Normal user can not login

English Install/Boot/Login
21

Carlos E. R. wrote:
> On 2010-07-04 18:16 GMT fireali wrote:

Carlos, i need to have a short offline back and forth with you…i
tried sending to an @telefonica.net i found somewhere, but i guess it
got filtered…do you have a ID in these fora i can PM? (“carlos”
offers 15 possibilities, none of which are E.R.)

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
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CMedia 9761 AC’97 Audio

22

gogalthorp

Running a GUI as root can change the ownership of certain control file in a users directory like .Xauthority and .ICEauthority and possibly others. If these files become owned by root the user can no longer use them and can not log in. This can happen by simply browsing the user directory from a root owned GUI. So it is best never to log into a GUI as root. There is nothing you can do by this that can not be done as simply running the tools as root from a user owned GUI.

I’ve changed the permissions of those files using Midnight commander. Problem persists. :frowning:

fireali

My solution is pretty simple and straight forward, and I will explain it step by step for ‘mistreated’
1- Log in using root, if you don’t have any other option.
2- Start YaST.
3- Select Security and Users in the left list.
4- Click Users and Group section in the right list.
5- A window will show up with a list of system user(s). Select the user you have problem with and click on Edit button.
6- A window will show up with 4 tabs. Select Details tab. It’s the second one.
7- Change your home directory. For example, if it is /home/mistreated change it to /home/mistreated1
8- Click on OK. Wait for the system to finish the task. Then log out.

I’ve also tried this step by step. No results. :frowning:

Carlos E. R.

Did you have a look at the “/var/log/Xorg.0.log” file? I don’t remember
if this was suggested earlier.

Have a look (in text mode, just after a failed attempt) for lines
starting with “(EE)”. If you don’t see anything obvious, you could post
the file into a pastebin server.

In graphics mode you have to look at Xorg.0.log.old instead.

I did look at that file, but I don’t see anything that could catch my eye. The only lines starting with “(EE)” that I’ve seen in it were about nvidia drivers, I think, but I’m not so sure of what could it mean. What do you mean by “post the file into a pastebin server”? I’ve searched in Google and I can only see pages with tons of codelines that I don’t understand :disapointed:

Well, I don’t want to cause headache to you, guys. I’m very grateful for all your support!!

23

open the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log with a text editor, and then copy and paste the contents into the Internet web site: pastebin internet website and once copied, press ‘submit’ on that page. It will then give you a web site URL/address where the content of your Xorg.0.log file is now hosted. You then post here on our forum that web site URL/address.

Of course if you can’t boot X so as to use an editor and a browser, that creates a slight complication, where more than basic Linux knowledge is needed to copy and paste a file content into the Internet.

24

Thanx oldcpu! This is the link: pastebin - collaborative debugging tool

25

There may be more clues to the problem in another file - $HOME/.xsession-errors . There’s a lot of fluff in there, too, but the last few lines just point us in the right direction.

[rant] I sure wish developers would look at their own .xsession-errors and get rid of some of their own cruft/debug/dead code in there. It would make looking for real errors a lot less confusing. [/rant]

26

>> And about logging in with superuser (root), I do agree, just like
>> everybody who has used linux, that while you have a normal user, you
>> should never log in as root. But when you don’t have, you NEED to log in
>> as root to create a normal user account.

>no, boot to run level three, and at the presented command line log in
>as root, then type “yast” and use the non-GUI version of YaST…

of course, I didn’t say you have to login in GUI as root, I just said you have to log in as root sometimes. And yes, loging in using text mode is much safer.
Tnx for the comments ;).

27

of course. But since you don’t remove any user or directory, you will not loos data. While with removing a user, just as you noted, you have the risk of loosing home data.
:slight_smile: yes, it’s a kind of simple and safe trick :wink:

28

fireali wrote:
> I didn’t say you have to login in GUI as root, I just said
> you have to log in as root sometimes.

sorry, i misunderstood…shucks, i log in as root every day
probably…but never into KDE/etc…

–
DenverD (Linux Counter 282315)
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
via NNTP w/TBird 2.0.0.23 | KDE 3.5.7 | openSUSE 10.3
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AMD Athlon 1 GB RAM | GeForce FX 5500 | ASRock K8Upgrade-760GX |
CMedia 9761 AC’97 Audio

29

On 2010-07-05 07:52 GMT DenverD wrote:

> Carlos E. R. wrote:
> > On 2010-07-04 18:16 GMT fireali wrote:
>
> Carlos, i need to have a short offline back and forth with you…i
> tried sending to an @telefonica.net i found somewhere, but i guess it
> got filtered…do you have a ID in these fora i can PM? (“carlos”
> offers 15 possibilities, none of which are E.R.)

