University of California at Berkeley Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences Instructional & Electronics Support Group /usr/pub/login.help http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/usr/pub/login.help Jan 27, 1999 Can't Login? UNIX Troubleshooting Tips --------------------------------------- If your UNIX account should work but you can't login, here are some troubleshooting tips. + If the problem occurs at just one computer, it is probably just | the computer that is messed up. Please report that to the staff. | +--> If other people can't log in either, it is probably a server | or network problem. Please report that to the staff. | +----> Otherwise, your account may have a problem with: (1) password (2) disk quota (3) X Windows files Tests you can try: 1) Login to another networked computer account if you have one, and try to "telnet" into your Instructional UNIX account. If that works, you'll know that your password is OK and your .cshrc and .login files are OK. If it doesn't work, you'll need help from the staff. Here's another way of testing that: 1) Go to one of our UNIX workstations, such as in 273 Soda or 199 Cory. 2) At the login screen, click on the "Options" button and select "no windows", "Command line" or "FAILSAFE" from menu. 3) Then type your login and password as usual. If you are able to login, you'll get a simple window in the middle of the screen or just a text interface. This would indicate that your password is OK and your .cshrc and .login file are OK. If it doesn't work, you'll need help from the staff. If you could login, then check your disk usage: 1) Check your disk quota by typing "quota", or if that doesn't tell you anything, type "du -ks ~". Undergrads should have under 8MB of usage, grad students under 20MB. Type "more /usr/pub/disk.quotas" for info about reducing usage. When you are over quota, you can't login using X Windows because the window manager is prevented from opening files in your home directory. If that wasn't the problem, then check the X WIndows files: 1) Sometimes the .Xauthority file gets confused; it can be deleted using "rm ~/.Xauthority" . It will be recreated the next time you login at a workstation. 2) You can also check the file permissions on the .xsession script, by typing "ls -la ~/.xsession", and you can set the permissions correctly with "chmod 755 ~/.xsession". 3) "NAMED" ACCOUNTS: If you have editted any of the default files (.dtprofile, .twmrc, .cshrc, .login, .profile, .xsession), you can replace them from /share/b/default-named-account/ . "CLASS" ACCOUNTS: Don't change your "dot" files! Also see /usr/pub/dotfiles.help for more information about setting up for different terminal types and keyboards. EECS Instructional & Electronics Support Group 377 & 386 Cory Hall, 333 Soda Hall root@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu, labfix@eecs.berkeley.edu (end)