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Re: [LUG] Mint 19.x Login Weirdness

 
On 12/11/2019 14:32, Julian Hall wrote:

On 11/11/2019 21:26, mr meowski wrote:

On 11/11/2019 20:58, Julian Hall wrote:

Hi,

This morning as usual I turned on the PC to log in to Mint, however it
won't accept my password. I have tried several times, and even used the
onscreen keyboard, all to no avail. I thought it might have stuffed up
and changed to a US layout, but it has not. The really odd thing is that 
it does not say 'Invalid password' - I tried deliberately to get it
wrong and that time it /did/ say 'Invalid password'. All that happens is 
that I enter the correct password, the screen goes black as if to log
in, then the log in prompt returns as if nothing has happened.

This email is written on the same machine from Mint 17.3 which is still
on the GRUB menu, and logs in properly without fault.

Any and all suggestions gratefully received.

The problem isn't with your password - the desktop session is failing to
launch for $REASON and is dropping you back out to the login screen
because it doesn't have a choice. Your task now is to find and eliminate
$REASON which could be almost anything but is likely to be limited to a
subset of the usual suspects.

Get access to a shell on the machine via ssh or a console login
(CTRL+ALT+Fx at the login screen) to see what's going on:

systemctl --failed
Thanks for the explanation. As it's the same machine I didn't need to SSH in, I just booted to Mint 19.2, dropped to a shell at the login prompt and logged in through the shell. I don't know if the below helps at all? 

Kind regards,

Julian

systemctl -- failed output:

0 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.
So then I tried systemctl --all [omitted those which were active in the below output] 

