after 12.04 upgrade: can't log in although password is correct

Question

I upgraded from 10.10 to 12.04, and now can't log in any more. The password is correct- when I type in a wrong one, I am told it's incorrect, while the correct one is seemingly accepted, but then just takes me back to the login page. I can login as guest, but I can't do anything with the shell as it, too, doesn't accept my password.

Solution 1

try removing the Xauhority file and reboot.

for me that was

rm ~/.Xauthority

reboot

Solution 2

Answer from anonymous user:

I have exactly the same problem and I fixed it by the following solution (found here):

• Press CTRL+ALT+F1

• Log in with you user name and password

• Run the following command: sudo chown -R $USER:$USER $HOME

• Press CTRL+ALT+F7

• Try to log in

Solution 3

Check if the user has the same userid (and groupid) as the files in the user's home directory. If the user has id 1000 and the files in the user's home directory have 1001, correct the user in the /etc/passwd file to userid 1001.

Solution 4

Well, follow the instructions indicated here startx doesn't work

I can't gurantee though that it will work for you as well.

That means:

1. try to get a recovery console by using the shortcut Ctrl-Alt-F1. Check first, whether you got write-rights. If not use the option clear to get them.

2. Now remove the xAuthority files sudo rm /home/username/.Xauthority*

3. try to reinstall xorg by using sudo apt-get install --reinstall xorg

4. now reboot with the command sudo reboot. Everything should work fine.

I had the same problem after an analysis of the error i get when i tried startx I figured that Xserver is the origin of the problem.

Solution 5

I just had this problem after I updated. I figured out that it had to do with my gnome-shell I was using. So I did the following:

$ cd etc/apt/sources.list.d/
$ sudo rm gnome3-team-gnome3-precise.list gnome3-team-gnome3-precise.list.save
$ reboot

And now I'm able to login!

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

This was happening to me when I'd unistalled nautilus. If this the reason (because of broken upgrade or something like this) then, while you are on the login screen, you can press Ctrl+Alt+F1 and you will have a terminal, type in your login name and password (which will not be shown, not even asterisks (*) will be shown) and then you can try sudo apt-get --reinstall nautilus, then press Ctrl+Alt+F7 to go back to the login screen and reboot!

[Admin]

Thanks- while the terminal accepts my password, it says nautilus is an invalid operation. It says the same about grub, which I've also tried to reinstall

[Admin]

my bad, try sudo apt-get install --reinstall nautilus

[Admin]

possible duplicate of Ubuntu gets stuck in a login loop

[nastys]

using the livecd

[jadkik94]

I just had the same problem and that solved it from the Ctrl+Alt+F1 prompt. Any idea why this happens?

[mojo706]

it worked thank you. Might I ask what had happened to warrant the said error?

[Patrick Da Silva]

But you don't want to decrypt your file system! That's a working non-solution...