[KDM] Login as root fine, normal user cannot login through KDM but can through tty

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 4:55am

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong forum to post this to. I have noted that there’s an “Install/Boot/Login” forum as well, but since my problem appears to be centered on KDM and KDE I thought this would be the appropriate place to put my thread. If not, the mods can freely move my thread, I don’t mind.

Anyway, a little backstory. I’ve been distro-hopping on my Fujitsu Lifebook UH75/J (Japanese version of the U772) ultrabook. The distros I’ve tried (in order) are: Kubuntu, Debian XFCE, Fedora, Xubuntu, Linux Mint, and most recently openSUSE. I have kept my /home directory stowed away in a different partition so all of my personal files, dotfiles and configs are safe and sound everytime I switch distributions.

I went through the installation as normal, though it is worth noting that I placed my root (/) directory in my laptop’s SSD (my HDD is a hybrid drive) for obvious speed reasons, while I separated my /var and /home and they stayed in the HDD. After installation openSUSE boots fine (it detected EFI booting as well as the pre-installed Win8 out of the box, really really well, kudos to the devs, this is the first distro I’ve seen that does this well), with no problems.

However, when I reached the KDM login screen, I instinctively input my username and password. Note that the username and password I have used DID NOT change every time I installed a new distro on my system. In other words my username, password and dir in my /home has been the same since I installed Kubuntu. After inputting my username and password and attempting to login, my screen goes black, then after a few more seconds I was just taken back to the login screen. I tried to login again numerous times but to no avail.

What I did next were the following:

I logged in using my username on tty1 (Ctrl + Alt + F1). It works and I can read and write everything within my user home directory.
I logged in as root through KDM. KDE boots and shows initial welcome screens.
I added a new test user (aptly named “test”) through YaST with the root account. Test user can login through KDM without any problems.
Tried logging in again with my regular user and still I am just rudely redirected back to the KDM login.
Deleted my regular user’s .Xauthority file and .kde directory to see if that fixes the problem. Nope, it didn’t, and I’m still just being redirected back to login.
Logged back in to KDE as root and deleted my regular user account (but not including the /home/user directory and files). Created the user again with the same name, same password, same UID (1000), and the same home directory.
Tried to login as regular user again through KDM, still cannot login to KDE.

Like I said, I can login with my regular user account through the ttys, as well as the “Failsafe” option in KDM which appears to just give me a very minimal X session without a working WM and a flimsy Xterm with a pink background. As long as I can login to a terminal, I can pretty much read and write my personal user files without any problems. It’s just that I can’t login through KDM and into KDE.

I really hope that I could resolve this problem soon because I am really excited to try out openSUSE. I’ve quite had enough of Deb-derived distros and Fedora isn’t really that great with KDE so I gave openSUSE a try. Hopefully I can reach to a solution that doesn’t involve me reinstalling everything or purging my user home directory.

Thanks in advance.

robin_listas · May 30, 2013, 5:13am

On 2013-05-30 04:56, johnmcderp wrote:

…

> - Logged back in to KDE as root and deleted my regular user account
> (but not including the /home/user directory and files). Created the
> user again with the same name, same password, same UID (1000), and the
> same home directory.
> - Tried to login as regular user again through KDM, still cannot
> login to KDE.

Well, that means that there is something wrong in your home files.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 6:49am

Specifically what files? Got a lot of configs racked up due to distro hopping, are these files you’re talking about related to KDE or something?

robin_listas · May 30, 2013, 10:33am

On 2013-05-30 06:56, johnmcderp wrote:

> Specifically what files? Got a lot of configs racked up due to distro
> hopping, are these files you’re talking about related to KDE or
> something?

Dunno. If I knew I would have said

Try this:


la -R | grep root

If you find files owned by root, chown them.

Thinking… if you got config files from other distros, remove all of
them, keep only your data files (email is also data). Or start a new
home with different name and same uid.

Specially hidden files and directories.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

wolfi323 · May 30, 2013, 11:31am

Are you using the proprietary nvidia driver?
This could be a permissions problem then:
https://www.suse.com/releasenotes/i386/openSUSE/12.3/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html#idm1262519932

wolfi323 · May 30, 2013, 11:41am

So you took over your /home directory from kubuntu?

