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User login fails after reboot

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marcelmo
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User login fails after reboot

#1 Post by marcelmo »

Hi, this will be my first post here on the forums. I have used the forums many times to acquire information, but with this one I can not seem to find the right information. Maybe I am using the wrong formation of my question, I don't know, but I am not getting the right answers, so it seems....

Here it goes; I changed the user password of my user on Debian 11, Cinnamon desktop. I honestly do not know exactly what method I did use. I am sorry for that but was not expecting this operation to end up like this.. The graphical way or the terminal. What happened, was that, after a reboot, one arrives on a logon screen, this is the screen where my full name (not the user name) is already there and one does just have to fill in the password. This did not work. So, what I did, was clicking on the double person icon next to the password box, one arrives then in a different type of logon screen, where one fills in user name and password. Before, this would work and I could login. Now since this weekend I ca not login here either. I can login using the root account though, so will use this, then open a terminal, type "passwd username" and fill in the right password. I then log out as the root user, login as me. This works. But...

When I try to use sudo in the terminal or some other operation like "disks" where one needs the sudo user password, which normally would be the same as the user password, the password is not accepted. When I change from within the same terminal session to root, and "passwd username", fill in the user password, it works... All fine.

Until the next reboot... :?

Here some parts out of journal, that I think are relevant...

jjan 15 12:45:07 myhost polkit-agent-helper-1[3984]: pam_unix(polkit-1:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty= ruser=me rhost= user=me
jan 15 12:45:16 myhost polkit-agent-helper-1[3986]: pam_unix(polkit-1:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty= ruser=me rhost= user=me
jan 15 13:30:37 myhost goa-daemon[2354]: /org/gnome/OnlineAccounts/Accounts/account_1673194195_0: Setting AttentionNeeded to FALSE because EnsureCredentials() succeded

jan 15 13:39:28 myhost polkit-agent-helper-1[6180]: pam_unix(polkit-1:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty= ruser=me rhost= user=me
jan 15 13:39:33 myhost systemd[2097]: Started VTE child process 6190 launched by gnome-terminal-server process 5835.
jan 15 14:23:59 myhost sudo[8441]: pam_unix(sudo:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=0 tty=/dev/pts/0 ruser=me rhost= user=me
jan 15 14:24:03 myhost sudo[8441]: pam_unix(sudo:auth): conversation failed
jan 15 14:24:03 myhost sudo[8441]: pam_unix(sudo:auth): auth could not identify password for [me]
jan 15 14:24:03 myhost sudo[8441]: me : 1 incorrect password attempt ; TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/me ; USER=root ; COMMAND=hp-upgrade
jan 15 14:36:22 myhost unix_chkpwd[9025]: password check failed for user (me)
jan 15 14:36:22 myhost settings[8983]: pam_unix(passwd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=1000 tty= ruser= rhost= user=me
jan 15 14:36:56 myhost unix_chkpwd[9034]: password check failed for user (me)
jan 15 14:36:56 myhost settings[8983]: pam_unix(passwd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=1000 tty= ruser= rhost= user=me
jan 15 14:37:13 myhost unix_chkpwd[9062]: password check failed for user (me)
jan 15 14:37:13 myhost settings[8983]: pam_unix(passwd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=1000 tty= ruser= rhost= user=me

password not accepted
login not working.jpg
password accepted (most of the times but not always)
login workin (most of the times).jpg

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#2 Post by CwF »

Lots to unpack here!
Potential areas causing issues are keyboard and language settings, Cinnamon and its logon manager (lightdm?), sudo config, and potential file corruption, with seemingly a functional root account originally established in this installation to save the day.

To start making questions into known's; next reboot, when the existing method does not work, flip to a tty by pressing
CTRL+ALT+F# where # is 1-6 and 7 should get you back to the original greeter. On this new blank terminal you should get a prompt where you enter user name, enter, then password, enter. This works, or it does not?

