[EdLUG] Unable to login to my kubuntu 20.04 desktop

[Dick Middleton]

On 7 April 2021 19:55:34 Alistair <alistair at archerry.plus.com> wrote:
> I have managed to foul up my Thinkpad running kubuntu 20.04, and cannot 
> login to the desktop.
> I can login to the TTY2 console, where 'HOME=/'. The /home folder contains 
> only '.' and '..'.
> I was trying to delete some folders and files from an external hdd. These 
> had previously been created using the 'rsync' command on this m/c and account.
> Deleting failed using the GUI so I tried to recursively remove the from the 
> command line as the normal user, then using sudo.
> At this point I started getting messages about system crash, kmail started 
> complaining that it could not write to mailboxes. There were other messages 
> so I shut the box down, during which it reported that it could not write to 
> the drive.
> It booted up to the GUI login screen, but refused login to my account.
> I switched to the TTY2 console and logged in there:
> It reports "no directory, logging in with HOME=/"
>
> The 'ls -a /home' command results in "'.' and '..'" only.
>
> It refuses to start the gui (startx) timing out with:
> "xauth: timeout in locking authority file //.Xauthority
> xaut: timeout in locking authority file //.Xauthority
> (EE)
> Fatal server error
> (EE) Cannot open log file "//.local/share/xorg/xorg.1.log
> (EE)
> (EE)
> Please consult the X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help
> (EE)
> xinit: giving up
> Xinit: unable to connect to X server: connection refused
> xinit: server error
> xauth: timeout in locking authority file //.Xauthority"
>
> How do I recover the system?
>
> Regards,
> Alistair
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>From backup! I think you've deleted your home directory if not more. Fairly 
tragic really.  It's possibly a moment to think about reinstall with a nice 
shiny new version.

Dick

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