Stuck on login screen after running startx

Support Graphics & Display
9

  • After pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 and logging in there, execute:

     useradd nuddel2

    Where nuddel2 is obviously the new user name.

  • Verify that the new user has access to the same groups as your old one by executing groups and comparing the output of both users.

    groups nuddel
groups nuddel2

    (Where obviously, nuddel is your old user and nuddel2 is your new one.)
    E.G. if nuddel is a member of operator and nuddel2 isn’t, execute:

    usermod --append --groups operator nuddel2
  • Ask one of your friends if they have an old HDD lying around and buy a 12€ SATA-USB converter. (they look ugly, but they’re dirt cheap).
  • Buy an external USB HDD

Maybe… That’s why I told you to back up and why you should have backed up in the first place! :innocent:

If you follow my instructions carefully, they won’t delete any user data in the above section, but looking at the situation you’re in, I’m not taking any responsibility for any mistakes you might make… :upside_down_face:

If adding a new user fixes the problem, follow this:

  • log into TTY2 as the new user (don’t forget the old user is borked)

  • Copy all data files from your old profile into your new one

    cp --verbose --recursive --preserve=timestamps /home/nuddel/Documents/* /home/nuddel2/Documents/

    If that worked and you had no errors, remove the documents from your old user:

    rm --recursive /home/nuddel/Documents/*

    repeat for:

    • Pictures
    • Videos
    • Music
    • .thunderbird
    • .mozilla/firefox/
    • Templates, and everything else that is important to you.
    • Linux games like Battle of Wesnoth have their game data stored under ~/.local/share/ E.G. ~/.local/share/wesnoth/

  • After everything has been copied over, disable the old user so you cannot accidentally log on to it any more:

    usermod --lock twitty

  • If you would have theming going on, don’t do everything in one day but do this at the rate of 1 application / theme / whatever per day and if the same issue crops up again, roll back your last change and thus you’ve now pinpointed the exact setting that made your old user misbehave. :thinking:

  • in 1 month delete the entire home directory of your old user, but don’t delete the user itself so that in 6 months time, files still owned by that user will still show up under its username.

  • If you ever migrate to a new machine, just don’t migrate the old user: only the new one.

  • From now on, start making backups so you can roll back and never have to do this again:

:crossed_fingers: