Prelude
- New to having a Linux distribution as an OS on anything I own.
- Brand new to any Linux OS with a GUI.
- Searched here on U&LSE, found questions that were tangentially similar, but nothing exactly. Closest to my issue was Manjaro: Can’t log in. Screen freezes after I enter my password, but things mentioned in those answers did not exactly seem to pertain.
Setup
- Laptop: Pinebook Pro
- Linux Distribution: Manjaro ARM (Pinebook Pro came with it installed)
Play-by-play
- Everything seemed to be working fine. I've been using this laptop daily for a few weeks with no major issues.
- Was logged in, mostly using web browsers
- Did a mass update of Manjaro and "gazillions" of other items that the system indicated needing updated.
- Some time after everything updated, used Ark to extract an archived folder to the desktop. This is my file that I archived and I have extracted folders exactly like this from that file at least a half-dozen times with no issues.
- The extraction failed (don't recall the error)
- Got a popup which stated that Plasma crashed/died (don't recall specifics)
- Clicked [Pine button] {like the [Window] button or the [Apple] button (or whatever the button is on a Mac)} + L to try to lock the screen, intending to click Restart from the lock screen
- Got a popup which stated that locking crashed/died/failed/would not work (don't recall specifics)
- Held down power button to shut down
Issue
- On power up, as usual it went to my main (and only) non-root user login screen
- Able to enter password
- After entering and clicking 'Enter', nothing happened
- Able to move cursor (I use the track pad), but clicking has no effect
- Just sits there indefinitely
Further Info
- After holding down power button to shut down again, and then starting back up, if I don't enter a password I can click on "Restart" or "Shut down" and they work
- I can also click to log in as a different user
- I am able to log in as root
Postlude
If it is possible for someone to know how to fix this issue directly, I'm all for it. As a "Plan B", I just need to retrieve some files from my user account and save them externally; then if I need to, I can wipe the machine and start from scratch (I would need to be pointed to help for that, though).