unable to login

[dblake]

I am running Linux Mint Xfce 18.3. Sometime in the past I did something to prevent a user from logging in at the login screen. I cannot remember what I did, but I should like to reenable him. Here are some clues as to what I did *not* do. I should like to know what I *did* do. Thanks.

• His password is still valid. An ordinary user can "su <username>" and provide his password to access his account.
• At the login screen, an incorrect password is immediately flagged as incorrect.
• At the login screen, the correct password is accepted, the screen clears and looks like the desktop is about to start, but then it returns to the login screen.

[trytip]

you can start with deleting .ICEauthority and .Xauthority from your home directory (use ctrl+H to show hidden files) then logoff and try again

[dblake]

1. You say to delete some files from my home directory. Did you mean to say *my* home directory or the home directory of the user I am trying to restore?
2. To my original question, do you have a suggestion as to what I may have done to cause the symptoms I described?

[trytip]

delete these files from the user that doesn't log in. you have done nothing to cause this. this is quite routine. now if there's an issue with passwords being wrong i can't say. but you won'r break anything by deleting these. i do quite often just because i can sometimes it prevents the very issue you are dealing with.

[dblake]

Actually, I did do something. I purposely did something to prevent this user from logging in. I cannot remember what I did. I was hoping someone could tell from the symptoms in the OP what it was I did.

[trytip]

you can open users and groups from the cinnamon settings and try to figure out what you did