log in error in Ubuntu

[dudefromjapan]

When I try to log in normally in Ubuntu, this error message pops up and I can't log in.

"Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem or that you may be out of diskspace. Try logging in with one of the failsafe sessions to see if you can fix this problem."

I know that its not that I'm out of diskspace, but I don't know what to do.

[kage]

Do you frequently run programs through sudo? (like k3b) I believe what has happened is that the ownership/permissions of your .ICEauthority file in your home directory have been changed to root:root. Then the next time you
try to log in as 'user' you do not have permission to load the file and
you get the error you posted.

A fix for this would be to drop to a termainl (at the login screen, press ctrl+alt+F2), log in, and either change the ownership of that file back to your user account, or simply delete it. To change the ownership, you can use:

$ sudo chown username:username /home/<your username>/.ICEauthority

To simply delete the file:

$ sudo rm /home/<your username>/.ICEauthority

The way to avoid this problem in the future is to always run gui programs through 'gksudo' instead of 'sudo'.

[dudefromjapan]

I tried your method kage, but it didn't seem to work. Should I start with the gnome failsafe and use the terminal there? or do i have to do the ctrl + alt + f2 way?