Login prompt returns, no password option

[wasillaguy]

I have an OpenSuse 10.3 system that will no longer allow me to login. It boots straight to a command prompt where it displays the hostname and login ie.

grep login:

No matter what I type at this point, it simply returns as such:

Welcome to openSUSE 10.3 (i586) - Kernel 2.6.22.19-0.2-default (tty1).
grep login:tryanythinghere

Welcome to openSUSE 10.3 (i586) - Kernel 2.6.22.19-0.2-default (tty1).
grep login:

It never gives me an option of keying in a password regardless of what I try for a username. I've tried root, my real username, and as shown above, some name that doesn't exist. Irregardless, I never get past this screen. Other consoles do the same thing pretty much, they don't allow me to enter a password either but they erase the screen and start with a fresh login prompt after each attempt.

Can anyone assist me with some troubleshooting efforts?

I have a seperate home partition on the drive from the root partition where all my data is. I have the original 10.3 bootable dvd. I don't exactly know where I can go from here except to say, when in rescue mode, I CAN login and I can mount the root partition somewhere and see all my files. I can also mount my data partition and see those files. Surely there is some way of restoring the login abilities.

[saivin]

This problem started all of a sudden? do u remember doing anything after which this problem started?

I have similar problem with CentOS except that I can type my username, type password but after hitting RETURN, it again comes back to the login prompt. Your system is faster than mine in getting back to prompt

Well, one friend here suggested to check the permissions on '/etc/shadow'. It should be 600 for /etc/shadow with 'root' being the boss. (In my case it has not helped; problem lies somewhere else. But I'm little busy to t/s it further)

[wasillaguy]

Thanks for the insight on the /etc/shadow permissions. I did check early this morning on that file and the permissions are correct with root being the owner, I can't recall who was the group but I think it was "shadow" as the group.

As far as what might have happened prior to the login issue, the computer is a home computer and is always left logged into kde and my kids use it for school, games, etc. I was out of town for a few days and when I got back, the kids said the computer wouldn't work anymore. KDE was so hosed, and I could not switch to another console which was the first sign something was seriously hosed. I was forced to do a reboot because of being unable to access a console and kde not letting me do anything. I tried first to kill the x-server but it dumped me to a blank screen (F7) and I still could not switch to a console like F3 or F1 or something.

Anyhow, here I am.

I was able to use the rescue disk, mount the root as /mnt and mounted my home partition as /mnt/home
I mounted my external drive as /root/usb500gb
So, I copied all my 108gb of data to the usb drive. Here's the command I used, looks like it got everything:
cp -R /mnt/home/drp/ /root/usb500gb/drp_crash_2009/

After looking this morning, a "du -h -s" showed the same return size on /mnt/home/drp as does /root/usb500gb/drp_crash_2009

Hopefully everything is a go for wiping and starting over on the internal drive. I will find out tonight by bringing the usb drive to another computer and verify the contents first.

[saivin]

You copied your internal drive to usb to test? My problem started after I moved CentOS on /dev/sda3 to /dev/sda2. I didnot do 'du -h -s' though.

Will follow this thread for any possible solution.

[wasillaguy]

I just needed to make a good backup of my data so I could get this darned puter back up and going again even if it means wiping the drive.

So strange that every file seems to be intact but I simply cannot login.

[gogalthorp]

How is the USB formated? if it is FAT it may not preserve all the security settings. It can lose the ownership. Also FAT has a 2gig max file size limit. So if you have any large files.....

It is best to tar the files or do full partition backup. I use kdar for backup but you can also use the command line version dar.

[wasillaguy]

I had thought of the file system but it wasn't a concern since I had the USB formated as Reiserfs.

I almost did the copy as a tar but there was so much junk in my home partition that I figured I could use this as my excuse to weed out the stuff I didn't need. I copied the whole home dir to the usb drive for now and will selectively restore after I get the system back up and running.

Before I wipe the drive though, I'm going to try an upgrade from the 10.3 to 11.1 just to see if it actually fixes the system to where I can log in. I'll probably wipe and start over unless it looks like everything is working perfectly.

Thanks for the reminder on the filesystem and filesize limitations though.

[Jonathan183]

Here's the command I used, looks like it got everything:
cp -R /mnt/home/drp/ /root/usb500gb/drp_crash_2009/

If I am copying info like this I use cp -a rather than -R so permissions are preserved.

Have you looked at log files to see if there are any clues about what is happening when you try to login? Will system boot from the hard drive in single user/recovery mode?

[wasillaguy]

If I am copying info like this I use cp -a rather than -R so permissions are preserved.

Have you looked at log files to see if there are any clues about what is happening when you try to login? Will system boot from the hard drive in single user/recovery mode?

Thanks Jonathan, I missed that. It's not too late though, I haven't done anything w/ the drive yet so I can just blast what I copied and redo the command. Appreciate the catch.

[Jonathan183]

imo its better to fresh install rather than upgrade. I quite liked openSUSE 10.3 but just did not get on with 11. Given your position I'd backup data, try to fix 10.3 and then do a fresh 11 install. That way you should be in a good position to fix things if you have the problem again .

I let the installer use a single partition and then mount partitions from a live CD after, cp -a /home to a home partition (actually would cp -a to /home/openSUSE11/ then modify /etc/passwd to point to new home area). Manually modify /etc/fstab to mount the home folder and restart the system ... its a bit more work but then I only have myself to blame if things go wrong .

Anyway good luck with the new install