can't login to linux server

muvenny · 10-03-2007, 01:27 AM

after rebooting my linux server, it does not go up to the login window where i can login as root.it only stops to a black window requesting to login and the password which keeps coming on and off.formerly,it would boot up to the login window where i would login as root and enter the main window.can any one help? thanks.

muvenny · 10-03-2007, 01:52 AM

helo,i want to clarify on the problem i just posted.
when i boot my linux server,it just stops on the window displaying the following information:
"White Box Enterprise linux release 3.0 (liberation Respin 1)
kernel 2.4.21-15.EL on an i686
myservername-srv login:"
this information keeps on appearing and disappearing again.please help as i want to enter the server and do something urgent.thaks.

brianmcgee · 10-03-2007, 02:13 AM

Your Display settings are probably wrong. Start to runlevel 3 and either debug your current display setup, copy an old configuration into place or create a new configuration.

I do not know which Linux distribution you use so I can only guess that you might use Xorg. Its configuration file may be found in /etc/X11/xorg.conf on some machines.

A new config may also be created from scratch:

Code:

# Xorg -configure

Also this symptom may arise from a missing fonts-server. But most likely its simply a wrong display configuration.

Look in the log files (e.g. /var/log/Xorg.0.log) for further debugging.

/edit: Btw. it is not wise to login as root everytime. You should use a regular user account and use sudo or su where appropriate.

illiadum · 10-03-2007, 02:15 AM

Sounds like you're just booting into text mode (as you can see). You need it to boot into the graphical runlevel, depending on you're distro this will be anywhere from runlevel 3 to 5.

There are a few different ways to do this. (Again, depending on you're distro).

You might need to edit /etc/sysconfig/init, so the line GRAPHIC=yes, rather than "GRAPHIC=no".

Or, you might need to edit /etc/inittab and change the line "id:1:initdefault:" so the the "1" is replaced by the runlevel of your graphical login. For example, I run slack and my runlevel for graphical is 4, so mine would read "id:4:initdefault:".

A bit of a dirty way of doing it would also be to edit your rc.local file (Usually in /etc/rc.d/, /etc/init.d/ or something similar) and add the line "kdm" at the end if you want to run KDE, or "gdm" at the end if you want to run Gnome.

If none of this works, please post which distribution you are running as well as anything you may have installed or changed before the graphical login disappeared. I find people will generally have better answers if you provide more info.

Good luck and post how it went.

Tinkster · 10-03-2007, 02:47 AM

I merged your two threads ... next time please just add a
new post for extra information, or edit the existing one
instead of starting a new thread.

Cheers,
Tink

brianmcgee · 10-03-2007, 02:50 AM

I think the graphical login manager can not start correctly (because of wrong display settings?) and so you see the text login screen of runlevel 3 appearing and disappearing.

Start your system, enter the grub shell and boot with the additional kernel option 3, 1 or emergency (depending on your system and wether you are successful in entering the stated runlevel).

b0uncer · 10-03-2007, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muvenny

when i boot my linux server,it just stops on the window displaying the following information:
"White Box Enterprise linux release 3.0 (liberation Respin 1)
kernel 2.4.21-15.EL on an i686
myservername-srv login:"
this information keeps on appearing and disappearing again.

That tells the distribution used (White Box Enterprise Linux, equals to RedHat in my head; if I'm not completely mistaken, it's a alike with RHEL).

As said, you're looking at the text logon. It should work just as the graphical one, only you're not looking at nice graphics this time. Enter 'root' as the username if you wish to login as root, just like you'd do in the graphical window; password is just the same you use when logging in the usual way, the only difference here is that nothing is printed on screen while you're typing the password. No stars, no dots, no nothing - safer this way. Anyway the password you type is entered, so just be careful when writing it. After giving username and password (hit ENTER) you should be logged in.

After logging in you can fix any problems that you know, or just see if you can "get the graphical environment back". Since you logged in in a text-mode, it's probable that you have booted into a text-login runlevel; there's (usually at least one) a graphical runlevel too, the one you usually boot into, and you can use init to switch between runlevels - when you find the correct one, you can make sure inittab (/etc/inittab) is configured to boot to that runlevel (so you get to the graphical login next time you boot).

There are 7 runlevels, numbered from 0 to 6. Runlevels 0, 1 and 6 are reserved; runlevel 0 halts the system, 6 reboots and 1 goes into a single-user mode (which may provide a root login without passwords asked, unless it's prevented!). Runlevels 2-5 are "normal" runlevels, among which are usually text- and graphical multiuser runlevels. You can safely try switching between these, to see if any of them happened to be the graphical one, and if it worked (these are listed in /etc/inittab, so you can actually check it out with 'cat /etc/inittab'): for example

Code:

init 2

would change the current runlevel to 2. You can try these from 2 to 5, and see if you get a graphical one. If you do, edit /etc/inittab and make sure that runlevel is the default runlevel (the default runlevel line was mentioned by illiadum above - change the number there).

