Linux Mint Keep Asking For Password Over and Over Again

[ossamacr7]

Hello Guys
I'cant log in to my linux mint desktop
when i turn on my pc an unusually log in screen show up asking for passw
when i enter my correct passw the screen is disapeer and and show up again after few seconds
not to mention that :
the passw is correct
Usually this window didn't show up

[WharfRat]

I don't know if this would pertain to your situation, but I experienced a similar situation when I upgraded 18.3 to 19.2.

I was presented with the login screen and after entering it, it behaved the same way as you described.

However the OS was a virtualbox installation so I don't know if the resolution that worked for me would work for you.

I narrowed-downed the problem to the application vino.

I entered the text console and ran sudo apt purge vino and when I returned to VT7 I was able to login.

It was very strange that happened and I have no explanation for it.

[gm10]

The typical reasons for a login loop have nothing to do with encryption:

1. Full / root or /home partition, check Use% columns in the output of this command df / /home
2. Messed up permissions, run sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME
3. Corrupt authentication caches, run rm ~/.Xauthority ~/.ICEauthority
4. If none of that helps, run startx and check the error message(s)

All commands to be run in a virtual console, Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get there, Alt+F7 to get back to the login screen.

[colski]

Search the installation section. I had a login loop and by adding nomodeset I was able to get through this constand loop and actually log in for real.

[Ademeion]

2. Messed up permissions, run sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME
3. Corrupt authentication caches, run rm ~/.Xauthority ~/.ICEauthority
4. If none of that helps, run startx and check the error message(s)

I noticed a couple of days ago, that I wasn't able to remove some (personal) files from my home folder. I also wasn't able to create new folders. For some reason my permissions to my home folder were changed to read-only. I ended up to delete the files by starting the file manger as super user (from the context menu). Then I had to go to sleep, so I shut down my PC. The next day I wasn't able to log into the graphical user interface, and got the following error message when I tried:

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Could not update ICEauthority file

After some head scratching and Internet searching I found this and some other forum threads about the subject. I checked the available space on the hard drive, and there was plenty of it. Next I tried the following:

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sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME

I don't remember what I got from that, but it didn't work.

Then I deleted .ICEauthority and .Xauthority. After that I stopped getting the above mentioned error message "Could not update ICEauthority file", but still couldn't log in to the desktop. When I moved to the terminal and tried "startx", I got

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Timeout in locking authority file

I remembered another command for changing permissions, and tried that:

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sudo chown -R  [myusername]:[myusername] /home

It didn't help, but after that I started to get immediately thrown back to the login screen, without error messages. After that tested my permissions by trying to delete a file on my home folder (using the terminal), and I was able to do that.

So the situation is that I'm not able to use my Linux Mint installation, and don't know why. I'm sure that I didn't change the permissions of my home folder by myself. I also didn't do anything else out of the ordinary during that day. The most important thing to me would be of course to get my installation back to normal. Do you or does anybody else know what's going on, and what could I try solve the problem? Thanks!

[gm10]

When I moved to the terminal and tried "startx", I got

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Timeout in locking authority file

Run this:

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rm ~/.Xauthority* ~/.ICEauthority*

I remembered another command for changing permissions, and tried that:

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sudo chown -R  [myusername]:[myusername] /home

And to undo that, run

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sudo chown root:root /home

I'm assuming you do not have other users set up on the system, otherwise their home folders would need to be fixed as well after what you did.

Also in the future please make your own threads for your own problems, it's rude (and against the forum rules) to hijack somebody else's support thread, related or not.

[Ademeion]

Thank you very much for your reply.

Run this:

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rm ~/.Xauthority* ~/.ICEauthority*

I already did that. That's what I meant with "Then I deleted .ICEauthority and .Xauthority." To be sure, should I do it again?

I remembered another command for changing permissions, and tried that:

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sudo chown -R  [myusername]:[myusername] /home

And to undo that, run

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sudo chown root:root /home

I'm sorry, I remembered that one a little wrong. What I did was first this:

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sudo chown -R  [myusername]:[myusername] ~/

and then this:

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sudo chown -R  [myusername]:[myusername] /home/[myusername]

Does that change your advice about the root:root thing?

I'm assuming you do not have other users set up on the system, otherwise their home folders would need to be fixed as well after what you did.

There are no other users.

Also in the future please make your own threads for your own problems, it's rude (and against the forum rules) to hijack somebody else's support thread, related or not.

