Hello,
My laptop running openSUSE leap 15.2 was running fine until yesterday when the mouse froze. Unable to do anything I rebooted the system (hard reset by holding the power button down). Unfortunately, now after booting I am unable to login.
Specifically, I am able to input my password for the user at the graphical login however after a moment it just reloads the login display. https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/543706-Leap-15-2-stuck-on-login says to try clearing out the ~/.kde4/ and ~/.cache/ directories via a tty, however attempting to login to a tty does not work properly. Specifically, I can enter my user name and password, however, after receiving the login message “Have a lot of fun…” I am given control of a blinking cursor, whichs takes keystrokes but does not actually do anything. e.g. I can type “ls” but pressing enter just goes to newline. Any help would be appreciated.
Can boot the installation medium? – DVD or USB-Stick …
Assuming that, the installation medium boots, does the “Rescue System” indicate anything?
@dcurtisfra
I am able to boot the rescue system from installation media. When I attempt to mount the file system to /mnt I receive the message unknown filesystem type ‘crypto_LUKS’ as the drive is protected.
Then you need to decrypt:
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdaX cr_sdaX
Change the “sdaX” to the appropriate device name.
Then, if this is a partition, you can try mounting it at “/mnt”
mount /dev/mapper/cr_sdaX /mnt
If it is an LVM, then you should have device entries for that, perphaps “/dev/mapper/system-root”, “/dev/mapper/system-home” and “/dev/mapper/system-swap”. The actual names might be different, depending on you configured the encrypted LVM. The one ending in “-root” is the one to mount at “/mnt”.
I was able to mount the file system (sda2 in my case) as per your instructions, and it was a LVM (device entry /dev/mapper/system-root). I then cleared the /.kde4/ and /.cache/ directories as was suggested in the previously linked thread. umounting then rebooting without the bootable usb gives a error: “Default Boot Device Missing or Boot Failed. Insert Recovery Media and Hit any key. Then Select ‘Boot Manager’ to choose a new Boot Device or to Boot Recovery Media [Ok]” I have since booted the rescue system and remounted the file system.
When you boot install media, in addition to the rescue system there is also an option to boot the installed linux system. Perhaps give that a try.
(Hmm, I’m not sure if that works with an encrypted disk).
@**nrickert
**For some reason both uefi and secureboot became enabled. I have disabled both again, but am now facing the first issue again with the looped login screen (even when selecting boot from disk using the rescue usb).
At the grub menu prompt, after selecting the boot entry you want (probably already selected), hit the ‘e’ key.
This should take you to an edit screen. Scroll down to find the line that begins “linux”. Append " 3" to the end of the line. Then use CTRL-X to continue booting.
That is supposed to give you a command line login. I don’t know whether it will work, but it is worth trying.
Doing this does work, in that I get a command line login, however the same issue with using a tty prompt occurs:
I can enter my user name and password, however, after receiving the login message “Have a lot of fun…” I am given control of a blinking cursor, which takes keystrokes but does not actually do anything. e.g. I can type “ls” but pressing enter just goes to newline.
Try that again. But this time, when editing the grub menu boot line, also remove the “splash=silent” from the boot command. You can use the DELETE key for that.
You should then see a lot of information on screen about boot progress. Look for any obvious errors.
@**nrickert
**Yes all the units load green[OK].
That’s good. But it does not explain what is going wrong.
You can maybe try rebuilding the “initrd”. It probably won’t fix the problem, but it is worth trying.
Boot with the rescue system.
Mount your root directory at “/mnt” as before.
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
mount -a
mkinitrd
exit
shutdown -r now
Can you login as root at a console? Maybe it’s having issues getting the user home directory so pauses until it can. Can you get to the users home directory from root?
If you can login as root can you create a new normal user and does that work?
Unfortunately, this did not work.
@**tweetiepooh
**
I can enter my user name and password, however, after receiving the login message “Have a lot of fun…” I am given control of a blinking cursor, which takes keystrokes but does not actually do anything. e.g. I can type “ls” but pressing enter just goes to newline.
While, technically, I can “login”, I am unable to execute any commands (outside the rescue media).
It seems like there is not much that can be done since the availability of information to diagnose the problem is scarce to nonexistent. I think I will attempt to use rescue media to backup the file system, and then reinstall.
That’s another possible explanation ruled out. So we still have a puzzle.
I think I will attempt to use rescue media to backup the file system, and then reinstall.
That seems like a sensible plan.
Neil,
- With or without total disk encryption?
[HR][/HR]I’m beginning to suspect that, encrypting the system partition(s) is counter-productive …
- And, using tools such as KDE KWallet or the GNOME Key-Ring will protect the user’s passwords and access-codes anyway …
- At a system level, the encryption on ‘/etc/shadow’ is also sufficient for most cases …
- Yes, encrypt sensitive user directories but, only there …
That’s always a user choice.
Personally, I do use an encrypted LVM. So just about everything is encrypted except “/boot” and the EFI partition. I do that, in part, to make sure I keep up with what is happening with encryption.
If I honestly evaluate my encryption needs, then:
Encrypted swap is essential if doing any encryption. Whatever you are doing could be swapped out, so best to encrypt swap.
Beyond that – I do not have a real need to encrypt the root partition. I should encrypt “/tmp”, but mounting “/tmp” from “tmpfs” is sufficient for that – it is only encrypted when swapped out. When I last looked in “/var/tmp”, I didn’t find much that concerned me. So, apart from swap, it is important to have an encrypted space for sensitive files. You can do that with a “ecryptfs” private directory or you can do that with Plasma vaults.
Apart from that – system startup is slower with crypto. But once the system is up and running, I don’t see much difference. Linux is pretty good about keeping things in memory if they are heavily used, which is why the cost of crypto isn’t too bad. Personally, I’m okay with the slower startup.