unable to log into ubuntu using the graphical mode
 

Good evening,

I have kubuntu 9.04 installed in my computer and I am normally using a Gnome environment desktop (though I get back to KDE or Xfce if I have any troubles with Gnome)

This afternoon I restarted my computer and since ever I am unable to log in. I press the on button, get to the partition page and select Ubuntu 9.04 and the computer shows the login page

however, once I type in my password, the computer tries to log in but then brings me back to the login page asking for the password again. I have tried to login as Xfce, Gnome, KDE, Failsafe mode and the result is the same. The only way to get through is to login through the terminal, but then I am unable to get back to the graphical mode. Any help?

Sounds like there could be some permissions screwed on your home directory.

This is highly not recommended but may help. Drop to the console, login.

sudo chmod -R 777 .

That'll give full permissions to all files in your home directory, reboot and try again. Good luck.

I agree it sounds like a permissions problem, but that does sound a little drastic. And irreversible unless you have recorded all of the permissions first.

Before trying that I suggest you look for a log of what is going wrong. If your GUI login was controlled by gdm, I would suggest looking in /var/log/gdm/:0.log to see if you could spot what might be the problem. Since you're using Kubuntu, I imagine you are using kdm as the login manager. I don't know where kdm would log to but I would expect errors to be logged somewhere.

You also might check /var/log/auth.log for information. That file has to be accessed as root

Thanks a million, it worked!
(late reply because I took some holiday)

still I do not understand what happened for I did nothing new to cause such a thing

are permissions now granted permantently or shall I do anything else to fix the bug?

All the best (and thanks again, you made my day!)

The above reply was for arckane, i tried the sudo chum 777 and it worked
I was unable, though, to use the command

/var/log/gdm/:0.log

yes blackhole 54, I login using gdm but I was unable to spot the problem (as you might have understood I am quite new, though enthusiast, in Linux)

thank you for your thread in any case,

Sorry if I was not clear, but /var/log/gdm/:0.log is not a command. It is a text file. I usually look at such things with the less command:

You can also look at it with gedit if you are more comfortable using a graphical tool. (Actually, since it is a text file, you can use any of the text utilities on it. Except you shouldn't try to modify it, and as a normal user, you can't.)

I don't know if your error would have shown up in there, but I thought it was someplace that you should look. Of course, now that there isn't an error, looking won't help you -- except possibly to satisfy your curiosity.