I'm having problems with a new installation of RedHat 9 on a Toshiba Satellite 2805-S201. Everything seemed to be fine, even after I did some updating using a RedHat port of apt-get. Then all of a sudden, I can't login! But it is weird - if I purposefully use an incorrect password, it will return the "Incorrect Login" feedback. But if I use the correct root password or boot password, the screen immediately returns to the login prompt, without any error message.

- I'm using text login (login level 3)

- I booted her up using the RedHat CD and "Rescue Mode". I got a shell prompt, and typed

chroot /mnt/sysimage

and then

passwd

to change the password, and it said the password was changed successfully. I rebooted and the same problem still occurs. I looked at the /etc/passwd file and the first line was as it should be, I think. (Looked it up at Redhat.com)

Can someone help me get on my Linux machine?

I also had SSH working, but now when I try to SSH to the machine, I am prompted for username and password, and as soon as type in the password (which I know is correct), I am disconnected.

Hi!

I take it that no user (not even root) can log in on the machine. True?

This may be a silly question, but do you see any error messages during boot? Things that don't start up with a green [OK] but with a red [FAILED]?

The reason I ask is that I suspect that you are having a problem not with the password program, but with your shell (bash for example). It could be that the shell program itself (/bin/bash) has left for a world tour. It could also be that one or more of the dynamic libraries used by bash is missing or broken. If the latter is the case, then you could possibly see other stuff using the same libraries fail during start-up.

Try editing your /etc/passwd file when in rescue mode. Change the login shell for your normal user to some other shell program, /bin/csh for example. If this works, then you have a much better starting point for debugging your system.

And, last, if you didn't understand anything of the above. If you don't know what a dynamic library is and don't care. Maybe you should pop the CD back in and try a fresh install?

Good luck!
Martin

when u get into rescue mode... after typing chroot /mnt/sysimage...
just give passwd -d root
to remove the password for root.... then when u will get the terminal and u type the user name as root and press enter u will get he shell from there give the passwd command and u can give the new password it will work well and fine.....

Ok, I changed to the csh shell; no change. Next I deleted the root password. Now here's something different!
After typing root as the login, no password comes up, and it returns directly to the login. Hmm.

But, after pressing root, enter, repeatedly, I came up with the error message! Yay!

ERROR: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
INIT: Id "1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

The INIT message is because I was going too fast typing root and enter.
But the other is the key to my problem. Anyone seen that or know what it means?

If you log in with rescue disk and type
authconfig
(full path: /usr/bin/authconfig)
what do you see then?

On my system, first page everything unchecked, second page only "Use Shadow Passwords" and "Use MD5 Passwords" are checked.

I'm sorry, but I feel that I don't know enough about user authentication to help very much here. But it's a really interesting subject. Think I will have to read a little about it.

Regards
Martin

I'll try authconfig.

Update - I can change my login level to 5, and I do get into the xdm or whatever you call the graphical login stage. But, trying root and his password (I gave him a password again) returned an error window that said "Authentication Failed".

Very strange, and the worst part is, I don't know what I did...

What are the permissions on /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow?

*rather sheepishly*

Ran authconfig, saw that LDAP authentication was enabled.
I have no idea why that was on.

And I claim no responsibility.

Anyway, if you know your password, and you can't login, run authconfig.


Case closed...