this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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[SOLVED] Can't Log in to User on Linux Mint Cinnamon (Loops Back to Login Window) (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world to c/linuxmint@lemmy.ml
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- - -

UPDATE [AM 17 Sept. 2025]: Issue has been solved!

(I might at some point post the entire process with screenshots and stuff... But anyway,)

In short;

After @Auth suggested to just copy the contents of the inaccessible user's homedir to a new user, I logged in with tempuser and fast recalled that said homedir was similarly inaccessible as such, as I had selected the option to encrypt home directory during installation, and thus the files within were to other users unreachable without first decrypting them.

I followed @just_another_person's [advice/instructions] until they stopped replying, then managed to successfully mount the home directory after running through the other steps of the guide they referenced ([see:34365607/19080549,34365607/19187230]). I then realised that maybe I could just reverse all the steps I had taken since the user was last accessible, ([see:34365607/19187230]) and regain full access to the user, so I formulated a list of commands to reverse the steps, ([see:34365607/19233599]) checked for flaws, couldn't really find any, and just tried running the commands.

Anyway, it worked, and I can now log in to the user again and access all the files!

Much thanks to everyone who commented, and thanks again to @Auth, @just_another_person, @Wolf_Munroe, @Fizz and again (again) to @just_another_person for continuing to reply for so long!

- - -

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.

Inputting 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 ran some web searches, followed some advice. All that I could find of relevance was mostly just people saying 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, which I'm pretty sure is 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...)

[(Edit [AM 06 Sept. 2025]: fixed typos, phrasing...)]

[(Edit [AM 17 Sept. 2025]: UPDATE [SOLVED])]

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[–] Auth@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Are you able to login to the gui as any user?

If you're able to login, use the users and groups gui to create a new user with admin perms. Then copy the contents of the home folder into that new user. Once everything seems to be working as it was, delete the other users you no longer want through the users and groups gui.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

Not even at the GUI, I'd try the text console.

You could also boot into recovery mode. Or a live image, and chroot to the system if it's more than just editing files and assigning permissions.

Or, boot a live image, back up your date, and reinstall, making sure not to make typos this time

But really you should check the logs to see why it's failing.

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

Thanks for responding! I was still able to login as tempuser last time i checked, so I assume I still can. I'll see if this works, this seems like a really straightforward fix

[–] Auth@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How did you get on, did you get it resolved?

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

I'm kinda just running through @just_another_person's suggestion ([see:thread:https://lemmy.world/post/34365607/18768234]) and if that doesn't work I'll probably see if I can do anything with the ecryptfs-recover-private commands. ([see:thread:https://lemmy.world/post/34365607/18770862])

[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I tried logging in with tempuser and remembered that I have no idea how to access the files on my main user. In the file manager the home folder for said user isn’t accessible, and I assume that’s because I set it to be encrypted when setting it up. Thus I can’t access the files to copy them over to a new user or anything. Also, I assume I wouldn’t be able to rename the homedir as such, and don’t know where to start checking or changing user settings and permissions and such.

[–] Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Use the crosspost feature. Posting it in multiple communities just makes it appear in people's feeds multiple times, which is quite annoying.

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

I thought I did use the crosspost feature. Crossposting is the two overlapping squares right?

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

I tried logging in with tempuser and remembered that I have no idea how to access the files on my main user. In the file manager the home folder for said user isn't accessible, and I assume that's because I set it to be encrypted when setting it up. Thus I can't access the files to copy them over to a new user or anything. Also, I assume I wouldn't be able to rename the homedir as such, and don't know where to start checking or changing user settings and permissions and such.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Read this thread and try running the ecrypt commands to decrypt your old home folder. Once its decrypted copy what you need back into your new home folder. https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=322606

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

I was keeping ecryptfs-recover-private/ecryptfs-mount-private as my next option, but would that still work after this stuff d'you think? : [thread:https://lemmy.world/post/34365607/18769865]

(Or if it wouldn't, would moving the old user's home folder back to its original place with the same "mv" command mean it would?)

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

In my opinion you should focus on decrypting the old home folder so you dont lose your files. The after that just leave it and use the new user.

Ive never done an encrypted home folder so I'm sorry that I can't help with specifics.

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

Ok so I should just try to decrypt it where it is?

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah then copy over what you need.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

So you renamed the username, but that's all it probably changed. I bet your homedir is still under the old username, and your profile paths are all jacked.

Try renaming the old homedir to whatever the new username is, then check all the user settings match for that new homedir name. Change anything that refers to the "old" homedir. Make sure permissions are also set properly to the new user after moving/renaming the directory.

Another option is to just make an entirely new user and copy all your stuff over, but the above should fix things.

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

The option to create an entirely new user seems more straightforward and less easy to mess up, no?

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

I'd say so. If you don't mind copying stuff over, it's a cleaner solution.

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

I tried logging in with tempuser and remembered that I have no idea how to access the files on my main user. In the file manager the home folder for said user isn’t accessible, and I assume that’s because I set it to be encrypted when setting it up. Thus I can’t access the files to copy them over to a new user or anything. Also, I assume I wouldn’t be able to rename the homedir as such, and don’t know where to start checking or changing user settings and permissions and such.

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

Do it like this:

  1. Create new user
  2. sudo chown -R newusersnamehere /home/olduserhomedir

Then you'll have access to all the old files while logged in as your newly created user.

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

(while logged in to tempuser) I created a new user, and ran the command. Then I logged out of tempuser and into the new user, and checked the home folder to see if i could access anything. Only the following seems to have changed in reaction to the command; while logged in to the new user, the folder for the old user's /home doesn't have a grey square icon with a white "X" anymore, and I can access said folder without inputting a password. The stuff inside the folder remains the same, except now when I try to open the "Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop" file, nothing at all happens, whereas before it would return an access-denied-type error message.

I think I remembered putting in a password to get said error message before, so I added a password to the new user just in case that helped, then tried opening the file again, but it didn't change anything.

(Also, weirdly the password for this new user was required to be a minimum of 8 characters long, whereas the old user's password was required to be six, and the one for tempuser is only four characters. Which is an odd inconsistency)

I also tried accessing tempuser's /home, and that worked, letting me access it via password. I was able to access all of tempuser's files, instead of there just being "Access-Your-Private-Data.desktop" and "README.text". I assume this means that only the original user's home folder is encrypted.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (39 children)

This is some weird Cinnamon desktop BS, and I don't have all your aettings, so I'm flying blind on that.

Forget the desktop then if you're not sure what you're doing. Create. A new directory under the new users homedir: mkdir ~/oldhome-backup

Then as whichever user has sudo access run: mv /home/whateveroldusersdir /home/newusersdir/oldhome-backup

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[–] DuckyLoco404@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Ok, will do. Thanks!

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

Looping back happens, because something in profile setup fails. Considering your usrrmod screenshots, maybe X fails to create/access Xauthority/ICEauthority files? To test that, set XAUTHORITY & ICEAUTHORITY variables to somewhere you have acces (must contain the file too) and eun the command the login screen runs (in the config). Lightdm is especially bitchy.

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