# Rocky Linux 9 requires me to log in twice **URL:** \ **Category:** Rocky Linux Help & Support\ **Tags:** rocky-linux-9\ **Created:** [June 10, 2025, 11:13am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729 "2025-06-10T11:13:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 11:13am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/1 "2025-06-10T11:13:02Z")
New install of Rocky 9.6 on T480 consistently requires me to log in twice when first booting up. I have typed it fast and very slow and carefully and it’s the same either way. Has anyone else experienced this? ---
**Author:** ![nebraskacoder](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/nebraskacoder/32/5188_2.png) [@nebraskacoder](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/nebraskacoder)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/2 "2025-06-10T11:16:15Z")
What changes have you made? Did you use a kickstart, cloud-init, or anything else to prep the system? Also, what hardware is it running on (CPU, graphics card, etc…)? ---
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 11:27am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/3 "2025-06-10T11:27:14Z")
I used Rocky-9-XFCE-x86\_64-latest.iso from the Rocky website and wrote the image to a thumb drive using Rufus on Windows 11. Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (rev 07), Intel(R) Core™ i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz. ---
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/4 "2025-06-10T12:06:05Z")
No changes, just installed the system and then installed several flatpak scientific programs. ---
**Author:** ![iwalker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/iwalker/32/2599_2.png) [@iwalker](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/iwalker)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 12:56pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/5 "2025-06-10T12:56:08Z")
Login twice where? Did you encrypt your partitions? Most likely if encrypted, it’s asking you the password for each encrypted partition. ---
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/6 "2025-06-10T13:34:21Z")
When initially booting up I have to login twice. When first entering my password it returns to the login screen so I put the password in again and it opens up. When using my password in the command line I only have to enter it once. I failed to mention I am dual booting with Windows 11 and secure boot and TPM are both active. Bit locker is not active in Windows 11 and I did not encrypt the Rocky partition unless it defaults to that in a normal installation. ---
**Author:** ![iwalker](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/iwalker/32/2599_2.png) [@iwalker](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/iwalker)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/7 "2025-06-10T14:50:18Z")
> [@gfneal](#): > > When first entering my password it returns to the login screen so I put the password in again and it opens up OK so graphical environment login screen. You can try and take a look in I think `/var/log/gdm.log` and see if there is anything here. Or take a look in `/var/log/messages` or `/var/log/secure` I don’t know if there is a gdm.log file or similar, so you’ll have to check and see. I don’t use Rocky with a desktop. ---
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/8 "2025-06-10T15:09:08Z")
Ok, I will check that out. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![gerry666uk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@gerry666uk](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gerry666uk)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/9 "2025-06-10T18:35:28Z")
> [@gfneal](#): > > I used Rocky-9-XFCE-x86\_64-latest.iso > [@iwalker](#): > > don’t know if there is a gdm.log fil Does XFCE use ‘gdm’? On my system (where gdm is working), there’s a directory called ‘/var/log/gdm’, but it’s empty. As root: `journalctl -b -e` I see things like `gdm-password][2581]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user gerry` and many more similar messages ---
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/10 "2025-06-10T22:02:22Z")
I did not find gdm.log but found lightdm.log: Extract from lightdm.log: Greeter start authentication for gfneal [+1.26s] DEBUG: Session pid=1987: Started with service ‘lightdm’, username ‘gfneal’ [+1.28s] DEBUG: Session pid=1987: Got 1 message(s) from PAM [+1.28s] DEBUG: Prompt greeter with 1 message(s) [+6.54s] DEBUG: Continue authentication [+6.56s] DEBUG: Session pid=1987: Authentication complete with return value 0: Success [+6.56s] DEBUG: Authenticate result for user gfneal: Success ---
**Author:** ![gfneal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@gfneal](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/gfneal)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2025, 11:19pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/11 "2025-06-10T23:19:27Z")
Well, it turned out to be a simple problem. At the login screen there is a wrench symbol that when clicked shows “user session” or “Xfce session.” It was on “user session” by default but when clicking on “Xfce session” I only need to login once. I have run Xfce on several different linux distributions and never noticed this option. Thanks for eveyone who replied! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/uploads/rockylinux/original/1X/91b7219eec10e30013422e4df76c1d898711a5d5.svg) [@system](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-9-requires-me-to-log-in-twice/18729/12 "2025-08-09T23:20:05Z")
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