Failed to start session. ??

gmercer2012 · 2017-11-16 22:21:41

I installed xfce4 on ubuntu server lts 16.04. Everything ran fine, rebooted after installation fine, and started the login screen fine. When I go to login to a user from the list, it errors out and states the session failed to start. I can't do anything from this point. Rebooting just repeats the same process. How do I get passed this login screen without having to re-install everything?

ToZ · 2017-11-17 01:16:47

Hello and welcome.

We'll need more information from log files. I believe Ubuntu uses lightdm so look in /var/log/lightdm (post the files with the latest dates) and also the user's ~/.xsession-errors (if it exists) or possible ~/.cache/xfce4/startxfce4.log.

gmercer2012 · 2017-11-17 02:46:53

I can't get passed the login screen. Thats the problem. There is, unknown to me and hence why the question, no way to do anything but turn off the machine. If I knew how to back out of the gui, I could probably fix the failure. I just dont know how to get out of that login on the gui to do anything.

ToZ · 2017-11-17 02:55:44

Ctrl+Alt+F1 will get you a console. Log in there.
In not already installed, install pastebinit "sudo apt-get install pastebinit".
You can use "pastebinit <file>" to post one of the log files to the online paste site. Make note of the link and post it back.

More info on pastebinit here.

gmercer2012 · 2017-11-17 04:53:24

Thanks. I sure didn't want to give up on a gui for the server. Too many times webmin has toasted something and made life difficult.

I will give it a try. That may be the only combination of key presses I didn't try. I will let you know what happens.

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#1 2017-11-16 22:21:41

Failed to start session. ??

#2 2017-11-17 01:16:47

Re: Failed to start session. ??

#3 2017-11-17 02:46:53

Re: Failed to start session. ??

#4 2017-11-17 02:55:44

Re: Failed to start session. ??

#5 2017-11-17 04:53:24

Re: Failed to start session. ??

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