On more than one installation I have found correct passwords not working for various reasons. If the tty check works, then the question moves to configuration issues. Unfortunately I am of no help with Cinnamon, but with a narrowing of the issue, there are plenty brains here to help.

If your situation lends itself to eliminating passwords it can be done safely with polkit.

Note and please use the posting aids of code display tags for terminal messages.

Welcome to Debian.

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#3 Post by kent_dorfman766 »

Ditto what @CwF wrote. text mode console session is the sane fallback for checking password access. The complication of GUI desktops today is that they can log you in, then error and immediately log you out and leave you not knowing what happened. I also recommend keeping a sane minimal window manager available like twm. switch the session to twm to diagnose problems that may be desktop related...at least in the sense of isolating that they are in fact desktop related.

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marcelmo
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Re: User login fails after reboot

#4 Post by marcelmo »

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately logging in from tty1, 2 or 3 did not work as well. Only root (password unchanged) can log in. As root I change my password back again, log out as root, log in as me. But because you mentioned the language setting, I did see some different icons in the taskbar, once it were the letters EN (from English_US) and the other was a blue keyboard icon. But I do not know if this is the case on the logon GUI.
How does this polkit method work? I read it is installed by default?

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#5 Post by kent_dorfman766 »

just for craps and giggles, check the permissions on the user's home directory. If it isn't set properly you could end up having a system where only root can log in.

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#6 Post by CwF »

marcelmo wrote: 2023-01-15 21:19 Unfortunately logging in from tty1, 2 or 3 did not work as well. Only root (password unchanged) can log in...snip...
How does this polkit method work? I read it is installed by default?
If user credentials do not work in a tty than I would create a new user w/ adduser with a simple name 'test' and password 'test' and then recheck after a reboot this new user in the tty.

On polkit, search these forums for 'pkla' and you should find some of my typing and others.
With root you can create the needed structure to allow a regular user to do what they need to do. I link to a how-to when there is one!

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#7 Post by marcelmo »

Today I left my computer in the morning and did not shut it down, I did lock it with ctrl+option+l... (it's an iMac) When I arrived home, just a few minutes ago, I could not log in either screen. I switched to tty1, logged in as root, and changed my user password. After logging out as root and returning to tty7, I got the login screen from the first picture (with the coffee cup), where my password was refused. After clicking on the two pin icon on this screen, it took me to the screen in the second picture, where my password was accepted. So, it makes me wondering, why is that? What mechanisms are behind those seemingly two different procedures? And how do they (at least, that is my conclusion) synchronise? How are these procedures called? (so I can narrow my search queries down to more specific terms) And where are their configuration files? Many questions, I know, but just curious how this works. I'd rather not create a new user, since I have a quite large syncthing file mirror in this user profile, and importing existing folders is not working very well, so one needs to re-populate the folders from other peers..... Which is quite a pain...

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#8 Post by CwF »

Good questions
I don't think it is a user issue. I don't recognize the first screen at all, The second screen is a default generic lightdm screen. Are there two login managers? If the first is gdm, maybe so?

I generally use neither but have used lightdm some...but it seems there is one configuration too many.

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#9 Post by marcelmo »

kent_dorfman766 wrote: 2023-01-15 19:25 Ditto what @CwF wrote. text mode console session is the sane fallback for checking password access. The complication of GUI desktops today is that they can log you in, then error and immediately log you out and leave you not knowing what happened. I also recommend keeping a sane minimal window manager available like twm. switch the session to twm to diagnose problems that may be desktop related...at least in the sense of isolating that they are in fact desktop related.
Took me some time to react to your input. On weekdays I do have a quite busy schedule... So, I did install twm. One can say, it is really minimal. :D At first, I waited for the desktop to appear, but nothing happened. After some time started clicking and on a mouse click a menu appeared. Ah so it was there all the time :o . Logged in and out few times but the password problem did not occur. So, it might be a desktop related problem then.. Will be testing this some more..

