Correct password just brings password entry back again [Solved]

[DPool]

I'm going to call this Security because it has to do with the password. I have MX 21 installed on two devices: a laptop and in a VM on my Windows PC. Last night I opened up MX 21 in the VM in order to get some color information from the choices I'd made to make the stock Conky look nice with my chosen wallpaper. I got the 6 variables for all of the colors until the last one when, wouldn't you know it, MX 21 froze on me. I thought, "No problem, I just close it out and restart it." Nope. It was frozen to the point that I couldn't shut it down. So I had to shut down Oracle VM.

I restarted everything and fully expected to resume my task....except entering my password did not complete the start of MX 21. Instead, the password entry box disappeared (as if the rest of the boot would continue) and then re-appeared, empty, as if I'd entered nothing. This was NOT a case of entering an incorrect password because when I *do* enter one that's incorrect, I'm informed of that. This situation has the correct password apparently recognized....but then nothing else happens other than the password entry box reappears after a second or two.

Any idea what's going on here?

[Huckleberry Finn]

Login as root, then delete the .Xauthority file in /home/yourusername/

[DPool]

How do I log in as root if I can't get past the password entry field? When I start MX from within the VM I just click on the Start arrow and off it goes.

Let me add to that: I have the choice of selecting "Other" on that login....but, it, too is asking for a password. I don't see how to enter "root" anywhere.

That might be a frightfully newbie thing to ask but, fact is, even though MX Linux was my first exposure to Linux 2+ years ago, I really haven't used it much other than as a way to launch the software packages I use. So, in that sense, I'm still a newbie.

[Huckleberry Finn]

You marked the thread by accident then ..

Whatever.. Ctrl + Alt + F1 and login manually.. (type username hit Enter, then do the same for pw. "blindly": it won't show anything when you type it)

then

Code: Select all

rm .Xauthority

then Ctrl + Alt + F7 or reboot.

[Huckleberry Finn]

I have the choice of selecting "Other" on that login....but, it, too is asking for a password. I don't see how to enter "root" anywhere.

Normally that's the way how to login as root. Click "Other" then type root as the username then root pw. below.. (when you choose "other" it opens a new box under that to enter the username )

[DPool]

Ctrl + Alt + F1 and login manually.. (type username hit Enter, then do the same for pw. "blindly": it won't show anything when you type it)

then

Code: Select all

rm .Xauthority

then Ctrl + Alt + F7 or reboot.

OK, I did all that. Logged in as root as you instructed. Changed directory to /home/Dave/. Entered rm .Xauthority. No error message. With Ctrl + Alt + F7, no change. With complete shut down within Oracle VM and a restart of MX 21, no change. Problem still persists.

[Eadwine Rose]

If the problem persists, why did you mark the topic solved?

[dolphin_oracle]

disk space? a home partition that is full would often prevent a user from logging in to an X session.

[DPool]

If the problem persists, why did you mark the topic solved?

I am not aware of doing that. Sorry for any confusion.

As I think I indicated, though I joined here years ago I haven't used this forum in almost that long a time. So I could very easily have fumble fingers in navigating a message board that is far from second nature to me.

[DPool]

disk space? a home partition that is full would often prevent a user from logging in to an X session.

Interesting. You might be quite right. But, I think I was pretty generous in giving space to MX 21 when I installed it in Oracle VM. And, as I initially reported, I had already logged in (quite a few times, in fact, since the install) and was simply reading from the screen and noting color info from my mods to the Conky when MX 21 froze. When I tried to log back in, the OS wouldn't have been a tad larger than it was during the previous session. But I'm jus' talkin' here. Not like I know anything. Thanks for the reply.