41 login loop- no recent known major changes

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1

Hello, after posting I will return to reading through the other related posts
for answers.

As topic name:
Gui Login loop
ctrl+alt+f2 says login incorrect

No major update, other than:

  1. The usual tuesday update, where I’d run
    dnf -y update --refresh && dnf -y upgrade --refresh && dnf -y autoremove
  2. That wednesday there were steam/steam device update errors and conflicts. So I did an update with --allowerasing --best which resolved the steam errors.
    Everything seemed fine till I tried booting back into fedora 41.

After ctrl+alt+f2

I tried the stored different kernel versions and all gave me the same problem.
All kernel versions are 6.12+

2

Those two commands are identical ( update seems an alias for upgrade)

Running dnf -y autoremove can be dangerous in the event something is wrong in the dependency list of the rpm database. It is always wise to observe what it intends to remove before approving the removal.

As far as the emergency access. That should be a well known failing since the root account is locked by default with fedora, and has been for many years. A quick search for that message would reveal the many threads with fixes.

Instead you can use the grub menu and edit the kernel command line from grub. Removing the rhgb quiet portion of that line and adding /usr/bin/bash should directly boot you to a single user text mode where repairs can normally be performed.

3

Hi, I’ve read typed update and upgrade are identical- however I’ve had a noticeable number of events when running both does more than one. I just long forgot which one.

I’ll remember your words on autoremove, and be less callous and free about these kinds of commands.

I’ll look into how to access cli from grub and see if I can search for what it is you found online. So far I haven’t even known what to look for and stumbled across the ctrl+alt+f2 and emergency mode by complete accident.

I’m quite out of my depth here, as I’ve never had a good teacher and online help has almost never suited my specific circumstance- I both never got into the habit of believing in help, but also got into the habit of clean-erasing and fresh installing if any problem arose.

Lastly as a minor point, all my kernel versions are 6.12- and they have all prevented me from logging in.

Emergency mode

If emergency mode isn’t relevant to the failing to login, then I can remove it from my current problem. Which leaves failing to login due to incorrect login.

4

Do you know what GPUs may be installed.?
This almost sounds like the problems some have with an nvidia gpu when the driver is not properly installed.

Can you boot to a live media from usb then install inxi and provide the output of inxi -Fzxx.

5

This is a new problem, but other than my routine update pattern and discovering a steam conflict- nothing else seems different.
I am savvy enough to do what you asked, but I’m dual booted into win10 and can verify through cpuz I’m using a Ryzen 7 5800x3d and Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

Worked out how to access CLI from grub, still trying to work out how to recognise and access the relevant file Jeff thought about telling me above, and adding /usr/bin/bash after removing rhbh quiet.

6

With the grub menu displayed press e for edit.
Then on the line that begins with linux make those changes.

7

Hi,

I eventually figured out what Jeff meant, I believe I have done what he asked, and did not notice any appreciable difference to the situation.

I mistakenly thought I could just email photos to myself as the fastest way to transfer files. So responses here were delayed.

grubcli
grubcli1920×437 86.1 KB

faillogin
faillogin1920×540 158 KB

I was hoping I could have benefitted from the emergency mode, as it pointed to log files I could review. But everywhere else I’m at a loss. I have no idea where to start looking to permit me to log in. I have nothing to point the finger at, such as a distro-upgrade. Only a steam update conflict- and steam doesn’t seem to respect the gnome DE- as it steals focus every time it does something.

I dual boot with Win10, and it has also updated. But both have managed to update and reboot without causing problems up till now.

8

Problem identified and resolved.
TL:DR user error.

  1. My first hint was that I stated no recent major changes.
  2. My second hint was from this website
    Can't login

The commenting out lines in bash prompted me to reboot into live session again, and cross examine my user+root bash history, and also bash profiles.

  1. Turns out, I was playing inattentively with rust packages, wanting to install rust and try out some of the little utils that have been made. This includes the rust refactor of the gnu core utils.

As part of the instructions for installing rust, related to bash- I was told and followed setting cargo as my environment variable? Coincidentally in my bash history these are my most recent changes.

So within the live session, I went and commented out every line referencing cargo, both user and root (root bash was further user error), rebooted and failed to login.
Changed my login method off gnome xorg- back to gnome wayland and successfully logged in as if nothing was ever wrong.

Thank you for your time and attention.

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