Unable to login after upgrade

[Chris Green]

On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 06:30:26PM +0000, Gregory Gamble wrote:
>    On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 22:03, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
>    > On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 09:10:42AM +0000, Gregory Gamble wrote:
>    > >    Dear list,
>    > >
>    > >    I wonder if you have advice on what to check out.
>    > >
>    > >    On my "work" computer, I recently did the upgrade from 18.04 to
>    20.04
>    > >
>    > >    and now have the curious situation of not being able to login at
>    the
>    > >    desktop,
>    > >
>    > >    but I'm able to remote login from home.
>    > >
>    > >    So far the IT guy has not been able to locate the problem.
>    > >
>    > >    Have you some ideas on where to look and what info. I should
>    provide
>    > >
>    > >    ... might the GRUB file have been over written?
>    > >
>    > >         If so, will a sudo command fix it?
>    > >
>    > If you really can log in from home then the computer is running, grub
>    > must have worked.
>    Thanks for that. I was clutching at straws at what might be different
>    logging remotely vs at the terminal.
>    So a GRUB over-writing is not the problem.
>    > When you say you can't log in at the desktop what do you mean, no
>    > login screen, incorrect password, or what?
>    On the desktop it shows my name as a user.
>    Essentially, it has accepted previouslu my ID (a 8-didit no.)
>    ... and shows my name: Greory Gamble
>    Clicking on that it prompts for my password
>    ... if I put in the wrong password, I get the usual diagnostic: wrong
>    password
>    ... if I put in the right password, it just cycles back,
>        to the password prompt.
> 
It sounds as if X (the GUI) is crashing for some reason.

Get a console login (either by using a remote login or by CTRL/ALT/Fn
with n = 1 to 6) and take a look at the file .xsession-errors in your
home directory.  That should give a clue as to what is wrong, hopefully.

-- 
Chris Green