Unable to login due to Xauthority issue on Mint 19

[DaekTwentri]

Hey guys, I tried to boot to Mint today and my login failed due to an Xauthority error. I tried googling for a solution but most solutions were years ago but i decided to try them anyways. I removed my .Xauthority and now I'm getting a log in loop where i get no errors when I type in my pass but I get stuck in thisnlog in loop. How do i fix this?

[trytip]

delete both:

Code: Select all

.ICEauthority
.Xauthority

and reboot

[DaekTwentri]

delete both:

Code: Select all

.ICEauthority
.Xauthority

and reboot

I did. I mentioned I did that in the OP. What happened after is I begun getting the loop without any errors. Both .ICEauthority
& .Xauthority are gone yet I'm still getting a login loop similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG4deLa_vK8 from 0:08 to 0:16

[gm10]

At the login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in, run

Code: Select all

startx

see what the error message is.

[DaekTwentri]

At the login screen, press Ctrl+Alt+F1, log in, run

Code: Select all

startx

see what the error message is.

I ran startx multiple times but I got a black screen instead after that.

[gm10]

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 again at the black screen, should show you any error messages. But I'll go with "you uninstalled your desktop environment". Which one were you using?

[DaekTwentri]

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 again at the black screen, should show you any error messages. But I'll go with "you uninstalled your desktop environment". Which one were you using?

Nothing is happing after pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1. I'm using Tara 19 cinnamon.

[gm10]

Ah, might have to Ctrl+Alt+Backspace instead.

Try this first:

Code: Select all

apt install --reinstall mint-meta-cinnamon cinnamon

[DaekTwentri]

Ah, might have to Ctrl+Alt+Backspace instead.

Try this first:

Code: Select all

apt install --reinstall mint-meta-cinnamon cinnamon

Hmm using Ctrl+Alt+Backspace on the blackscreen does nothing either.

Reinstalling cinnamon using

Code: Select all

apt install --reinstall mint-meta-cinnamon cinnamon

doesn't do anything I'm afraid... I'm still getting the loop.

[gm10]

Well, just so you've tried it, do

Code: Select all

sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME

I don't expect this to be the cause here but you never know.

Also

Code: Select all

sudo adduser newuser

with newuser being any name you want, see if you can log into that user then.

[DaekTwentri]

Well, just so you've tried it, do

Code: Select all

sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME

I don't expect this to be the cause here but you never know.

Also

Code: Select all

sudo adduser newuser

with newuser being any name you want, see if you can log into that user then.

Changing the Owner from root to me didn't work. The looping still occurs.

Trying to log in with the new user didn't work as well unfortunately. I still get the loopnwith the new user.

[gm10]

Yep, it's what I thought. Something is missing or corrupt at the system level. I suggest you got through /var/log/syslog and in particular /var/log/xorg.0.log to see if you can find the reason. And just reinstall any packages that come up or that you can think of. Any Nvidia/AMD cards btw and you messed up the drivers maybe?

Frankly if a clean install is an option consider just doing that, might be faster.

PS: Oh, did you check whether your disk is full? Run df / /home and check the Use% column. So many login loop threads I hadn't noticed I hadn't asked yet in this one.

[DaekTwentri]

Yep, it's what I thought. Something is missing or corrupt at the system level. I suggest you got through /var/log/syslog and in particular /var/log/xorg.0.log to see if you can find the reason. And just reinstall any packages that come up or that you can think of. Any Nvidia/AMD cards btw and you messed up the drivers maybe?

Frankly if a clean install is an option consider just doing that, might be faster.

PS: Oh, did you check whether your disk is full? Run df / /home and check the Use% column. So many login loop threads I hadn't noticed I hadn't asked yet in this one.

I checked the logs but i've no idea what to look for.


Um, turns out my /home is %100 full. I just went ahead and delete my games folder and lo and behold i was able to login!

What causes the system to actually loop once it gets full though?

[gm10]

Um, turns out my /home is %100 full. I just went ahead and delete my games folder and lo and behold i was able to login!

What causes the system to actually loop once it gets full though?

In this case because it could re-create the .ICEauthority/.Xauthority files that you deleted anymore, which it however requires to set up the X and dbus sessions. And generally temporary files and such. It will also loop if you fill up the / root partition.

[DaekTwentri]

Um, turns out my /home is %100 full. I just went ahead and delete my games folder and lo and behold i was able to login!

What causes the system to actually loop once it gets full though?

In this case because it could re-create the .ICEauthority/.Xauthority files that you deleted anymore, which it however requires to set up the X and dbus sessions. And generally temporary files and such. It will also loop if you fill up the / root partition.

I see, that's pretty annoying. Any way i can set a small portion of my drive to not be used so i can prevent this from happening again?

Also, what causes the ICEauthority error in the first place?

[gm10]

You do get a warning when your disk space gets low, you probably just clicked that away.

The authority error is often caused by running some application with sudo that you should not have, but it's possible that in this case it was already due to the full partition, it might have been unable to update the existing file already.

[DaekTwentri]

I probably did haha

Thank you gm10 for helping me with this headache!