this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
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Hi all! I am running some recent version of Mint. I have been away for a bit but came back and thenpc reads 0 bytes free. Ooening the directory shows tons of files in home/private/ecryptfs some as small at 12MB and some as big as 170GB.

I tried to get some info but the terminal returned nothing on them, thought it might be shit and I dont have anything precious on it so I moved to delete but was told there are no such files when I did. I tried to sudo remove but got permission denied.

At this point, realising I dont have this connected to the web, and it hasnt been switched on in months despite the files showing ages 1-6 months - I thought an aold fashioned reboot would solve but now Mint won't let me passed the password login.

It recognises incorrect passwords but correct ones give a quick flash of a black screen with a typing marker flashing and back to login.

Any direction appreciated.

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[–] orsetto@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Encrypting home is good (although full disk encryption is better and with mint it's still easy enough)

Mint uses some helper scripts to mount/unmount your encfs, so maybe while trying to delete the files you deleted those too, and this would explain the login failing. It's been a while tho so I'm not sure, better to wait for someone else.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I wiped it, coincidentally I also wiped the negligible amount of linux knowledge I had from my brain... restarting the process. I might write what I do down, preferences and software etc.