[ubuntu-us-ut] Ubuntu encrypted user directory fubarred

[Charles Curley]

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on Thursday, and today did some work on the
system. Everything was fine until I left the computer to do some
errands. When I came back, the computer was locked down, and I could
not get a login screen. I SSHed in and rebooted. I never got to a login
screen that time either. The display alternated between the Ubuntu boot
display and a black screen in about a two second cycle. I shut down
entirely, rebooted, and see the same.

I can SSH into the system. The encrypted user directory is not mounted.
I tried mounting it and got this:

root at dzur:/home# su ccurley
getpwuid: Permission denied
bash: /etc/bash.bashrc: Permission denied
bash-4.0$ ecryptfs-mount-private
Enter your login passphrase:
Inserted auth tok with sig [1db4c5b88818d8c1] into the user session
keyring
getpwuid: Permission denied
bash-4.0$ ls /etc/
ls: cannot open directory /etc/: Permission denied
bash-4.0$ 

I do not have the recovery passphrase.

Suggestions?

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