After update, login loop

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, 4 Jul 2018 at 13:30, Wade Smart <wadesmart at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Yes, I know how to hold them all down at once.
> It does not do anything at all.
> I tried from the moment I power on right up until
> the login screen. At no point does that key combination
> do anything.
>
> I tried Ctrl+ALT+(F1 on up) to see if any key combination
> would work and nothing did.

That's really strange. This is a standard Linux feature, unless it has
been specifically disabled. It should work on all Linux machines,
whether or not they have a GUI installed.

It even worked on SCO Xenix when I started out 30 years ago -- I think
it was Ctrl+ number 1/2/3/4 there.

I presume that you're replying to the list from a different machine.
If it's running Linux, you can try the Ctrl-Alt-F1/2/3/4/5/6 thing on
it. Should work.

It switches between "virtual consoles". Console 7, i.e. Ctrl+Alt+F7,
is the one the GUI runs on and switching to that should show the login
screen.

Once you're at a text console, you don't need Ctrl any more -- Alt+F1
etc. should switch.

It will only work when Linux is up and running in multiuser mode -- it
won't work in the GRUB boot menu, or early in the boot process, but
once the machine is sitting at the login screen, it should be there.

Unfortunately Debian (Ubuntu's parent) removed a very useful feature,
called runlevels. Most Unixes do this and let you choose from
single-user, multiuser, multiuser with networking, and graphical modes
(plus 0, i.e. off, and 6, i.e. reboot). Without it, there's no way to
get online with a broken GUI and update the machine.

The only one left in Debian/Ubuntu is single-user mode. Here's how:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/132965/how-do-i-boot-into-single-user-mode-from-grub

It might let you fix xauthority...



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