Can't login, although password is correct

Question

Here what's happening when I try to log in.

I'm entering the right password

It brings me back me to the login screen.

I tried to change password via another user but it didn't help.

Solution

If you've been starting graphic applications from the terminal using sudo, that's what probably caused your problem. Always use sudo -H.

• boot to the GRUB menu
• choose Advanced Options
• choose Recovery mode
• choose Root access
• at the # prompt, type:
  • sudo mount -o remount,rw / # remount the disk as rw
  • cd /home/your_username # change directory
  • ls -al .*thority* # list some files

You should see something like this...

-rw------- 1 your_username your_username 407910 Nov  2 08:56 .ICEauthority
-rw------- 1 your_username your_username     58 Jun 23  2017 .Xauthority

If it DOES NOT show -rw------- then...

• sudo chmod 600 .*thority* # change file protection

If it DOES SHOW root root then...

• sudo chown your_username:your_username .*thority* # change file ownership

• reboot # reboot the computer

Reboot and see if you can log in.

Comments

[guiverc]

If you have no space in your $HOME (/home/user/ directory), there will be no space for required working-files used by the gui, and login cannot proceed so you are returned to the login dialog. As Kulfy suggested I'd suggest switching to terminal (ctrl+alt+f4) and login, it'll prove your credentials are fine, and then you can df -hl to see if you have enough disk space free to enable gui to work; if not you can find some files to delete, increasing space allowing gui login.

[jeremy_rutman]

didn't solve the identical problem in my case (ubuntu 20.04)

[Boris Hamanov]

@jeremy_rutman Please start a new question.