Help, Linux Mint Boots fine but won't let me log in session.

theuniverse · 03-03-2013, 03:31 AM

I've ran FSCK so many times and my Linux Mint 11 still won't let me log in,It boots fine but on the Login screen when I type my password, it gives me a black screen and won't log in to my Desktop and asks me password over and over again. I'm 100% sure the password is corrrect and I'm sure that's not the issue, the problem is when I press Enter and the password is aunthenticated it flashes the screen and goes to terminal for a few seconds and then goes back asking me for the password again and again. Anyone has any idea what the problem might be? I'd really appreciate any help.

pingu · 03-03-2013, 04:18 AM

Can you login in a terminal?
If not you should get some error message.
Also check the /home directory:
Is there enough space, if /home is on a separate partition then is that partition mounted, do your user have write-access to home-dir?
(Log in via terminal by pressing <ctrl>+<alt>+<F1>

theuniverse · 03-03-2013, 04:36 AM

Hello,I can login just fine in terminal but when I type 'startx' this is what it tells me:

"Fatal server error, server is already active for display 0.
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again."

What should I do, would it be safe to remove that .X0-lock file?

pingu · 03-03-2013, 05:37 AM

You can't run 'startx' because X runs already.
But when in terminal, you can check things like diskspace, your homedir and such.
Also, in GUI-login, can you change to some other environment?
Like Mate or Cinnamon or Xfce or whatever you might have.

Also check the logs, there is an .xsession-errors in your homedir, also check /var/log/Xorg.0.log & /var/log/messages

theuniverse · 03-03-2013, 07:18 AM

"Also, in GUI-login, can you change to some other environment?
Like Mate or Cinnamon or Xfce or whatever you might have.
"

Yes I tried safe mode and no effects without any luck.

theuniverse · 03-03-2013, 07:25 AM

pingu, what should I look for in those log files?

do you think deleting that .X0-lock file would be a good idea?

pingu · 03-03-2013, 07:36 AM

No do NOT delete the .X0-lock file.
As I said earlier, the reason for why you can't run 'startx' in terminal is because it already runs.
You could try (as root) to kill the X-server and then execute startx, it might spit out useful errors.

What you should look for is something related to logging in.
An easy way is to run "tail -f <logfile>" in terminal, switch to GUI, log in, switch to terminal to see what has been written.

What about your homedir, have you checked it like suggested?
Just in case you're not familiar with the terminal:
"df -h" will show what partitions are mounted and how much space there is left on each.
"ls -l /home" will show owner, group and permissions for all directories in /home.