Tinkster · 10-03-2007, 12:36 PM

And if you get it working ... someone needs to tell you two things:

a) X and GUI logins have no business on a server

b) You're not supposed to be working as root, specially not in
a GUI, BAAAAAAD practice.

Cheers,
Tink

muvenny · 10-04-2007, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0uncer

That tells the distribution used (White Box Enterprise Linux, equals to RedHat in my head; if I'm not completely mistaken, it's a alike with RHEL).

As said, you're looking at the text logon. It should work just as the graphical one, only you're not looking at nice graphics this time. Enter 'root' as the username if you wish to login as root, just like you'd do in the graphical window; password is just the same you use when logging in the usual way, the only difference here is that nothing is printed on screen while you're typing the password. No stars, no dots, no nothing - safer this way. Anyway the password you type is entered, so just be careful when writing it. After giving username and password (hit ENTER) you should be logged in.

After logging in you can fix any problems that you know, or just see if you can "get the graphical environment back". Since you logged in in a text-mode, it's probable that you have booted into a text-login runlevel; there's (usually at least one) a graphical runlevel too, the one you usually boot into, and you can use init to switch between runlevels - when you find the correct one, you can make sure inittab (/etc/inittab) is configured to boot to that runlevel (so you get to the graphical login next time you boot).

There are 7 runlevels, numbered from 0 to 6. Runlevels 0, 1 and 6 are reserved; runlevel 0 halts the system, 6 reboots and 1 goes into a single-user mode (which may provide a root login without passwords asked, unless it's prevented!). Runlevels 2-5 are "normal" runlevels, among which are usually text- and graphical multiuser runlevels. You can safely try switching between these, to see if any of them happened to be the graphical one, and if it worked (these are listed in /etc/inittab, so you can actually check it out with 'cat /etc/inittab'): for example

Code:

init 2

would change the current runlevel to 2. You can try these from 2 to 5, and see if you get a graphical one. If you do, edit /etc/inittab and make sure that runlevel is the default runlevel (the default runlevel line was mentioned by illiadum above - change the number there).

thank you sir, i tried logging in as you said but nothing happened.
after logging in,i got this information:
"you have new email
myservername-srv root# "
my server is redhat linux running gnome and samba.
thanks.

muvenny · 10-04-2007, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by illiadum

Sounds like you're just booting into text mode (as you can see). You need it to boot into the graphical runlevel, depending on you're distro this will be anywhere from runlevel 3 to 5.

There are a few different ways to do this. (Again, depending on you're distro).

You might need to edit /etc/sysconfig/init, so the line GRAPHIC=yes, rather than "GRAPHIC=no".

Or, you might need to edit /etc/inittab and change the line "id:1:initdefault:" so the the "1" is replaced by the runlevel of your graphical login. For example, I run slack and my runlevel for graphical is 4, so mine would read "id:4:initdefault:".

A bit of a dirty way of doing it would also be to edit your rc.local file (Usually in /etc/rc.d/, /etc/init.d/ or something similar) and add the line "kdm" at the end if you want to run KDE, or "gdm" at the end if you want to run Gnome.

If none of this works, please post which distribution you are running as well as anything you may have installed or changed before the graphical login disappeared. I find people will generally have better answers if you provide more info.

Good luck and post how it went.

thanks,i tried the commands but i would get a reply that "permission denied".
i am using redhat linux with gnome and samba.
thank you.

muvenny · 10-04-2007, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianmcgee

I think the graphical login manager can not start correctly (because of wrong display settings?) and so you see the text login screen of runlevel 3 appearing and disappearing.

Start your system, enter the grub shell and boot with the additional kernel option 3, 1 or emergency (depending on your system and wether you are successful in entering the stated runlevel).

thanks,
can you please tell me how to enter the grub shell and boot with additional kernel option 3,1 or emergency.

Wim Sturkenboom · 10-04-2007, 03:23 AM

The last time I used redhat was RH8.

First question would be if it ever worked before or not?

login in the console (either as user or as root)
run the following command: grep initdefault /etc/inittab

Code:

wim@btd-techweb01:~$ grep initdefault /etc/inittab and tell us the number
id:3:initdefault:
wim@btd-techweb01:~$

The older RedHat's used runlevel 3 (no GUI) and 5 to start the GUI (if I remember correctly; you can find that info in the file /etc/inittab).
If it's 3, login as root and edit the file /etc/inittab to change the 3 to a 5.
If it's 5, check the content of the logfiles of X (on my Slackware system it's /var/log/Xorg.0.log) for clues what is wrong (errors start with EE