Hello All,

I'm a newcomer to Linux having just installed it recently. Managed to successfully install by googling my way through and I'm glad to say Linux Mint is now working well for the most part.

Backstory to the issue:

After leaving my computer alone for some time, it locked itself as one would expect. When I went back to it a few hours later and moved the mouse, the option to unlock via password did not come up as it usually does, so I forced shut-down. This happened again a few more times so I decided to try and google my way to a solution.

What happened was a series of steps from various websites trying to change the display manager, and I must have gotten it wrong.

Current issue(s)

(1) Now, when I boot, the 5 lights under the Linux Mint logo start flashing, then the screen cuts to some scrambled lines, then goes black. I can hit Ctrl+Alt+F1, login via username and password, and type startx to get the gui going.

(2) - It seems some settings are being forgotten - as a simple example, Firefox forgets that I set Google as the default search, and I keep having to reconfigure after every shutdown. Also, I keep getting requests to type in a password for a keychain manager or something like that. Note, all my files/folders still retain their information so thankfully that is not an issue.

As you can probably tell, I'm not too up to speed on the ins and outs of Linux besides what little I've been able to do by amateur searching.

Hoping I could get some guidance to overcome these issues. Thank you for the help in advance!

Regards,

Kareem

Hi Kareem, and welcome to LQ.

Which version of Mint and which desktop environment are you using?

Also, are you in a position to be able to save any documents you have and reinstall Mint (because that might be the best thing to do in this situation)?

Hi Kareem .. I tend to agree with hydrurga. It sounds like your display manager / desktop environment has been left in a semi-functional state after troubleshooting. If I were in your situation, I would reinstall after saving documents on external media.

Cheers,

Thank you hydrurga and Rickkkk - I've reinstalled Linux Mint 18.1 and for the time being, it seems like everything is working as it should. I've backed up all my files and nothing has been lost thankfully.

Thanks again for the quick responses, that was an easy fix!

Regards,

Kareem

Great to hear, Kareem.

Let us know if you come across the lock screen problem again.

If you want to mark this thread as "Solved", see "Thread Tools" at the top of the thread.

Happy Minting!

Good news, Kareem - have a great weekend and feel free to return if ever you need assistance with anything.

Cheers !