You already deleted .kde, but KDE4 on openSUSE uses .kde4. There’s also a migration script that takes over some old settings from .kde the first time you login. So maybe that caused a problem, since that script expects .kde to be a KDE3 config but in your case it was a KDE4 config.
So try to remove .kde4 as well. And if that doesn’t help, .config and .local.

Of course you should only rename those dirs first so you can put them back again if necessary.

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 11:59am

I went ahead and renamed those dirs you mentioned, but I still can’t login.

wolfi323 · May 30, 2013, 12:08pm

Hm. Since you can login with a new test user, it has to be something in your home dir.
Have you checked that all files in your home directory are owned by you?

Maybe cleaning the temporary folders (/tmp and /var/tmp) helps? There are some KDE cache files and sockets in there for every user.

And have a look if there are errors in ~/.xsession-errors or /var/log/kdm.log.

Or just rename the whole /home/$USER folder and try to copy stuff over again one by one (or in small heaps, so you know what caused the problem when it occurs again)…

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 12:23pm

Here’s my ~/.xsession errors:

/etc/X11/xim: Checking whether an input method should be started.
sourcing /etc/sysconfig/language to get the value of INPUT_METHOD
INPUT_METHOD is not set or empty (no user selected input method).
Trying to start a default input method for the locale en_US.UTF-8 ...
There is no default input method for the current locale.
Dummy input method "none" (do not use any fancy input method by default)

And here’s the latest from my /var/log/kdm.log:

X.Org X Server 1.13.2
Release Date: 2013-01-24
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: openSUSE SUSE LINUX
Current Operating System: Linux linux-eyph.site 3.7.10-1.11-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu May 16 20:27:27 UTC 2013 (adf31bb) x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.7.10-1.11-desktop root=UUID=ed93aa6f-1c09-4ddd-9ff2-c96ad463fe3e resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000LPVT-16G33T0_WD-WXF1A72J5255-part9 splash=silent quiet showopts
Build Date: 30 April 2013  08:24:17AM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.28.2
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Thu May 30 19:17:32 2013
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension
Initializing built-in extension SHAPE
Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
Initializing built-in extension XTEST
Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS
Initializing built-in extension SYNC
Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC
Initializing built-in extension SECURITY
Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
Initializing built-in extension XFIXES
Initializing built-in extension RENDER
Initializing built-in extension RANDR
Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
Initializing built-in extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
Initializing built-in extension RECORD
Initializing built-in extension DPMS
Initializing built-in extension X-Resource
Initializing built-in extension XVideo
Initializing built-in extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
Initializing built-in extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DGA
Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DRI
Initializing built-in extension DRI2
Loading extension GLX
failed to open /usr/lib64/dri/updates/i965_dri.so: /usr/lib64/dri/updates/i965_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
klauncher(1352) kdemain: No DBUS session-bus found. Check if you have started the DBUS server. 
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
kdmgreet(1348)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones: ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed:  "Not connected to D-Bus server" 

kdmgreet(1348)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): No time zone information obtained from ktimezoned

I’ve also cleaned up both /tmp and /var/tmp using `rm -r *', but still, I couldn’t log in with my regular user.

wolfi323 · May 30, 2013, 1:22pm

johnmcderp:

Here’s my ~/.xsession errors:

Loading extension GLX
failed to open /usr/lib64/dri/updates/i965_dri.so: /usr/lib64/dri/updates/i965_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Well, there is an error there. Not sure if that causes your problems, but KDE can crash on login if direct rendering isn’t working properly.
Can you again login as a test user and post the output of “glxinfo | grep render”?
You may have to install the package “Mesa-demo-x” first.

robin_listas · May 30, 2013, 1:33pm

On 2013-05-30 13:26, wolfi323 wrote:
>
> johnmcderp;2561285 Wrote:
>> Here’s my ~/.xsession errors:
>>
>>>
> Code:
> --------------------
> > > Loading extension GLX
> > failed to open /usr/lib64/dri/updates/i965_dri.so: /usr/lib64/dri/updates/i965_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
> --------------------
>>>
> Well, there is an error there. Not sure if that causes your problems,
> but KDE can crash on login if direct rendering isn’t working properly.