Yes, I saw it today and replied, got sent this afternoon. If you didn’t
get it, I’ll resend via another account.

No, I don’t have an ID in the forum.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

30

On 2010-07-05 09:36 GMT mistreated wrote:

> What do you mean by “post the file into a pastebin server”?
> I’ve searched in Google and I can only see pages with tons of
> codelines that I don’t understand :disapointed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastebin

:slight_smile:

I saw the file, nothing of interest there. Sorry.

Try the same with .xsession-errors, as GeoBaltz suggest. But scan it
and edit out personal information, if it has any you do not want
published.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

31

On Mon, 05 Jul 2010 09:36:02 +0000, mistreated wrote for a reply:

>> gogalthorp
>>
>> Running a GUI as root can change the ownership of certain control file
>> in a users directory like .Xauthority and .ICEauthority and possibly
>> others. If these files become owned by root the user can no longer use
>> them and can not log in. This can happen by simply browsing the user
>> directory from a root owned GUI. So it is best never to log into a GUI
>> as root. There is nothing you can do by this that can not be done as
>> simply running the tools as root from a user owned GUI.
>
> I’ve changed the permissions of those files using Midnight commander.
> Problem persists. :frowning:
>
>> fireali
>>
>> My solution is pretty simple and straight forward, and I will explain
>> it step by step for ‘mistreated’
>> 1- Log in using root, if you don’t have any other option. 2- Start
>> YaST.
>> 3- Select Security and Users in the left list. 4- Click Users and Group
>> section in the right list. 5- A window will show up with a list of
>> system user(s). Select the user you have problem with and click on Edit
>> button. 6- A window will show up with 4 tabs. Select Details tab. It’s
>> the second one.
>> 7- Change your home directory. For example, if it is /home/mistreated
>> change it to /home/mistreated1
>> 8- Click on OK. Wait for the system to finish the task. Then log out.
>
> I’ve also tried this step by step. No results. :frowning:
>
>> Carlos E. R.
>>
>> Did you have a look at the “/var/log/Xorg.0.log” file? I don’t remember
>> if this was suggested earlier.
>>
>> Have a look (in text mode, just after a failed attempt) for lines
>> starting with “(EE)”. If you don’t see anything obvious, you could post
>> the file into a pastebin server.
>>
>> In graphics mode you have to look at Xorg.0.log.old instead.
>
> I did look at that file, but I don’t see anything that could catch my
> eye. The only lines starting with “(EE)” that I’ve seen in it were about
> nvidia drivers, I think, but I’m not so sure of what could it mean. What
> do you mean by “post the file into a pastebin server”? I’ve searched in
> Google and I can only see pages with tons of codelines that I don’t
> understand :disapointed:
>
> Well, I don’t want to cause headache to you, guys. I’m very grateful for
> all your support!!

I think you misunderstood Carlos E. R. instructions.

You should have change ownership of

…Xauthority and .ICEauthority when they are not owned by the user.

When you login as root:

Code:

ls -hal /home/mistreated

if you see something like
Code:

-rw------- 1 root root 152K 2010-07-05 15:34 .ICEauthority

then
Code:

chown mistreated:users /home/mistreated/.ICEauthority

switch users and you should be able to login as normal user
otherwise that was not the problem or the solution.

Same check for .Xauthority

–
Chillingout@opensuse.forum

32

Thanks Chill Out. I tried this, but unfortunately the problem persists. In the meantime I’m logging in with another user I created, but it is truly uncomfortable to deal with my personal files in another user’s home. Any help is welcome!

33

mistreated wrote:
> Chill Out;2185392 Wrote:
>> I think you misunderstood Carlos E. R. instructions.
>>
>> You should have change ownership of
>>
>> …Xauthority and .ICEauthority when they are not owned by the user.
>>
>> When you login as root:
>>
>> Code:
>> ------------------------
>> ls -hal /home/mistreated
>> ------------------------
>>
>> if you see something like
>> Code:
>> ------------------------
>> -rw------- 1 root root 152K 2010-07-05 15:34 .ICEauthority
>> ------------------------
>>
>> then
>> Code:
>> ------------------------
>> chown mistreated:users /home/mistreated/.ICEauthority
>> ------------------------
>>
>> switch users and you should be able to login as normal user
>> otherwise that was not the problem or the solution.
>>
>> Same check for .Xauthority
>>
>>
>>
>> –
>> Chillingout@opensuse.forum
>
> Thanks Chill Out. I tried this, but unfortunately the problem persists.
> In the meantime I’m logging in with another user I created, but it is
> truly uncomfortable to deal with my personal files in another user’s
> home. Any help is welcome!
>
>
do not log into KDE/Gnome/etc as root…

