[NTLUG:Discuss] Can't log into desktop, can SSH into box

[Leroy Tennison]

Minh Duong wrote:
>> On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 07:37:19AM -0800, Minh Duong
>> wrote:
>>> hey guys,
>>>
>>> I just created a Fedora 6 box.  I created user
>>> accounts and set up SSH.  I can ssh into the
>> machine
>>> using a reqular account but I can't log onto the
>>> machine directly.  I can log onto the machine
>> using my
>>> root account but I've disabled root for ssh.  Is
>> there
>>> a setting I'm missing?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance. 
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> When you attempt to log in to the console, is it
>> text or X?  Also when the login fails, are any
>> errors given?
>>
> 
> 
> It says:  Authentication failed.  The passwords are
> correct as I'm able to login via SSH.  Is there log I
> should be looking at?
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Are you trying to login at a graphical prompt?  If so, do Ctrl-Alt-F1 
(or F2 or F3...) and try it at a text login (just to simplify things by 
removing the graphical environment from the picture).  Login at root, cd 
/var/log, tail messages.  See if that gives you any indication.

It's a log shot but you might look through dmesg and boot.log for any 
failures.

Did you activate SELinux?  If so, disable it and try again.

We could get more exotic by looking at login.defs or the pam 
configuration or even nsswitch but, unless you specified something 
unusual at installation (like using a network service for 
authentication) it's probably a waste of time.