this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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Linux Mint

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Hi fediverse,

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on an issue that means I can't access the main user account on my Linux Mint (Cinnamon) operating system.

Context:

I'm using a dual boot setup of windows and mint on my laptop. I use mint (or used to, when I could access my user) for pretty much anything that doesn't require things* only my windows instance has. (*things such as support for video games that support windows but not linux, for example)

When creating my main user account, I made a mistake in the username. It was irritating enough for me to want to change it, and as doing so seemed like it should have been fine, I settled upon three guides and ended up (mostly?) just following this one:

https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/04/how-to-change-username-on-ubuntu-debian.html

I cant remember all of what happened anymore, but I have the following screenshots, along with the stuff I do remember.

(note: red blocks represent the new username, blue blocks represent the old username)

At the used-by-process error, I first tried following the guide precisely, then hoped that "PID" was Process ID, and that the guide expected me to put the ID that usermod stated after "PID", and tried doing that.

Idk if that fvcked something up...

Then I guess I fixed that somehow, idk if I did so by restarting and logging in only as tempuser, or if I had already done that and fixed it some other way.

Anyway I meant to run each line of the command separately to avoid stuff going wrong, but accidentally did both at once. I hoped it'd be fine anyway.

Then stuff happened I guess.

Anyway,

I cant remember much more but I know that I tried to log back in as my main user account and I found out that:

  1. The username had been successfully changed.
  2. I could not log into my main user account.

Imputing the correct username and password was successful, and acted like it was logging me in as usual. Then after the usual black screen, it just throws me back to the login window.

This still happens.

I went through a fair bit of internet searching, followed some advice. All that most people were saying was to check how much disk space you have left - and to not keep timeshift snapshots on the same drive as your OS.

(this is one such post, and (I think) the only one I found that I definitely recognise from the previous searching: https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/15revgg/cant_stay_logged_in_keeps_going_back_to_login/)

I did ctrl-alt-f1 and ran df -h, and deleted most of the timeshift snapshots I had (I think I had maybe 6 and deleted 4 or 5).

Here's the output of df -h that I think is from after I deleted the timeshifts:

Idk what to do, hope someone can advise.

(TL;DR: tried to change username on mint, now whenever I try to log in to the user it throws me back to the login window after the usual black screen. Hope this suffices for a summary...)

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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (11 children)

Then run through the crypt mount steps: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=315207

NOTE: That means Step #4 ONLY. You only need to mount the thing, not change it.

[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (10 children)

Sorry, I’m not sure I understand

Step #4 of the the guide directs me to "Enter your Mount Passphrase when prompted (as in Step 1)" but step 1 only references logging onto the pc (as such would be to do with the login passphrase if any) rather than the mount passphrase which is instead mentioned in step 2. Does this mean I only need to know the login passphrase or do I have to go through the other steps in order to complete step #4? In which case it doesn't look like I CAN only do step #4

Also, the post by rene (rene » Sun May 31, 2020 7:38 am) seems to suggest that the file to be located at the start of step #4 would be in /home/newuser/oldhome-backup/olduser for me, and since it hasn't seemed to be there I assume it must be hidden by default, which would mean I would have to enable show hidden as described in step #2.3

So I gather I should enable show hidden, then locate the .Private file in /home/newuser/oldhome-backup/olduser?

But then what about the "Enter your Mount Passphrase when prompted (as in Step 1)" part of step #4?

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (9 children)

No, step 4 says to run a mount command to start the process of mounting the encrypted volumenso you can copy things out of it. Like I said...ignore step 1. Only pay attention step 4.

The login password and the encrypted pasdpbrase are two different things in function. Now, maybe you have them the same value and they are the same in that way, but in the technical sense they are two different things. One logs you into your computer, the other secures the encryption on the volume. If you only used one password to login to the machine previously, then just use that same password to unlock the volume after running the mount command.

If that password doesn't work, then you did something during your initial setup that differs, and if you don't have the passphrase to unlock that encrypted volume, you're not getting your stuff back.

[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

I tried to run through step #4, but...

"- You need to locate the directory of the .Private file using a file browser."

With the information available, (and after enabling show hidden files,) I could only assume that I should use

/home/.ecryptfs/[olduser's_originalusername]/.Private

Which is the directory the .Private "Link to Folder" file in /home/[newuser]/oldhome-backup/[olduser's_newusername] ("/home/newuser/oldhome-backup/olduser" above) links to. Thus my command would be:

sudo mount -t ecryptfs /home/.ecryptfs/[olduser's_originalusername]/.Private

Running said command however only results in the console returning

mount: /home/.ecryptfs/[olduser's_originalusername]/.Private: can't find in /etc/fstab.

[key]: (blue: old user's original username. red: old user's new username. magenta: new user's username.)

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You need to add a location to mount it to as the last argument. Same command, but add a location at the end like /mnt , or another empty directory you can mount into.

[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I see the "/media/" bit on the end now - idk why I didn't clock that as something significant, I'll try again with a specified mount point. Thanks for clarifying! (and also thanks @Wolf_Munroe for pointing it out earlier)

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I ran the command again, this time specifying an empty directory to mount to, but what do I do here?

I'd assume to select option 1, but this dialogue doesn't seem to appear in the "HOWTO: Recover files from encrypted ecryptfs home directory" guide, so I just wanted to check.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Needs to be an existing directory

[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know, I created the folder "oldhome-mountpoint" in "/home/newuser/oldhome-backup", then copied the path to that and used it as the specified mount point in the command, or at least I thought I did. I'll double check it again

[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I double checked

It seems to exist, and when copying the path it also seems to match the one used in the command.

[–] munroe@dice.camp 1 points 3 days ago

@DuckyLoco404 @just_another_person

Not familiar with ecryptfs but that mount command looks incomplete.

General syntax for mount is:
sudo mount -t <filesystem type> <device or file to be mounted> <directory to mount device or file>

(The -t specifies the following value is a filesystem type.)

The path you've specified is the device or file to be mounted, but no mount point is specified.

Also saw this on Linux Mint forum:
(Recovering files from Encrypted ~.)
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=354385

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