Locked out at login

Altoid · 08-28-2018, 03:49 PM

Hello:

The other day, out of nowhere and after shutting down to go out to lunch, on my return I was not able to log into my rig (PCLinuxOS).

The symtoms are unresponsive kb and mouse.

It's not the hardware (mouse/kb) or a BIOS setting as both kb and mouse work perfectly well on another distribution (Devuan ASCII) living in another drive within the same rig ie: all the hardware is exactly the same, with the kb working perfectly well when booting into recovery mode from the grub screen.

Thinking of some software/update glitch, I renamed the xorg.conf file that makes my three monitors run in xinerama mode so that it would boot (without one) and run in basic mode and also uninstalled LXDM so it would start with just XDM, all to no avail.

I can do startx and get to a desktop from the command line in recovery mode but once there, the symptoms remain: no mouse or kb.

I have two other kernel versions to boot from but it makes no difference.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

G.

jlinkels · 08-28-2018, 07:01 PM

Supposedly a driver module which does not load due to any reason. I would open /var/log/Xorg.0.log and search for "keyboard" and "mouse". If you are in doubt of what you (don't) see, compare with a Xorg.0.log of an X which works.

jlinkels

mrmazda · 08-28-2018, 07:57 PM

I don't use PCLinuxOS so don't know the package names involved, but it sounds like somehow your input driver went out to lunch with you. Try reinstalling it, probably named libinput or something like that. If that doesn't work, look for xorg package names that include strings input and mouse or keyb and install/reinstall those. Another thing to try is replugging the USB connectors for mouse and keyboard. Clues to the cause of failure might be found by grepping (EE) in /var/log/Xorg.0.log or ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log.

ondoho · 08-29-2018, 12:30 AM

have you tried rolling back to the last backup before the issue started?

edit:
ok, that could be tricky if you can't get into the machine.
maybe live-boot another instance of pclos, chroot into the current install, then roll back?

Altoid · 08-29-2018, 06:26 AM

Hello:

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlinkels

... module which does not load due to any reason.
... open /var/log/Xorg.0.log ..

Like I mentioned, when I started thinking it was an X server issue, I renamed the (painstakingly) handcrafted xorg.conf that runs my three monitor/two card setup to keep the system from using it and thus boot as it would, so to speak.

But that didn't work, the problem remained.

This is a xorg.conf file that works both under Devuan and PCLinuxOS so I really did it just in case.
But your post sent me looking and sure enough the xorg.log does tell me that something is going on with mouse and keyboard.

So I then ran xorg -configure and tested it by running it from the saved location.
That got me three blank screens but I knew that would happen as I have read that it hardly ever gets 2 +n monitors right.

What I did find is that some "Section" entries changed:

The section "ServerFlags" was not generated. ie: not there in the generated xorg.conf file.

Code:

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "allowmouseopenfail" "False"  # default False allows server to start even if without mouse
    Option         "DontZap" "False"             # default False  disables <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    Option         "DontZoom" "False"            # default False disables <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
    Option         "AllowEmptyInput" "False"     # default True if AutoAddDevices and AutoEnableDevices enabled
    Option         "AutoAddDevices" "True"       # default True - to use system kb, kb layout and mouse settings
    Option         "AutoEnableDevices" "True"    # default True - 
EndSection

And the two "Input Device" sections had changed, something I did not expect because my hardware had not.

What was ...

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "keyboard"
EndSection

... became

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

And what was ...

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/psaux"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

... became:

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "no"	
        Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

So I spliced the "Input Device" changes into the original (and known to work) xorg.conf file but although everything renders perfectly well monitor wise, the problem persists.

I now have to look at the xorg.conf manuals I went through when I built the custom file that got me my three monitors working and see if there's anyhting else to look at.

I'll keep at it and report back.

Thanks a lot for your input.

Cheers,

A.

Altoid · 08-29-2018, 06:35 AM

Hello:

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

... but it sounds like somehow your input driver went out to lunch with you.

Yes, she did ...
But didn't come back.
And to think that I picked up the tab. =-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

Try reinstalling it, probably named ...

I'll check that out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

... xorg package names that include strings input and mouse or keyb and install/reinstall those.

After I got rid of all the installed DMs, I reinstalled every thing that had x11 around it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

... replugging the USB connectors for mouse and keyboard.
... cause of failure might be found by grepping (EE) in /var/log/Xorg.0.log or ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log.

Thanks for these leads.
I get on that today and report back.

Thank you very much for your input.

Cheers,

A.

mrmazda · 08-29-2018, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Altoid

Code:

Section "InputDevice"...

Try stripping out all these sections. Virtually nobody needs them since automagic configuration began too many moons ago to remember (probably at least a decade). Your xorg.conf file to configure your three screens as you need them should need only monitor, screen and device sections.

Altoid · 08-29-2018, 07:03 AM

Hello:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

have you tried rolling back to the last backup before the issue started?

Ahhh ...
I'm a fan of Timeshift.

In my previous life as an MS minion, one of my favourite tools was Norton Ghost under DOS.
Basic, fast and quite reliable, but you had to do it explicitly.

To be able to cron and automatically administer an online system backup with Timeshift was a real discovery for me.
Used it with Ubuntu, Mint, CrunchBang ...

It was not in the PCLinuxOS repos and after I got the PCLinuxOS maintainers to add it, I installed it but actually forgot to configure it. As my /home backups were handled by BackinTime I was feeling sort of smug.

Right, now you know. :^/

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

... could be tricky if you can't get into the machine.
... maybe live-boot ...
... chroot into the current install ...

That's how I managed to fix another screw up that downed on me while I was attempting to fix this issue.

Seems that because of the version of apt used for RPMs in PCLinuxOS + the rolling nature of it's development cycles, using apt-get upgrade will eventually harm the system, the proper way of doing things being (in PCLinuxOS) only apt-get dist-upgrade.

I had never seen/read anything about this but found out fast enough ... :^'
Somehow the whole of /etc/init.d went awol, putting my rig in a really sorry state.

But I digress: the thing is that my failure to configure Timeshift (quite stupid of me) is now making me pay through the nose.

Thank you very much for your input.

Cheers,

A.