I'm sorry. I thought that what I did would be a good thing to do in a support forum. I saw no difference in the original poster's problem and mine, so I thought it would be good to keep the topic tightly in one thread. Perhaps I have also gotten the idea of thightness from bug reporting, were it's often emphasized that you shouldn't create a new report for a bug that has been reported before. To me personally the same topics being repeated over and over again in different threads, and help and answers being "spread thin" doesn't seem like a good thing, but I understand that it's not the only aspect to consider here, and of course one must follow the forum rules. I'm not unfamiliar with the term "thread hijacking", but I honestly didn't know that my previous post is considered that.

[gm10]

Run this:

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rm ~/.Xauthority* ~/.ICEauthority*

I already did that. That's what I meant with "Then I deleted .ICEauthority and .Xauthority." To be sure, should I do it again?

You did not run that yet, there is a subtle but important difference in the command to address the locking error you were receiving.

[Ademeion]

Run this:

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rm ~/.Xauthority* ~/.ICEauthority*

I already did that. That's what I meant with "Then I deleted .ICEauthority and .Xauthority." To be sure, should I do it again?

You did not run that yet, there is a subtle but important difference in the command to address the locking error you were receiving.

OK, sorry. I re-run the command with the asterixes and got "No such file or directory".

I noticed that for some reason I again have only the reading permission for my home folder. I tried again this:

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sudo chown -Rc $USER:$USER $HOME

Something was happening for a few seconds, and then the command line reappeared. Then I tried to remove a personal file, but was told that I don't have the permission to do that.

What would you suggest next. Thanks again for what you have done so far.

[gm10]

I noticed that for some reason I again have only the reading permission for my home folder.

Post

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ll -d /home ~

[Ademeion]

Post

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ll -d /home ~

The command "ll" gave me "No such command", but I found out it to be (assumably) the same as "ls -l, which I used instead:

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drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22 tammi 13 05:14 /home
dr-xr-xr-x 1 [myusername] [myusername] 884 tammi 14 11:26 /home/[myusername]

[gm10]

The command "ll" gave me "No such command",

Sounds like you messed up the system quite a bit...

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drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 22 tammi 13 05:14 /home
dr-xr-xr-x 1 [myusername] [myusername] 884 tammi 14 11:26 /home/[myusername]

Here's your permissions problem, you removed write permissions from your user folder. To fix:

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chmod 755 ~

Who knows what else you broke though...

[Ademeion]

The command "ll" gave me "No such command",

Sounds like you messed up the system quite a bit...

Why do you say I messed the system up? The problem started with changed permissions, and it's very unlikely that I would have accidentally changed them. Also, my Mint version is Cinnamon, so perhaps "ll" is not a part of it. (I didn't notice that this is an Linux Mint Xfce forum when I posted my question).

Here's your permissions problem, you removed write permissions from your user folder. To fix:

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chmod 755 ~

That brought back my graphical user interface – great! All permissions weren't back to normal, which created some error messages, but I was able to change the permissions from Nemo, and now everything seems to be back normal again.

Who knows what else you broke though...

Again, what do you mean by "you broke"? Anyway, thank you again very much for your help. I'm going to do a thorough SMART test to my disks to see if there's a problem there. I already run MemTest (or initially 50% of it, because of lack of time), and it went OK. I have everything backed up, so it's not a catastrophe if there's something more serious wrong with my system (I have learned my lesson...).

[Moem]

I didn't notice that this is an Linux Mint Xfce forum when I posted my question

That's okay, I've moved it. It has de facto become your thread now anyway...

[Ademeion]

That's okay, I've moved it. It has de facto become your thread now anyway...

Thank you. I don't know if it's sad or funny (surely embarrassing), but I noticed a little earlier that I thought I was replying to a different forum thread. That's why I said "I saw no difference in the original poster's problem and mine". I had many Linux Mint Forum threads open in tabs at the same time, and at some phase, jumping back and forth between them, I mixed them up. If I may defend myself a little, I was both physically and mentally exhausted from work and in a hurry to go to sleep.

[Moem]

The easiest way to avoid that is to stick with the forum rules (I'll assume that you've read them by now) and just start a new thread for a new question.

[gm10]

Why do you say I messed the system up? The problem started with changed permissions, and it's very unlikely that I would have accidentally changed them. Also, my Mint version is Cinnamon, so perhaps "ll" is not a part of it. (I didn't notice that this is an Linux Mint Xfce forum when I posted my question).

ll is defined in the default ~/.bashrc of all Linux Mint editions.

Who knows what else you broke though...

Again, what do you mean by "you broke"?

Things you unintentionally changed for the worse. As you said, there were more permissions issues, you seem to have unintentionally modified or removed at least your ~/.bashrc and "who knows what else". That wasn't meant to be a snarky comment - you seem to be defensive about it - that was just a heads up that more things may be not be like they should be.

Also while it's always a good idea to check your hardware health, I doubt that was the problem here.