user settings
 

I recently started having a problem with my redhad 8.0 installation where i try to log in to my usual account, and it just sits there for about 30 seconds, then returns to the login screen. i created a new account and it logs in just fine. i'm guessing something must have been changed in that particular user's settings, and i'm not sure what to look for to fix the problem. any ideas.

-sprice

How customized is the user? If your user isn't too setup, you can simply do a login from the command line and rm -r all of the . files (your custom settings). If your user is extremely customized, you may want to do some detective work. Provide us with a bit more info so we can troubleshoot a bit with you:
What "Login Screen"?
What graphical user interface do you use?
What were the last couple of things you messed with?

Welcome to LQ!

Cool

user settings
 

The GUI i use is gnome. the login screen i'm referring to is the linux login that comes up right when the computer boots up. i haven't really messed with anything lately, but it seems pretty clear that the problem is with starting the GUI.

-sprice

You can just delete your .gnome directory, this will reduce the amount of "recustomizing" you'll end up having to do. However, it may just be a glitch in the gdm (the startup/login manager) files. I believe those are located in /etc/X11/gdm but could very well be wrong as I've not started up into a gui for quite some time.

Here's the steps I'd start with, and then go from there:
Login from the command line as root.
cd into the users home directory:
cd /home/sprice
Move the gnome directory to the root's home directory:
mv .gnome /root/gnome-sprice
And then try logging in again to see if that fixed it.

If you are using gnome2 the directory is gnome2 ;)

Cool