My Red Hat Linux box shut down abnormally due to an electrical storm that came out of nowhere. Now, I'm having trouble logging back in as "jason", the user I was logged in as when the computer shut down. I can still log in as other users, including root.

When I try to log in from the graphical login prompt, the screen goes black and then comes back up with the graphical login prompt. Every other user can log in.

I was, however, able to login as user "jason" using the failsafe option under Session.

I've read a few posts on login trouble, and I have tried a few suggestions. I deleted the .gnome* files in /home/jason. When that didn't work, I removed jason (userdel jason), but kept jason's home directory. I then recreated the user jason. However, I still can't login. I also made sure that there is plenty of space on the disk.

I am also not able to login using KDE, but the login gets a little further before failing.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
jason

I've checked thru some of the logs in /var/log. I can see that a session is opened for jason, and then that session is closed after a couple of seconds. What would cause the session to be closed so quickly?

Also, I've noticed a couple of suspicious lines during bootup, indicating that /poweroff and /shutdown could not be removed (input/output error). Is this related to my problem?

Post the lines here please.

You know the other day I didn't notice a power blackout until my computer complained about my printer was off. Granted, there's an UPS under the desk.

My guess would be that some KDE/Gnome dependent files were screwed. The easy way is to log in as root, go to menu> system> user man, edit "jason" name & login to something else, then add a "jason" user with a new directory. Copy your favorites/files to there. Do NOT copy any .* files or scripts or profiles, etc. That would be what the culprit is.

Oh and I have had messed up an account that resulted in a similar scenario.

Note: you should log into the new account once before copying files. The login will produce proper directory structures.

Sometimes it works this way . Delete the user jason without deleting his home dir .And then create the jason again. CHange the onwership and group onwership bach jo jason .
Just check it out . Sometimes it works ;-)

Thanks for your suggestions. I was hoping I wouldn't have to delete the user. I ended up backing up all of the non-hidden files in /home/jason, removing jason, adding jason back, and restoring the non-hidden files. It worked well enough.

For fun, I restored the hidden files. Sure enough, the problem resurfaced. If it happens again, maybe I will try to find the hidden file(s) that caused the problem.

As far as the /poweroff problem, I booted up the computer with the pre-compiled Red Hat 7.2 kernel, and then re-booted the computer with the kernel I compiled, and the problem went away.

Maybe it's time to get a UPS?

Thanks again,
jason

You're welcome.

I got my UPS for real cheap when there was a sale. Half the regular price. I missed another sale of APC beige box for about the same price. Mine is grey, BTW. It lasts for 6+ mins on battery. I think all modern power supplies should come standard with UPS built-in. 10 mins is a good start. Like most laptops.

Well Jason ,
U don't have to worry about backing up the non-hidden files in ur home dir unless you choose to delete a user's home dir while removing a user .
Eg:- userdel -r jason will delete jason and his home . DO u wanna lose ur home !!! :-)