Kali linux failing to loging with correct user/pass

I have Kali installed inside a VM, for the longest time it was always running fine. I rarely shut down, so who knows what I may have done for changes(nothing too major I would think).

Anyways, I load up kali, login screen shows, I enter info, then it looks as if it is starting to login, but then the login screen just reappears :(

Putting in the incorrect user/pw gives an authentication error.

Logging in thru the troubleshooting option(I believe that is what it is called) will load up when the correct user/pass is given...

What can I do so I have access to the desktop again? Any place I can look for logs with errors so I at least can figure what is going on here?


Thanks to any help anyone can offer!!!

When you say through the troubleshooting option are you meaning the recovery option? If you go into that you can then change the password to something else using the terminal of course, then restart it into the normal mode. At least that's worked for me in the past.

Yes, it is recover option... My password is not the issue, it is correct. I just gave info about how putting in a correct compared to incorrect password differed in the systems response.

Out of 2 forum postings, I have had 1 response, sad to see Kali does not provide much info at all in regard to troubleshooting support. I know I can reinstall, but that is no fun, I want to know how to fix every **** problem I run into and learn the OS, not take the easy way out but after this much time has passed without a solution, I may have to :(

User: root
Pass: your password

Without any logs or debug information I'm kind of in the dark here but consider trying a reinstall of gnome.

You can try
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-shell

See if that fixes it.

Otherwise
sudo apt-get remove gnome-shell
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

Ensure that your /tmp directory exists and has the correct permissions.

Thx @staticn0de

adding few words in your magic answer! hope you won't mind because credit goes to you.

"Ensure that your /tmp directory exists and has the correct permissions.">>>>>> just type with root "chmod 777 /tmp" thats all