Cannot log into administrative account
 

Ubuntu 7.10

Whenever I try to log into my (only) administrative account I get this message:

GNOME session manager cannot lock the file /home/user/.ICEauthority.

(The user part is actually a name)
It also says to try logging into the failsafe session but it will not allow me to log in there either.

All of my stuff and all administrative can only be accessed (without logging to root) from that account, so I kind of need to be able to log in there.

At the login screen, do CTRL-ALT-F1 and login to the terminal as your normal user. After that do
Is this file owned by the same user who owns the account?

CTRL-ALT-F1 does not do anything on my login screen. (Could having two accounts do that?)

Yeah, my account and file.

CTRL-ALT-Fn (where n is between 1 and 6) should show you a terminal. Backup the file, then delete the original and try logging into GNOME.

I tried F1-6 and it didn't do anything.

Is it possible to do the backup and delete using the terminal of a (non administrative) different account?

If your "administrative account" is a member of the "root" group, using a GUI desktop with that account presents the same security issues that would be raised by running a GUI as "root."

Anyhow, you shouldn't need to do the C-A-Del stuff: a simple sudo ls -l /home/user/.ICEauthority should suffice to let you see any permission problems, and a sudo chmod or sudo chown (whichever is needed) should fix them for you.

(Oh dear, my total-linux/command line-noobosity is showing! :rolleyes:)

Okay, PTrenholme, some questions because I am a linux/command line noob.
1) Can I do the sudo ls, etc. thing on the terminal of this guest account I'm using right now even though it does not have administrative privilages?
2) What do you mean by 'permission problems'?
3) I have no idea what sudo chmod or sudo chown is and I get the feeling that it's probably not going to tell me. If the sudo ls, etc. thing works how will I know which to use?

(p.s. If the create a user or manage groups thing isn't in the menu of this account because my sister kept messing with it, is there a way to open that to see if my normal account got accidently switched to the "root" group or something.)

1) You should be able to do the sudo from (almost) any Ubuntu "regular" user account. Try it and see what happens. I think that Ubuntu puts all users in the /etc/sudoers file by default. (If you're the administrator, and your sister is "messing," perhaps you should consider removing her from the sudoers file.)

2) I assumed from the "cannot lock" message that the ownership of the hidden ICE authority file had been changed. (That often happens when someone other than the owner is in the directory and that someone uses, e.g., an editor, that needs the authority, and, further, that that someone has (implicit) permission to "overwrite" the authority file. This "overwrite" process is often automatic.)

3) The two commands (chown and chmod) are used to change the ownership and permissions, respectively, on a file. Look at man chown and man chmod for details.

On the "cannot lock" problem: look in /var/lock/subsys/ to see if a lock is set on the program you're trying to run. (It shouldn't be, because all locks should be erased when the system is rebooted.) Oh, by "look in," I mean "do something like ls -l /var/lock/subsys/."

Reboot the computer

Select recovery mode (usually the second boot option)

This will log you into a root terminal

Type where username is the username of the user you can't log onto.

Then type

Okay, sorry it took so long but I've been busy.

chown username /home/username/.ICEauthority
while under recovery mode, no effect.

ls -l /var/lock/subsys/
"No such file or directory"

Any more ideas?

Did you do those commands whilst logged in to the "Recovery" terminal session?

If so, what is the output of ls -l /home/username/.ICEAuthority?

Again, in the recovery console try a mv /home/username/.ICEAuthority /home/username/.ICEAuthority~
That should force the X server to recreated the hidden .ICEAuthority file when you next try to start your GNOME session. If that works, just delete the .ICEAuthority~ file since you will no longer need it. (It's just a back-up file in case this doesn't work.)

Yeah, I did those while logged into the recovery terminal.

The output was
I tried the other thing but I just realized that I spelled something wrong so I'm going to go try it again.

How do I delete a file I don't know the location of? I've never heard of a .ICEauthority before.

Re-did the other thing.

Output:

Help?
 

Anyone have any more ideas?

yes....
just do what ubuntu intends you to do and only work as a normal user,
every time you want to do anything admin wise use sudo (or gksu the graphical equivalent)
ubuntu shoudl be set to do this automatically