Can't login as user. Only as root

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hi lol!
A week ago I made a fresh install of the new Leap 42.1. The system starts fine until I reach the login screen. I have not been able to login with the password I choose :(. But if I write ‘root’ as user and put the password I chose during installation, the X windows system loads well. I’ve read a lot of posts with similar problem and tried every idea in them but had no luck. Can you help me?:shame:
Thanks rotfl!

#2

When you’re logged in as root,
Open YAST > Security and Users > User and Group Management
Select the ordinary User account you’re having problem with, and reset the password.
Reboot (Some Desktops aren’t working properly simply logging out and back in with a different User, but you can try).
Login with your normal User account.

HTH,
TSU

#3

ok is it the password that is wrong or does the desktop just not start???

You should avoid logging into a GUI as root since you can accidental change the ownership of files in your home to root which stops the user from logging in.

#4

I keep trying to remember.

Several weeks ago, I had just this problem. I could not login as an ordinary user.

Somehow, I worked out what caused the problem, and fixed it. But I cannot remember the details. I think it had something to do with polkit, and perhaps with logind (part of systemd). But I failed to keep notes.

#5

Also, check numlock and Caps Lock states … unless, of course, Tsu2’s suggestion – which I was also about to suggest until I saw his post – has already fixed it for you

#6

Hi again lol!. I greatly appreciate all of your answers. I tried this option several times before; nonetheless, I followed these steps and still can’t login as normal user. Whenever I put my password I end up at login screen…
By the way, I’m using Gnome desktop. What else would you suggest me to do?
Thanks for your support!!!rotfl!

#7

What is the output of

ls -l /home
#8

Thank you very much for your reply lol!

Here it is:


~$ ls -l /home
total 10638
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users  113645 jun 15  2014 123.jpg
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    8192 feb 10  2015 17e2b350993d494337a2f1a3c1fd9252
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users  114026 jun 15  2014 45.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users   21704 oct 18  2014 78.jpg
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    8192 feb 10  2015 927a2a1d0cf45e3ba73908
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 nov 29 12:53 Acatlán
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic  5 08:50 Anáhuac
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic 13 09:21 antonio
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 oct 21  2014 Archivos de Outlook
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    8192 dic  5  2014 Artículos
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 oct  3  2013 $AVG
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 oct 23  2014 Blocs de notas de OneNote
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic 14 11:39 cherry
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users   35329 jun  8  2014 Como crear paginas web, hacer y diseñar tu pagina web gratis.html
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic 10 08:59 Descargas
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    8192 sep 12 13:31 Documentos
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 feb 14  2014 Documentos escaneados
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 ago 19  2013 Documentos personales Antonio
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 sep  5  2013 Documentos personales Georgina
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 oct 11 18:21 Documentos personales Sandy
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 oct 24  2014 ebooks
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 oct 23  2014 Epson
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 oct 21  2014 filosofía
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 mar 12  2015 found.000
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic  7 15:43 geor
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    8192 jul 20 18:57 Georgina
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users  614124 jul 26  2014 giant-panda_e_a4.pdf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic  5  2014 gnuplot
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic  5  2014 hp
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users   28672 ene  1  2015 Imágenes
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic 13 12:23 latex
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users 9260935 may 13  2013 LibreOffice-CalcGuide.pdf
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic 13 01:09 linux
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 nov 19 09:04 ma
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 oct  5  2013 mint
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users     114 dic 24  2014 .mintbackup
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users     317 mar 18  2013 motherboard.txt
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 nov  3  2014 Movies
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users   20480 oct 21  2014 Música
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic  7 17:47 mx
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 oct 21  2014 Nikon
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 dic 13 12:00 Octave
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 dic 13 12:00 opensuse
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users  315468 nov 18  2013 .org.chromium.Chromium.zhziPw
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users  184704 nov 20  2010 pci.sys
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 dic  5  2014 pizarron interactivo
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    8192 mar 17  2013 Post-Doc
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 ago 21 05:33 $RECYCLE.BIN
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users   12288 nov 25 09:14 Sandy
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 oct 21  2014 Scilab
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users      25 oct 19  2014 stream.m3u
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 ago 20 11:45 System Volume Information
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 dic  8 11:23 .Trash-0
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 dic 24  2014 .Trash-1000
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 mar 17  2013 uruguayos
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users       0 dic 10 09:03 usb
drwxr-xr-x 1 root users    4096 oct 21  2014 vim
-rw-r--r-- 1 root users      30 nov 30  2013 windows 7 sp1.txt
#9

I’m confused.:
It is like a dumping site of root
Why are those all in your /home directory?