instead log in as the working user you can log in as and open a
console/terminal and type carefully and enter the following, in
order…NOTE, if the original/now broken user id is not mistreated,
replace it below with the correct user ID:


su -		<do not forget the -, then give root pass when asked
chown  mistreated:users /home/mistreated/.*authority
exit
exit

then, log out of your current session and try logging into mistreated
again…

if successful, congratulations–but, do NOT log into KDE/etc again
because you should never log into KDE/Gnome/XFCE or any other
*nix-like graphical user interface desktop environment as root…

doing so 1) opens you up to several different security problems, 2)
too many too easy ways to damage your system no matter how careful
your actions (example: just browsing in your home directory while
logged into KDE/Gnome/etc as root can lock you out later as yourself
due to permissions damage), 3) and, anyway logging into KDE/etc as
root is never required to do any and all administrative duties…

so, always log in as yourself, and “become root” by using a root
powered application (like YaST, File Manager Superuser Mode) or using
“su -”, sudo, kdesu, or gnomesu in a terminal to launch whatever tool
is needed (like Kwrite to edit a config file)…read more on all that
here:

http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Login_as_root
http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebase-runtime/userguide/root.html
http://tinyurl.com/6ry6yd
http://tinyurl.com/ydbwssh

on the other hand, if you still cannot log into mistreated, post again…

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DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

34

I did that. No success… :confused:

35

mistreated wrote:
> I did that. No success… :confused:

i give up, and freely admit that most any user can figure out a way to
kill a perfectly good openSUSE install, if they have the root password…

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36

I give up too. Thank you so much for your time and your answers, you people are inspiring and your help is very appreciated by me. I’m sorry to not get the problem solved so we could help another people with the problem. But I will reinstall and backup my personal files, althought I might loose configuration files. Great forum! Thanks one more time!!!

37

In another thread(?) I recommended to copy all the old userid files to the new user

sudo cp -p /home/mistreated/byfolder_or_files/  /home/new_mistreated
sudo chown new_mistreated:users -R /home/new_mistreated

Regarding can’t login: Is it possible you accidently disabled account login?
Use YaST -> Security and Users -> User and Group Manager check if the account is login disabled.

A.K.A. Chill Out

38

On 2010-07-09 19:35 GMT mistreated wrote:

>
> I give up too. Thank you so much for your time and your answers, you
> people are inspiring and your help is very appreciated by me. I’m
> sorry to not get the problem solved so we could help another people
> with the problem. But I will reinstall and backup my personal files,
> althought I might loose configuration files. Great forum! Thanks one
> more time!!!

You have a new user that works, don’t you? Simply copy your data files
from the old user to the new one.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” GM (Elessar))

39

Hi,
I am a new user too and the similar problem. I changed home dir through YaST as was suggested and when I tried to login it said no disk space or something like that. I deleted the contents of /var/tmp and i can login into my original home dir now :slight_smile:

thanks

40

godpart2 wrote:
> I am a new user … I deleted the contents of /var/tmp and i can
> login into my original home dir now :slight_smile:

i wonder where you read to do that?

what did you delete?

if you can’t answer that, then a word to the wise: in Linux do not
delete stuff unless you now what it is, what it does and what will
happen if you delete it… *

and, in every case it is best to leave stuff outside of your /home
alone…because everything you have to be root to touch is NOT yours,
it is system stuff…if you delete YOUR stuff the system can keep
running, if you delete system stuff you risk a dead machine (until you
repair the damage you caused)…

so, back to: you wrote “it said no disk space or something like that.”
and if that was the reason you couldn’t log in then you have not fixed
the problem, you have just removed the reason for the symptom…

the problem is you didn’t allocate enough room for your Linux install
in the first place, OR you have a runaway program filling the logs, OR
you have aborted several (download/YaST operations) and left /tmp (not
/var/tmp) full of junk…

but DO NOT just go to /tmp and delete stuff…doing so WILL kill your
system…even though there may be junk files in there i can assure
you that there ARE files temporarily IN USE by the system…delete
them and have trouble…

the safe (and correct) way to clean out /tmp is here: ‘Clear Temp
Files at Boot - openSUSE Forums’ (http://tinyurl.com/yzmzp5b)

BUT, still that doesn’t solve the problem of not enough disk space
allocated to the system/users…instead, it only temporarily gives
space relief

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*