UNIT LOAD      ACTIVE   SUB DESCRIPTION
proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount loaded    inactive dead Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System 
● tmp.mount not-found inactive dead tmp.mount
apport-autoreport.path loaded    inactive dead      Process error reports when automatic reporting is enabled (file watch) systemd-ask-password-console.path loaded    inactive dead Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch alsa-state.service loaded    inactive dead      Manage Sound Card State (restore and store) 
anacron.service loaded    inactive dead      Run anacron jobs
apport-autoreport.service loaded    inactive dead      Process error reports when automatic reporting is enabled apt-daily-upgrade.service loaded    inactive dead      Daily apt upgrade and clean activities apt-daily.service loaded    inactive dead      Daily apt download activities 
● auditd.service not-found inactive dead auditd.service
● connman.service not-found inactive dead connman.service
● console-screen.service not-found inactive dead console-screen.service
dm-event.service loaded    inactive dead      Device-mapper event daemon
dns-clean.service loaded    inactive dead      Clean up any mess left by 0dns-up 
emergency.service loaded    inactive dead      Emergency Shell
● fcoe.service not-found inactive dead fcoe.service
● festival.service not-found inactive dead festival.service
fstrim.service loaded    inactive dead      Discard unused blocks
getty-static.service loaded    inactive dead      getty on tty2-tty6 if dbus and logind are not available 
getty@tty7.service loaded    inactive dead      Getty on tty7
gpu-manager.service loaded    inactive dead      Detect the available GPUs and deal with any system changes 
● iscsi-shutdown.service not-found inactive dead iscsi-shutdown.service
● iscsi.service not-found inactive dead iscsi.service
● iscsid.service not-found inactive dead iscsid.service
● kbd.service not-found inactive dead kbd.service
● lvm2-activation.service not-found inactive dead lvm2-activation.service
lvm2-lvmpolld.service loaded    inactive dead      LVM2 poll daemon
mintsystem.service loaded    inactive dead mintsystem.service
mintupdate-automation-cleanup.service loaded    inactive dead Update Manager Automation Cleanup 
motd-news.service loaded    inactive dead      Message of the Day
● nfs-blkmap.service not-found inactive dead nfs-blkmap.service
nfs-config.service loaded    inactive dead      Preprocess NFS configuration 
● nfs-server.service not-found inactive dead nfs-server.service
nfs-utils.service loaded    inactive dead      NFS server and client services 
● oem-config.service not-found inactive dead oem-config.service
ondemand.service loaded    inactive dead      Set the CPU Frequency Scaling governor plymouth-quit-wait.service loaded    inactive dead      Hold until boot process finishes up plymouth-quit.service loaded    inactive dead      Terminate Plymouth Boot Screen plymouth-read-write.service loaded    inactive dead      Tell Plymouth To Write Out Runtime Data plymouth-start.service loaded    inactive dead      Show Plymouth Boot Screen pppd-dns.service loaded    inactive dead      Restore /etc/resolv.conf if the system crashed before the ppp link was shut down 
rc-local.service loaded    inactive dead      /etc/rc.local Compatibility
rescue.service loaded    inactive dead      Rescue Shell
● resolvconf.service not-found inactive dead resolvconf.service
rpc-gssd.service loaded    inactive dead      RPC security service for NFS client and server rsync.service loaded    inactive dead      fast remote file copy program daemon 
saned@0.service loaded    inactive dead      Scanner Service
setvtrgb.service loaded    active   exited    Set console scheme
speech-dispatcher.service loaded    active   exited    LSB: Speech Dispatcher 
● sssd.service not-found inactive dead sssd.service
systemd-ask-password-console.service loaded    inactive dead Dispatch Password Requests to Console systemd-ask-password-plymouth.service loaded    inactive dead Forward Password Requests to Plymouth systemd-ask-password-wall.service loaded    inactive dead Forward Password Requests to Wall systemd-binfmt.service loaded    inactive dead      Set Up Additional Binary Formats systemd-fsck-root.service loaded    inactive dead      File System Check on Root Device systemd-fsckd.service loaded    inactive dead      File System Check Daemon to report status systemd-hwdb-update.service loaded    inactive dead      Rebuild Hardware Database systemd-initctl.service loaded    inactive dead      /dev/initctl Compatibility Daemon systemd-machine-id-commit.service loaded    inactive dead Commit a transient machine-id on disk 
systemd-networkd.service loaded    inactive dead      Network Service
systemd-quotacheck.service loaded    inactive dead      File System Quota Check systemd-rfkill.service loaded    inactive dead      Load/Save RF Kill Switch Status ● systemd-sysusers.service not-found inactive dead systemd-sysusers.service systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service loaded    inactive dead Cleanup of Temporary Directories ● systemd-update-done.service not-found inactive dead systemd-update-done.service systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service loaded    inactive dead Update UTMP about System Runlevel Changes 
thermald.service loaded    inactive dead      Thermal Daemon Service
ureadahead-stop.service loaded    inactive dead      Stop ureadahead data collection ureadahead.service loaded    inactive dead      Read required files in advance 
uuidd.service loaded    inactive dead      Daemon for generating UUIDs
● whoopsie.service not-found inactive dead whoopsie.service
wpa_supplicant.service loaded    active   running   WPA supplicant
system-saned.slice loaded    inactive dead system-saned.slice
apport-forward.socket loaded    inactive dead      Unix socket for apport crash forwarding 
● all.target not-found inactive dead all.target
emergency.target loaded    inactive dead      Emergency Mode
getty-pre.target loaded    inactive dead      Login Prompts (Pre)
network-pre.target loaded    inactive dead      Network (Pre)
rescue.target loaded    inactive dead      Rescue Mode
shutdown.target loaded    inactive dead Shutdown
● syslog.target not-found inactive dead syslog.target
umount.target loaded    inactive dead      Unmount All Filesystems

LOAD   = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB. 
SUB    = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

382 loaded units listed.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.
I /think/ I know what the problem is now. I loaded Mint 19.2 to the password prompt, dropped to a shell and tried 'sudo startx'. That complained it couldn't start and among other things mentioned 'low diskspace?' so I loaded Mint 17.3 and mounted /dev/sda1 - an SSD which only has / for Linux Mint 19.2 installed on it - into /media/julian/TEMP and had a look around. That claims there is only 8Gb free of around 130Gb, but I can only get about 20Gb of readable files. /root and Lost&Found are both unreadable but it seems the suspect additional content is in one of those two. Any suggestions how to identify which and clear out the - probably - extraneous rubbish? 

Julian



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