How to resolve login loop on ubuntu/forks

[swarfendor437 14]

The 'de facto' solution usually is to boot into advanced | recovery mode then from the recovery menu launch 'root' (terminal) then enter:

 

mount -n -o remount,rw /

then press Enter.

 

passwd your_username

then enter new password, shutdown and reboot.

 

If this does not work, and if you have Timeshift installed (can't remember if Zorin includes this) then boot from live DVD/memory stick and point to where the snapshots are held and see if that works. If it doesn't try one of the following 3 options (acknowledgements to https://www.linuxslaves.com/2016/05/3-ways-fix-ubuntu-gets-stuck-login-loop.html? )

 

"Method #1 Fix Ubuntu login screen loop

 

The first is quite simple. The file is located under the current user's home directory. All you will have to do is change the owner of .Xauthority file.

 

Step 1 - At login time, use Ctrl+Alt+F3 to switch and access the command line interface mode.

 

Step 2 - Login into the shell using your username and your password. In this case, username will be your username you set when you installed Ubuntu.

 

Step 3 - Once logged in, now run ls -lah to view list directory contents. Look for the line that ends with .Xauthority

 

# ls -lah
-rw-------  1 root root   53 Nov 29 10:19 .Xauthority
 

 

Step 4 - You need to do chown. Type and run the following command :

 

['sudo' if not currently 'root'] chown username:username .Xauthority

 

Now reboot and see if you can log in - if not:

 

Step 5 - If it does not work, try renaming.

 

mv .Xauthority .Xauthority.bak

 

Now reboot and try re-logging in.

 

Method #2 How to Fix Ubuntu login screen loop

 

Step 1 - Run ls -ld /tmp. Check for the first 10 letters in the left: they should read exactly so: drwxrwxrwt

 

# ls -ld /tmp
drwxrwxrwt 15 root root 4096 Nov 30 04:17 /tmp

 

Step 2 - You may need to changing permission. Run the command below :

 

sudo chmod a+wt /tmp

 

Method #3 How to Fix Ubuntu login screen loop
 

 

If even both did not work for you, try the last one! Please make sure you are connected to active internet. Check this out!

 

Step 1 - Uninstall and reinstall Ubuntu lightdm. Run the following :

 

sudo apt-get purge lightdm
sudo apt-get install lightdm
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

 

Step 2 - Once reconfigured, now reboot."

 

[I have modified the instructions as it is not clear at which point you become 'root' using the 'sudo' command - if the last element of a terminal prompt is '#' then you are in the terminal as 'root' with elevated privileges. If the last element of the command prompt is '$' you are a standard user, and not 'root'. I have written this tutorial experiencing just this and used Method 1 which solved the issue for me in FerenOS]

Edited December 4, 2018 by swarfendor43