT

While I have several flash drives, most as full installs for emergency boot, I like to have at least one install of Ubuntu on every drive. I use them for testing, or seeing what next version will be like, but keep latest LTS version as main working install.

Creating a Dedicated Knoppix Partition for large drives
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/knoppix/knoppix_partition.htm
Except I have multiple Ubuntu installs and keep a current testing one on every drive, but smaller partition if just for emergency boot.

Fsirett
August 11th, 2019, 06:32 PM
Thanks very much for all of that! I eventually, in complete frustration, erased and re installed completely. My /home, originally labelled "Home" had its label removed, do not ask me why.

In any case, the new install worked and I have been spending much of the day reinstalling, or waiting for a reinstall to finish and trying to guess just what exactly I had before. Probably a good thing, since if I forget it I probably do not need it, but when I do, it is going to earn a lot of donations to the "curse box"

I would really like to know why this happened in the first place, but I am afraid I am not going to find out. just bad luck?

As to my electrical problem, I had three outlet "trees" with three connections each. I was looking at them and I thought they are so closely linked that a small change and I would get a short. I changed those with better designed, and expensive designs and the problem has disappeared. Two electricians were stumped by it, so there is a contribution to any who may have a similar problem. Replace your outlet octopus on a regular basis (mine were all five years, or more, in use)

oldfred
August 11th, 2019, 06:54 PM
Often any sort of abnormal shutdown, particularly power issues cause file corruption.
Then you have to run fsck on the ext4 partition(s).
In your case it seemed like it booted, but did not then mount /home? So perhaps /home partition is the one that had an issue and needed fsck?

If a /home partition cannot be mounted, it often still boots but creates a new default /home, so all your settings are then gone.

lammert-nijhof
August 12th, 2019, 08:53 PM
The wording of oldfred is somewhat incomplete with respect to 'file corruption'. If your file-system is corrupted, fsck will find it and try to repair it. If a file itself is corrupted due to e.g. a powerfail, fsck will not find it, because the file system administration still might be consistent. Both NTFS and EXT4 file system checkers only deal with corrupted file-system administrations, but not with damage inside files.

To avoid and/or repair damage inside a file, you need ZFS or BTRFS, that use additional file checksums and Copy On Write (COW) to avoid corruption inside a file. Whatever happens, you always will have a consistent file, either the old one or the new one and you never will end up with a file; partly new and partly old, like in NTFS and EXT4.

I detected that difference, after I experienced many power break per day. Many of my music files were corrupted. It has been my main reason to move from EXT4 to ZFS.

Fsirett
August 13th, 2019, 10:05 PM
Cheers! That does help. It changes nothing but it helps me to understand.

In case it helps those who wander down this path:

The machine would not let me sign in, and, in fact put up a familiar name but not the name I used! When I changed the name back to the familiar one, that could work in terminal mode, it refused that as well.It tantalised and then whisked the objective away just before I took possession.

in complete frustration, I did a full clean reinstall of Ubuntu, having found my first burn of a live USB was corrupted and caused me great frustration when it would not do what was expected. Eventually, I realised this was "possibly" due to the USB instead of a destroyed computer. Fortunately, I was right. this is a common problem with me when I have problems, but I always forget that the USB corrupts and so do everything else and completely frustrate myself.

After I reinstalled the OS and I had reinstalled my programmes, I decided I would try to simply point at my old Home folder and see if that would do anything before I went to my backup. Lo and behold(!) my system came back, in spite of the fact it has had the original label lost. I consider that to be a stroke of incredible luck.

I do have an uninterruptible power supply, which does not give me any time to save my work any more, but I hope is is giving me some surge protection. I should replace it, but I bought a new battery about six months ago and I resent not getting a year out of the investment. In fact, I shall be spending the time looking at the range of UPS that I have to choose from and, this time, get one that is going to last and do its job.

Looking over my old posts here, I think my reputation for parsimony since I mentioned that I wanted an ssd about a year ago and now I am still looking but for a bigger one since the prices started coming down. I am well on the road to buying half rotten fruit and cutting away the majority to save a few cents.

In any case. I do thank you all...again!...for your time and trouble and help. Every time, I learn a little more and now will carry on and probably forget it all and frustrate again, but, in any case, thanks again and I do very much appreciate your help.