19.04 has changed my login and I have access to nothing

**Fsirett** · August 9th, 2019

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

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:

Code:

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:

Code:

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:

Code:

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

Code:

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

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

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

Code:

/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.

Code:

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

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.

Code:

        # /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...antages_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..._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

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

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

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

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.