Question: I tried to login to Ubuntu 12.04 but each time I get back to the login screen, I've tried (Ctrl+Alt+F1) to try console mode but after giving my login/password the message incorrect login appears, so I tried recovery mode 
the FS is mount with read only i changed it to rw :

```
mount -o remount,rw /

```

return to the login screen and nothing happened.
I changed /etc/fstab options from errors=remount-ro to rw, reboot the system and the problem persist
Any help please, I need an explanation to this issue if possible.
Many thanks

Answer: 
**TL;DR** Variables in Linux start with the `$`.

---

The command is

```
echo $HOME

```

If you type in

```
printenv

```

it will show you all the variables and what they equal.

Or

```
printenv | grep '^HOME='

```

or a few more you can try:

```
terrance@terrance-ubuntu:~$ echo ~
/home/terrance
terrance@terrance-ubuntu:~$ printf "%b \n" ~
/home/terrance 
terrance@terrance-ubuntu:~$ printf "%b \n" $HOME
/home/terrance 

```
Unless you explicitly created your user account with no home, all users should get a home directory. In terminal there's a variety you could access it. `cd` is one, `cd ~` is one. Just to see the path to it, do `cd; pwd`, or `echo ~`, or `echo $HOME`, or 

```
awk -F ':' -v myusername=$(whoami) ' $0~myusername  { print $6 }' /etc/passwd

```

This last one uses output of `whoami` command to search for appropriate line in `/etc/passwd` file, and prints the 6th item in that line with : as field separator)