I'm running the newest version of Debian and I was trying to install VLC but it required packages I didn't have, so I was told to run the command "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" to install these packages.
It worked and I was able to install VLC but when I restarted the computer, it showed me the login screen with my username selected like always. However, when I click my username and type my password, it gets stuck on the spinning wheel for about a minute and then it goes back to the login screen like nothing happened. If I click my username again and type my password it does the same thing and brings me back to the login screen.
I already tried to make the terminal appear by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 but nothing happened. I also tried with the other F keys but the terminal didn't appear.
What can I do to fix this?
Thank you

The first thing I would do would be to boot to a Live CD/USB of something, then mount the HDD and take a look at the log files. I'd start with /var/log/boot.log and /var/log/messages.

You could find the tail command very helpful in looking at the most recent log entries.

If you find anything that seems to cast a light on the issue, post it here, being sure to surround it with "code" tags, which become available when you click the "Go Advanced" button beneath the compose/edit post window.

And welcome to LQ.

I managed to log in using security mode and checked the logs. There were no errors there. I also did apt-get --fix-broken install, but it did nothing.

apt dist-upgrade is different from apt upgrade in that it allows packages to be removed, and expects the user to carefully review the list of packages being removed to make sure none are important.

If you are on debian stable, there is no reason installing vlc would require packages not in debian stable. Odds are you have added third party repos or repos from other versions of debian, i.e. frankendebian. Once you do stuff like that, you're kinda on your own to resolve it as the OS is in some unknown state.

If you can't get a TTY with ctrl+alt+F# then you could try logging in via ssh. Or booting single user mode.

To attempt to understand what happened, you could start by sharing "apt policy vlc".

You can also take a look at the apt log to see what you removed. /var/log/apt/history.log

You can take a look in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ to see if you added any 3rd party repo there.

To avoid these situations, use aptitude instead of apt-get and restores utilitys like timeshift are a must.
Do what user enigma9o7 told you so you can fix it