Hello, first of all, sorry if this post doesn't belong here, but I don't really know where to put it.

I started working recently as a developer and the company gave me a laptop with ubuntu 14.04. I noticed among my co-workers that almost everyone has their custom setting on their laptops, including desktops environments. I've always loved KDE and hated Unity, so I decided to install it.

I installed kde-full or kde-desktop, I don't remember now, but one of those packages with the full set but without all the apps (as I may not want all KDE apps). Once I rebooted, the same login screen keep appearing. I could access to KDE desktop, but once inside, if I locked the session, I could never go back in, I just typed the password, press enter and nothing happened.

I edited some x11 file (don't remember now exactly) and changed unity-greeter for lightdm. Once rebooted, a nicer login screen was there, but again, I type the password and press enter and nothing happens.

I guess both problems are related. I have taken my laptop to home for the weekend as I can't spend my work time investigating this issue, but now, for 48 hours, I may have an opportunity to fix it before I go back to work on monday.

I will appreciate any help as I have tried some fixes without success. Of course, I will provide any info you guys may need.

Thanks a lot in advance!

While Kubuntu still exists, I advice you to take a look at KDE Neon. It's based on a stable version of Ubuntu (just the core, not the GUIs you don't like) and has the most recent KDE software. It's more reliable than Kubuntu for work. You can backup your files and use a flashdrive with it to format your disk completely and install it.

While I appreciate the answer, as I told before this is my work laptop and therefore I cannot wipe it just for that. What I would lie is a solution to fix the login of KDE.

Thanks.

It is not "just for that". Kubuntu is known to have several problems (and people assume that its problems are KDE problems), and the development focus has changed to KDE Neon now. If you want a stable system and can't wipe everything, use another desktop environment. The login issue you currently have is just the first red flag.

As I said, is not a solution for me. Thanks anyway.

I'm also using (k)ubuntu 14.04 at work (and have been for a couple of years). While KDE Neon is nice for those that can start from ubuntu 16.04 or later, that is not an option when your OS options are rigidly specified by your work environment (in our case our sysops group will start work on supporting 16.04, possibly even with an upgrade path in the next few months).

@eXtremeDevil (using either unity-greeter or lightdm) can you still log in to Unity (or other sesssions)? Are there any messages that show up in ~/.xsession-errors when you log into KDE?
Have you tried using the Kubuntu backports PPA? (https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+arc ... /backports provides updates to KDE 4.14)

I can start KDE and Unity sessions with LightDM Unity Greeter, with KDM nothing happens. I'll post xsession-errors this monday. I'll also check that PPA. Thanks

EDIT:

I did a purge of ALL kde and kde related packages, added the PPA and installed "kde-plasma-desktop" and so far so good. I have to check with KDM though, but right now with LightDM Unity Greeter all is good

Thanks to all.

That's probably just fine then. In KDE/plasma 5, KDM is replaced with SDDM.

That said, I've been using KDM without problems, with the kubuntu backports PPA.
Another place to look for error messages would be /var/log/kdm.log