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#10 Post by marcelmo »

kent_dorfman766 wrote: 2023-01-16 01:01 just for craps and giggles, check the permissions on the user's home directory. If it isn't set properly you could end up having a system where only root can log in.
I am sorry, but what exactly should I be looking for then? What permissions should I be looking at? I mean, there are a lot of files and directories there. I should be looking at specific areas I guess?
went through some folders they are shown below...

Code: Select all

me@mysystem:~$ ls -la
totaal 248
drwxr-xr-x 30 me me  4096 28 jan 12:30  .
drwxr-xr-x  5 root    root     4096 25 jan 01:03  ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 me me 57344 10 okt 11:33  Afbeeldingen
-rw-------  1 me me  8101 28 jan 12:27  .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 me me   220 27 mrt  2022  .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 me me  3526 27 mrt  2022  .bashrc
drwx------  2 me me  4096 23 aug 06:53  .bogofilter
drwxr-xr-x 11 me me 20480 28 jan 13:02  Bureaublad
drwxr-xr-x 50 me me  4096 28 jan 12:30  .cache
drwxr-xr-x  5 me me  4096  5 aug 23:37  .cinnamon
drwx------ 39 me me  4096 28 jan 12:28  .config
drwx------  2 me me  4096  6 aug 07:24  .cups
drwx------  3 me me  4096  5 aug 23:05  .dbus
-rw-r--r--  1 me me    27 28 jan 12:30  .dmrc
drwxr-xr-x  2 me me  4096 14 jan 15:40  Documenten
drwxr-xr-x  3 me me  4096 28 jan 12:11  Downloads
drwxr-xr-x  3 me me  4096  8 aug 23:08  gfx
drwx------  2 me me  4096  7 aug 12:01  .gnupg
-rw-r--r--  1 me me   245 22 nov 17:38  .gtkrc-2.0
drwxr-xr-x  3 me me  4096 28 jan 12:30  .hplip
drwxr-xr-x  3 me me  4096 14 nov 00:24  .icons
drwx------  3 me me  4096  5 aug 20:43  .local
drwx------  6 me me  4096  5 aug 21:20  .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x  3 me me  4096 14 jan 16:26  Muziek
drwxr-xr-x  2 me me  4096  5 aug 20:43  Openbaar
drwx------  3 me me  4096  6 aug 07:54  .pki
-rw-r--r--  1 me me   807 27 mrt  2022  .profile
drwxrwxrwx  4 me me  4096  6 aug 17:00  programmas
drwx------  4 me me  4096  6 aug 13:27  .purple
drwxr-xr-x  2 me me  4096  5 aug 20:43  Sjablonen
drwx------  2 me me  4096 24 jan 02:07  .ssh
drwxr-xr-x 11 me me  4096 16 jan 19:18  sync
drwxr-xr-x  6 me me  4096  5 aug 20:53  .themes
drwx------  6 me me  4096  6 aug 07:50  .thunderbird
drwx------  3 me me  4096  5 aug 23:05  .uim.d
drwxr-xr-x  7 me me  4096  2 sep 05:37 "Video's"
-rw-------  1 me me    56 28 jan 12:30  .Xauthority
-rw-------  1 me me 14005 28 jan 12:30  .xsession-errors
-rw-------  1 me me  7280 28 jan 12:29  .xsession-errors.old



me@mysystem:~/.cinnamon$ ls -la
totaal 20
drwxr-xr-x  5 me me 4096  5 aug 23:37 .
drwxr-xr-x 30 me me 4096 28 jan 12:30 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 me me 4096  5 aug 23:37 backgrounds
drwxr-xr-x 15 me me 4096 15 sep 06:31 configs
drwxr-xr-x  6 me me 4096  6 aug 14:00 spices.cache

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Re: User login fails after reboot

#11 Post by kent_dorfman766 »

root directory permissions are correct. If the (x) bit is removed from a directory then you cannot cd to it, and that had the effect disabling logins on a sun server I once administered. yes, twm is primitive, but is functional for testing X11 login. As long as you can spawn an xterm in it then you can run whatever other stuff you need to diagnose.

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