Anyhow, can you navigate to your /home/user and delete
.Xauthority and .Iceauthority then try your user to log in
if it doesn’t work you have to try changing the ownership to your user.

#10

Hi lol!. Since I installed the system I’ve tried to login as “normal” user. It begins to give a headache so I really appreciate your advise.

This machine came with W7 and I made a partition for data before I installed linux. So, I put /home partition to be my data partition and another for the ‘/’ partition.

Anyhow, can you navigate to your /home/user and delete
.Xauthority and .Iceauthority then try your user to log in

In the root home folder only appeared ICEauthority. In my user folder nothing. I erased it but, nothing changed.

if it doesn’t work you have to try changing the ownership to your user.

How do I do that?
Thank you rotfl!

#11

Yes that is a mess only thing in /home should be a directory for each user and lost&found for the partition and maybe a directory you create for shared usage. And each user directory should be owned by that user.

read this

man chown

for command line change owner command If the current owner is root you need to be root to change it

#12

Oh wait how is the that home partition formatted. is it a Windows format? if so that simply will not work it must be a Linux compatible format

#13

Thank you for answering lol!

Yes it has ntfs format. I send you a picture of my partitions.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzBoLoUQva9aN2Y3NTl4MWo4Nzg/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzBoLoUQva9aN2Y3NTl4MWo4Nzg/view?usp=sharing
How can I fix this?
rotfl!

#14

Hah! Good catch, g! That does make a difference.lol!

#15

You can’t fix it you must provide a Linux file system for home you can not use a Windows file system. The permissions do not exist as such in Windows FS so when you mount a Windows FS permissions are faked. This is fin for just data you share but Linux can not do it’s proper job with out proper permission bits.

If it were me I’d redo it the right way first backing up the data I wanted to keep. You can have shared data but it can not be the /home partition or even your personal directory on /home but you can mount a NTFS partition at most any place you want in your user directory or in /home or off of root. but /home and your personal directory must be Linux. But you are a bit limited because you are using MBR booting and not GPT partitioned drive and have a limited number of primary partitions and youe extended looks to be full so you have no place to put a proper home partition. ie yopur painted into a corner. Ther is no way to convert a NTFS to any Linux based FS in place.

In Linux each user except root has their own directory where all that users settings and data is stored. root is special and roots home is in /root directory. That is the reason root worked.

#16

Hi lol!
So, it means I have to re-install, right? I’ll try that
I greatly appreciate all of your support and advise!
Thank you!rotfl!

#17

Hi lol!

I re-installed the system and everything is working fine now. Here is a picture of my new partitions:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzBoLoUQva9aeHBfXzJlMkNubmc
I put the ’ / ’ partition in partition 6 (btrfs format) and my ‘/home’ partition in partition 7 (xfs format).
Thank you so much rotfl!

#18

Great to hear.:wink:

#19

lol !!

I just want to login as root and I never found where I could do that !
It p****s me off to “su” each of my everyday commands (as simple as ifconfig) and want to log as root and with leap it seems impossible as far as I dug (leap is installed on a test machine so I don’t really care)

#20

On Fri, 18 Dec 2015 16:16:02 +0000, soundlord wrote:

> lol !!
>
> I just want to login as root and I never found where I could do that !
> It p****s me off to “su” each of my everyday commands (as simple as
> ifconfig) and want to log as root and with leap it seems impossible as
> far as I dug (leap is installed on a test machine so I don’t really
> care)

Just add /usr/sbin and /sbin to your user’s path. ifconfig and many of
the other commands, if you want to look at the config and not change
anything - don’t actually require root rights.

A basic rule of security is not to use any more rights than are
absolutely needed - logging in as root is a bad idea for a number of
reasons, but probably the biggest one is “whoops, I accidentally deleted /
usr/lib” - you can’t do that if you’re not root.

Jim

Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
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