Ubuntu 11.04 Server Login Problems

[natski]

Hi all,

I bought my first server recently preinstalled with Ubuntu 11.04 Server. To my surprise, there was no GUI so I installed a GUI using sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

After startup, I get a login screen with options 'default user', 'other user' and 'guest'. When I click default user and type in a random (i.e. wrong) password a message flashes up that the password is invalid as expected. When I type in the correct password for the only user registered on the system the monitor turns off for a second then turns back on with the same screen as before on. i.e. there is no 'invalid password' message or anything. The same thing happens when I click 'other user' and type in my username and password.

As a result, I can't login! The only way I can get in is a guest but then I can't sudo anything or really do anything on the system, so it's useless.

What's going on here?

natski

 

[CompuChip]

Can you check the log files and see if there is anything relevant?
I'm thinking in particular ~/.xsession-errors or - if that doesn't help - /var/log/syslog.

It might be something like a missing or incorrectly installed window manager (something with X11, LDM or Gnome)

 

[jhae2.718]

Hi all,

I bought my first server recently preinstalled with Ubuntu 11.04 Server. To my surprise, there was no GUI so I installed a GUI using sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Ubuntu server is headless.

After startup, I get a login screen with options 'default user', 'other user' and 'guest'. When I click default user and type in a random (i.e. wrong) password a message flashes up that the password is invalid as expected. When I type in the correct password for the only user registered on the system the monitor turns off for a second then turns back on with the same screen as before on. i.e. there is no 'invalid password' message or anything. The same thing happens when I click 'other user' and type in my username and password.

As a result, I can't login! The only way I can get in is a guest but then I can't sudo anything or really do anything on the system, so it's useless.

What's going on here?

natski

Can you log in using your username/password on another TTY? (e.g. CTRL + ALT + F1) Or use SSH?

Also, maybe look at dmesg.