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I have 1 user beside myself on my desktop pc. when I click on "Switch User" it merely offers me login again. It would seem that the switch user function is broken. Any ideas how to fix it?

Fwelsh
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    That sounds like the intended behaviour: Switch User leads to the normal log-in screen but leaves the current user session running in the background for the user to log back in at a later point. – David Foerster Mar 04 '18 at 12:15
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    You're supposed to use the login screen to select which user to switch to. If you pick the original user, you get back to what you were originally doing. – Chai T. Rex Mar 04 '18 at 12:19
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    Thank you. I realised that. However it doesn't work. the switch user icon or text in the login screen does nothing. It doesn't offer me another user after I chose Switch User from the user section top right of top bar. It simply locks me out. If I then chose "log me in as another user" nothing happens apart from the lock screen re-establishing. – Fwelsh Mar 04 '18 at 13:36
  • Possible duplicate of Ubuntu gets stuck in a login loop – Elder Geek Mar 07 '18 at 17:51
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    I have the same problem in 18.04. When clicking Switch User, I can't actually switch to another user. I can only log back in to the user I wanted to switch away from. – Jesbus Jun 12 '18 at 16:17
  • This' still a problem in 18.04. Why is it so hard to fix?? – horaceT Feb 17 '20 at 05:22

2 Answers2

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As a workaround, you should be able to use ctrl-alt-f1 to bring up the user switcher and switch users from there (without using the menu bar dropdown).

If applicable, remember to use your laptop's 'fn' key to make your function keys behave as function keys.

I don't have any solid direction on how to fix the underlying issue of clicking "Switch User" after clicking on your username from the menu bar dropdown sending me to the lock screen, where clicking on "Log in as another user" (below Cancel) merely seems to restart X and bring you back to the lock screen.

After some digging through syslog and X logs, I saw that my logs had segfaults from gnome-session-check-accelerated around the times I was trying to switch users. Googling that led to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1715365 which seemed to be a repro case for the bug I was running into, and the ctrl-alt-f1 solution.

Romain Komorn
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I found the answer in the comments section of this post Ubuntu gets stuck in a login loop

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

and I chose gdm3.

The OP reported the issue for 17.10. while I am using 18.04

UPDATE : While the solution worked for me, that was short lived and the problem re-occured after a few days.

UPDATE 2: I eventually fixed this "permanently" by choosing Ubuntu Wayland option on the login screen. This because of nvidia drivers installed.

crafter
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