In my test system, the lib is in “/usr/lib64/dri/i965_dri.so”.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 3:41pm

Here’s the output after logging in with the test user:


test@linux-eyph:~> glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Mobile 
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_AMD_draw_buffers_blend,

I symlinked the i965_dri.so file from the directory you mentioned to /usr/lib64/dri/updates but still logging in doesn’t work.

wolfi323 · May 30, 2013, 3:50pm

johnmcderp:

Here’s the output after logging in with the test user:


test@linux-eyph:~> glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Mobile 
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_AMD_draw_buffers_blend,

Looks ok.

I symlinked the i965_dri.so file from the directory you mentioned to /usr/lib64/dri/updates but still logging in doesn’t work.

So it seems that was a red herring…
Can you login to twm or IceWM with your standard user? If yes, please post the output of “glxinfo | grep render” again. (if it works for one user doesn’t necessarily mean it works for every user…;))

And:

Even all hidden files? (the ones starting with a ‘.’)

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 4:10pm

I can’t login to either TWM or IceWM with my standard user. The same effect happens (screen goes black momentarily, goes back to KDM) as the one that occurs when I attempt to log into KDE.

Looking at glxinfo after failing to enter TWM or IceWM only gives me the `Error: Unable to open display’ error.

Yes, I first did a recursive chown -R *mystandardusername* *' inside my home directory, then did a find . -user “root”’ while inside my home directory. No files owned by root showed up.

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 4:13pm

By the way, could dbus be related to the problem?

Here’s a excerpt from my previous post again:


klauncher(1352) kdemain: No DBUS session-bus found. Check if you have started the DBUS server. 
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
kdmgreet(1348)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones: ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed:  "Not connected to D-Bus server" 

kdmgreet(1348)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): No time zone information obtained from ktimezoned

knurpht · May 30, 2013, 4:21pm

Am I understanding right, that a test user can login, the default user can’t?

Please also check whether for the user the “KDE Plasma Workspace is selected”

johnmcderp · May 30, 2013, 4:40pm

Yes. Both a test user and root can login to KDE through KDM, but my regular user (the one I have used before in previous distros) cannot.

And where is that option you’re referring to? Are you saying I should explicity set it in KDM such that I log into KDE? Because I did that already and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work for IceWM and TWM either.

nrickert · May 30, 2013, 4:48pm

In your home directory (use CTRL-ALT-F1 to get to a virtual console to login), try:


mv .profile OLD.profile
mv .bashrc OLD.bashrc

The suggestions have mostly been on the desktop settings files. And that is the first place to look. However problems in a shell startup file can also cause problems.

wolfi323 · May 30, 2013, 5:17pm

johnmcderp:

By the way, could dbus be related to the problem?

Here’s a excerpt from my previous post again:


klauncher(1352) kdemain: No DBUS session-bus found. Check if you have started the DBUS server. 
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!
kdmgreet(1348)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): KSystemTimeZones: ktimezoned initialize() D-Bus call failed:  "Not connected to D-Bus server" 

kdmgreet(1348)/kdecore (K*TimeZone*): No time zone information obtained from ktimezoned

No, that’s just KDM trying to get the time zone.
If that was the problem you either wouldn’t see the login screen, or you would be able to log into twm or IceWM, since they don’t need/use a dbus sessionbus.

Yes, I first did a recursive chown -R *mystandardusername* *' inside my home directory, then did a find . -user “root”’ while inside my home directory. No files owned by root showed up.

OK, but both of those missed the hidden files…
Try “chown -R yourusername .*” as well.

kasi042 · May 30, 2013, 11:07pm

Hi,
Is your standard user member of the “video” group?
I’m not sure if this has got anything to do with your issue, but I have read that advice a lot recently - just not in this thread, I think.
Since only graphic login is concerned limited to one specific user it may be worth checking that it is.

CU

kasi