DIGIT-ARC read-only archive · snapshot: July 23, 2026

HELP! HELP! HELP! I can't login!!!!!!

22 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/help-help-help-i-cant-login.63241/

nileshgr
nileshgr Original post #1
Jul 17, 2007 at 9:58 PM
My HDD pwr connector was loose. So due to this, FS got a lot of errors. I fixed 'em using fsck. Now only root can login. My personal user account can't operate. The error message says:

GDM can't write to your home directory. This means you are either out of disk space............blah blah blah

What do i do?
vish786
vish786 #2
Jul 17, 2007 at 10:01 PM
create a new user account and see whether u can loggin or not, though its sounds vague.
nileshgr
Jul 17, 2007 at 10:06 PM
vish786 said:
create a new user account and see whether u can loggin or not, though its sounds vague.
No doesn't work.
rocket357
Jul 17, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Is your /home on a seperate partition, or is it located on the root partition?

If it's on a seperate partition, then what is the output of:

"df -h | grep /home"
"ls -lh /home"
"grep /home /etc/fstab"

If it's located on the root partition, then what is the output of the first two commands listed above?
nileshgr
Jul 17, 2007 at 10:24 PM
I don't know it is on which partition coz Linux has united both my HDDs using s/w RAID.

The output of those commands is nothing except the 2nd one which shows the home directory.
rocket357
Jul 17, 2007 at 10:28 PM
Ok...that means you don't have a seperate /home partition.

What is the output of:

"df -h"
"ls -lh /home"

Post the output, if you can. Thanks.

Edit: The first command's output will look like this:
Code:
user@Linux ~ $ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda5             966M  609M  308M  67% /
udev                  312M   23M  289M   8% /dev
/dev/hda6             244M  130M  101M  57% /var
/dev/hda7             3.8G  687M  3.0G  19% /var/tmp
/dev/hda8             3.8G  322M  3.3G   9% /tmp
/dev/hda9              19G  7.8G   11G  44% /usr
/dev/hda10             27G  1.3G   24G   5% /home
shm                   312M     0  312M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda1              38M  5.0M   32M  14% /boot
And the second will look something like this:
Code:
user@Linux ~ $ ls -lh /home
total 24K
drwxr-xr-x 56 user     users    4.0K Jul 17 11:47 user
drwx------  2 root     root      16K Dec 15  2006 lost+found
praka123
Jul 18, 2007 at 7:42 AM
default remedy if the issue is not with disk space is to delete ~/.gconf/ entries.
nileshgr
Jul 18, 2007 at 2:13 PM
I have around 39 GB of total 45 GB free on my system.

@rocket:

Code:
[root@localhost ~]# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
                       45G  4.0G   39G  10% /
/dev/hda1              99M   17M   78M  18% /boot
tmpfs                 188M     0  188M   0% /dev/shm

The 2nd cmd returns nothing coz i deleted all user accounts and now i have only root.

@praka:

Deleted those.

UPDATE:

@praka if i create a user, i get the same err.... GDM one.
praka123
Jul 18, 2007 at 2:21 PM
@Unknown:try to get the error message exactly.are u able to get upto gdm screen where u can enter ur username and passwd?also does gdm throws error like "ur gdm session existed less than 10seconds etc".provide the error messages what u see on the screen as possible.u can login to ur username with a failsafe session from gdm try options menu in gdm.
post/check ur /var/log/messages and /var/log/gdm/ directory for error messages.for this login as root.also u got a separate /boot dir?
U have given 45GB for / partn :p ??
nileshgr
nileshgr #10
Jul 18, 2007 at 2:40 PM
Error MSG:

GDM could not open the home directory for writing. This means either u are out of disk space or.........

And partition was not setup by me. I made FC setup do it automatically. I hv 2 HDDs united using lvm2 and s/w RAID.
praka123
praka123 #11
Jul 18, 2007 at 4:34 PM
login as root.browse to gnome menu for user admin-"system-config-users"(remember i dont have fedora).there verify that username exists and /home/nil@@ exists.also verify groups username also exists.if this solves.else u can use usermod command to set groups.and home dir.lets check with gui tool(system-config-users)
also make sure in gdm menu>options>GNOME is set.
D
Jul 18, 2007 at 4:41 PM
it means your linux drive is full fire up this command through termina
fir in login manager window press (F1) it will open terminal now login and than fire up this command
cd [SIZE=-1]var/cache/apt/archives/[/SIZE]
now sudo rm -r *.deb

if problem is not related to low disk space than you may have changed your file access permission of any system file on your home directory.
nileshgr
nileshgr #13
Jul 18, 2007 at 4:49 PM
no! problem not solved. still the same error.

@Desi-Tek,

i think u did not read my old posts. i have 39 GB free space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:
D
Jul 18, 2007 at 4:51 PM
@The Unknown are you able to login as root?
praka123
praka123 #15
Jul 18, 2007 at 4:52 PM
@desitek:he got a rpm system :D fedora @unknown did u tried my suggestions?
nileshgr
nileshgr #16
Jul 18, 2007 at 4:54 PM
@Desi-Tek, i am now logged in as root.

@praka, i tried ur suggestions, i hv the same error msg.
D
Jul 18, 2007 at 5:01 PM
well than create new user group and and new user in it than transfer your file to new user home directory than drop the previous user and remove its home directory
praka123
praka123 #18
Jul 18, 2007 at 5:03 PM
usermod is the command needs to be used.as i cannot see ur system setup,usernames etc,i cant give the exact command.even i dont know ur primary and secondary groups.
but as a guideline,u can look for below syntax(i uses debian so...)
u can refer "man usermod" to see options.
Code:
~#usermod -g urname -d /home/urhomedir
Code:
~#usermod -G dialout,cdrom,floppy,audio,dip,video,plugdev
^ just verify ur groups.
I think u need to read this before:
*www.g-loaded.eu/2005/11/06/manage-users-from-the-command-line/
D
Jul 18, 2007 at 5:28 PM
try this *search.chacha.com/search/query?query=can't+log+in+on+fedora&search=ChaCha+Search&tid=&rid=&mode=#
look at left side :)
praka123
praka123 #20
Jul 18, 2007 at 6:48 PM
@unknown:make sure u can login using ur local user account in CLI .for that press CTRL+ALT+F1 to get a virtual terminal.try login with ur account(not root!).
check for .dmrc file exists in ur /home/user .
if that works,then ur problem will be a gui matter only.post reply.dont start formatting and reinstalling! :p
and did u played with permissions of folders inside "/" and may be /home/user as root :?:
then we need to set default permission 755 and may be,edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf.
also did u checked the messages on /var/log/syslog -referring to gdm :)
nileshgr
nileshgr #21
Jul 18, 2007 at 9:37 PM
Re-installed Fedora. STOP discussion on this topic! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)