HI guys! I'm a newbie in linux, i recently installed Slackware 9.1, i was running red-hat 9 and mandrake 9.2,9.1 before. Everything was going perfect with slackware, until i installed the driver for my ati 9600 video card, i got the driver to work, but unfortunately i couldn't log into linux as a normal user, i can only log in as root. When i try logging in as a normal user the screen just blinks and i get kick back to the kdm login window. If u are wondering if i typed the password correctly the answer is yes, that is the first thing i try doing, i even change the password and then typed the new one, but still i couldn't log in as my normal user. I also tried logging in, into text mode, as root i did telinit 3, and then i try logging in as a normal user and i got a message saying /bin/bash access denied.
i'm currently reinstalling Slackware and i'm going to try to install the new driver for my video card, hopefully this new driver will resolve this problem, i'll keep u updated. If any of u guys has had this problem and have a solution for it, please help me out.
By the way i'm running kde, i don't know exactly what the version number is, but is the one that comes in the Slackware 9.1 Cd
.

Edit your /etc/group file as root and make sure the user that you want to use is in the video group. Here's the video line from mine for an example.

video::27:root,pwnz3r

I don't have to do that with the NVIDIA drivers, but I suppose it's required with the ATI ones.

you could also log in as root, and execute 'su (username)'

that will log you in as the normal user without asking for a password.

The group thing is a better way to try to fix the problem though, because root -> su username is only temporary. But it's a good idea if the group file editing doesn't work.

Hi guys is me again! i wasn't able to go online in this couple of days, that's y i haven't updated my post. I'm sorry to say that i tried what u guys told me to, but unfortunately neither one of r options worked. When i try using su (name of user) i don't get log in as that user, it just ignores the command. I also tried setting the /etc/group the way u guys suggested but there is no group called video, so what i did when i installed the driver for my video card, it ask me if i wanted to grant permission to all user, i chose to give permission tothe group users instead of video. I stil can't log in as a normal user. I'm thinking the problem is when i install the kernel source, because the two times i have install slackware, everything goes well at first, but when i install the kernel source and then i try to log in as a normal user, i can't. I'm guessing that is the issue but i'm not so sure though. do u guys recommend compiling a new version of the kernel instead of the 2.4.24. this is the version of the kernel source i installed.

I suspect that your problem has to do with the GUI bombing out when you try to start gnome or KDE or whatever. See if you can log into bash as a user. If kdm has bash or failsafe as a login option try logging into that.

If kdm does not have a bash option then try the three fingered command:
<Ctrl> <Alt> <F3>
which should give you a login prompt. Then login as user and see if that works OK.


___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

I am having the same problem in SUSE 9. Not sure what triggered it. Still very much a newb. But I can login in to the failsafe with Intreeg user account. But kde etc. kicks me back to kdm. If I create a new user account ... fabbafoo .... I can login to KDE etc with this user account.... I have not been able to get to the machine to try and edit the video group since reading this but just wanted to make sure that would be the best place to start and where to go if that doesnt work.

TIA
ITL

"If I create a new user account ... fabbafoo .... I can login to KDE etc with this user account...."

You might be able to log into the old accounts by making them appear to be new accounts. Copy the /home/olduser/.kde tree to someplace safe within olduser space. Then delete /home/olduser/.kde. The next time that you log into old user it should act as if this was the first login after an install. You will have lost all of your KDE settings and have to reconfigure them. If this does not work then restore /home/olduser/.kde.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

ugh, that make a little too much sense... sorry for the stupid question. Ill give that a try.

Any ideas how it would have happend. It seems like I I had done was install Netscape, config Kopete, and change my boot loader settings.

"Any ideas how it would have happend. It seems like I I had done was install Netscape, config Kopete, and change my boot loader settings."

If the fix works then I would theorize that when you installed Netscape or Kopete one of the KDE config files in /home/olduser/.kde somehow got broken.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

Cool! Thanks for the info! I will give it a try and report back either way.

Just tried it and now luck, still just blinks then kicks me back to kdm.

Hello,

I don't know your distro, but the ones I have then you can boot with the install CD and to check of the installation and repair if nesary, this can be problem if you have patch a lot and updated a lot after the installation , because the repair tool will put back the packages from the install CD. But if you choose wisly when you get the repair questions it may work...

What I did instead when I had simular problem was that I took a tar backup (as security) of all my home directory. Deleted my user that I could not log in with. Created a new user with the same name. No problem to log in, everything worked again!

Don't know if it will help you or it is a solution for you....

Cheers!

afaik, the ati driver adds a bunch of lines in /etc/profile. If something has gone wrong with it, you probably have a damaged /etc/profile. (I had a similar problem in the past. After installing/uninstalling the ati driver a few times, I got an empty /etc/profile) Try reinstalling it. In suse there is a package called aaa_base that contains the original /etc/profile