Stuck in a Login loop after updating an extension, what do I do? (TTY attached)

Ask Fedora
1

Hi there.

I’m in a bit of a pickle and am hoping I could get some assistance. I’m a Linux newbie, I don’t know much, and I have less-than-adequate knowledge of the terminal and its commands. I’m running GNOME 50 on Fedora 44.

THE ISSUE

This login loop happened after I updated an extension and was prompted to log out. When I tried logging back in, I could not enter the gnome session. My best guess is something happened during that process that triggered it.

Followed some guides that said to try logging in through the TTY (Ctrl+Alt+F3) then run gnome-shell . I was able to enter my gnome session, but there were things missing:

  • Could not run any preinstalled apps (Nautilus, Terminal, Settings), but the ones I installed like Zen and Blanket could
  • The Extensions Manager was showing no installed extensions, but they were all running (PaperWM, ChromaLeon, etc.)
  • My Gnome Tweaks were not applied (larger text, custom font)
  • The power menu only showed Log Out option, no Suspend/Restart/Power Off

The best lead I have is the photo I attached, this was the message shown when I opened the TTY after I tried to login loop.

IMG_20261004_173911
IMG_20261004_1739111920×1440 313 KB

This seems to be a user specific issue since I could login through a testuser profile I created. Still, its a bit sluggish and not as responsive as a normal session would be.

Help would be much appreciated, thank you

2

This sort of issue is not unusual, and Linux has a many tools to help understand the causes. Start by looking for a) processes with high CPU and/or memory usage, and b) errors logged in the journal. I like btop, especially for an unfamiliar system and because it can be run in an ssh session from another computer. Read https://docs.stg.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/viewing-logs/ and try using the p <n> filter option to compare results for your login with the testuser login.

3

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately as I’m very much a novice, I don’t fully understand how to act on your advice

It seems btop is something I have to install, can it be done through the tty? is it the same as journalctl from the link you sent or top? also what is the p <n> filter?

4

btop is a tui program that runs in the terminal.

Install it by running the command sudo dnf install btop and run it with the command btop.

It is a fancy version of top which is a lot easier to parse than the original.

5

Thanks for the help Richard, now I’ve installed btop and ran it on both the main user and testuser profile. Is there anything that may indicate the problem from these screenshots?

This is the main user

btop main account
btop main account1920×1440 339 KB

This is the testuser

btop testuser
btop testuser1920×1440 328 KB

6

also, is there anything from the warning/critical messages on the tty that lead to the problem of the login loop?

7

I’m afraid I don’t know anything about Gnome being a Plasma user.