I used useradd and then passwd without the user's name parameter without which means root's password was changed to user's password and user never got a password. Simple mistake
Another member passed this on: I've been waiting to use this:
Head-slap
ron says: Ha, Ha, Ha. Ouch!
ron said: I successfully net installed arch 64 bit basic in virtualbox on fedora 16.
I was able to first boot and login.
I pacman -Syu successfully.
I installed xorg-server xorg-xinit kde-meta-kdebase virtualbox-archlinux-additions xf86-video-fbdev xf86-video-vesa sudo dbus metalog gpm slocate.
I made config file adjustments to rc.conf, and set up a iptables.rules file.
I left inittab set to original run level and xinit settings.
I useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash "my name"
I didn't make any visudo adjustments.
On reboot I expected to be in a terminal, login and try startx command.
But can not login anywhere.
[tty1 archlinux login incorrect]
I'm very confident that I configured correctly and tried several wipe and new installs.
I have an archlinux vboximage kde full 3 months old and updated that works on this same hardware.
$ uname -a
Linux f16.home.net 3.1.7-1.fc16.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Jan 3 19:45:05 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
system
http://www.system76.com/laptops/model/gazelle
-ron