Ubuntu 11.10 cannot login and cannot shut down
 

I have just upgraded 11.04 to the latest daily version of 11.10 (Beta2+)using Update manager on my Acer Aspire One netbook. I got many hangups and errors so I reinstalled the upgrade option again from live usb. I have keept my original separate 'home' directory and username. I chose auto login during the install which did not succeed but get to a login screen yet I cannot login to my usename or shut down but I can login a guest.

I reset the 'passwd' just in case, then did another reinstall to make sure I was using the correct password (same one I have always used) but still cannot login or shut down.
Is there a simple fix to reconfigure or reinstall something to get over this problem. Suggestions would be appreciated (I have tried Ubuntuforums but got no reply).

BTW I can get to # prompt terminal via recovery option and I can login to a terminal with 'username' and password, so I know they are correct, this allows me to list the home directory and all the files are intact. As a point of interest what command would run the desktop manager gdm (not installed)? startx (another hangup)? or something new to 11.10?

Have you checked who owns the files in your home directory? It might just be an ownership issue. You could try running
Make sure you are in your home/username directory before running the above command.

Thanks Nexus I can get to # root prompt (from recovery mode).
I can log in as username/passwd.
My home directory is /dev/sda6/home/username. I have tried some commands and get an error read only file system, so the problem is here somewhere.

I can get the $ prompt after login 'username' and then password. If I do ls -l I get a list of / directory and if I cd /home and ls -l I get 0 ie empty. So that home is not my original home.

I am a little stuck here. How do I change directory into /dev/sda6/home? or /dev/sda6/home/username (I get not a directory) before I try 'chown'?

Could you please point me in the right direction? Thanks

This might be a difficult for you to do, but can you do: then post the result here.

The way to log out via commandline is:

Using Oneiric usb live disk:
cd /media/Home then ls -ld gives drwxr-xr -x root root 4096 2011-08-03 15:46
ls -l gives drwx------ 3 root root etc.... lost+found
drwxr -xr -x 90 1000 1000 etc....myname
cd myname
ubuntu@ubuntu:/media/Home/myname$ sudo chown -R myname:myname
chown: missing operand after `myname:myname'


ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000600c2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 9218047 4608992+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 100358055 102462569 1052257+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 9221371 100358054 45568342 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 102462570 234436544 65986987+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 9221373 29704184 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 29704248 100358054 35326903+ 83 Linux


sda5 is / and sda6 is Home for Ubuntu
Hope this helps, nearly there, many thanks

I had the same issue.
There was a .Xauthority file in my home folder owned by root and that prevented me from logging in.
Logging in a text console (Alt+Ctrl+F1 at the login screen) and issuing:
sudo rm ~/.Xauthority
solved the issue.
I hope it helps.

@knulp79, Thanks .. It solved my problem

Thanks knulp! This was my issue as well. Once I rm'd it I was in and everything works like a charm. Darn Xauthority file. Who's the SU on this box...oh me!

Thanks knulp79!

I left my computer and 20 min later when I came back, my password did not work anymore. I tried everything you guy mentioned and did not solved. Gonna format it againnnnnnnnnnnnn. why did I upgrade.... The problem is not formatting, the problem is losing everything.

Don't jump the gun on reformatting. It's likely a simple permissions issue. It's easy to overlook things; if you are worried about losing everything, by all means, wait for more help. :)

Could you run the following groups of commands, posting the output of each?

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2011-10-17 15:40 .
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 2011-10-14 11:33 ..
drwxr-xr-x 54 koala2 koala2 4096 2011-10-17 14:29 koala2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-10-17 15:40 netlogon
drwxrwxrwx 2 root nobody 4096 2011-10-17 15:40 pdf-documents


there are lots of files, but
-rw------- 1 koala2 koala2 50 2011-10-17 14:29 .Xauthority

Can't delete it tho, it says ready-only file system


koala2:x:1000:1000:Slotmanlab,,,:/home/koala2:/bin/bash

I had to use to recovery mode to get it. The alt ctrl F1 works but then the passwd that I enter cannot be authenticated. Well I have a backup from yesterday. What takes time is to install/configure all software that I use for some analysis. I can create a new user too. I think I got this problems while setting up a ftp server.
Thank you

Why is your filesystem read only? Dirty shut down? I would recommend booting to a live CD/USB such as Knoppix and running:

e2fsck -f /dev/[your boot drive (or home drive, if it's on a separate partition)]

CAUTION: make sure the boot drive is NOT mounted or the command WILL break your system.

Once the check is done, mount the filesystem and remove the .Xauthority file:

mount /dev/[your boot drive (or home drive, if it's on a separate partition)] /mnt
cd to your home directory and rm .Xauthority

You can skip the e2fsck command if you want, most likely.. it's just a safety to make sure that your partition doesn't have any errors before you go make changes. You should now be able to reboot and login again.

The 3 B's. BackUp, BackUp, BackUp.

Hello all.

I just upgraded from Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10 today and I'm having issues.

1) Ubuntu won't shut down even with the shutdown and poweroff commands.This is the only problem I have so far. I can login to my account with no problem.I attempted to change the session so I can boot into an older version of Ubuntu but it doesn't happen.From the commandline here's the input/output from my attempt to shut down :

elothas@Inspiron-530s:~$ poweroff
poweroff: Need to be root
elothas@Inspiron-530s:~$ shutdown
shutdown: time expected
Try `shutdown --help' for more information.
elothas@Inspiron-530s:~$ shutdown -h
shutdown: time expected
Try `shutdown --help' for more information.
elothas@Inspiron-530s:~$

I don't know what "time expected" means.

2) I found another glitch. Parcellite doesn't load.

So far I see that "freedom is restricted" in this version of Ubuntu. Linux is supposed to be about freedom.

Suggestions will be appreciated.Thanks.