[SOLVED] Mandrake Linux Community 10.1 - Won't Logon to Any User: Needs Single User Mode

I am creating an app server using Mandrake Linux Community 10.1. Yes, I know it's very old. But it's part of what I want to use. I have apps I want to run on it, and it being old is the reason I chose it.

The configuration was going well, until I installed and ran my "user scripts". It was designed for a newer system, and as I figured, it needed to be "tweaked" to function on this version of Linux. After running "addusers.sh", and "delusers.sh", and rebooting, it now won't log on to any user.

I can use it in single user mode, but I cannot log on to any user whether from the console, or the GUI.

There were a lot of errors that I'm fixing in my scripts one by one. But I cannot continue the troubleshooting until I fix this problem again, as I need this server to troubleshoot. It's the only one with the proper versions of the man pages.

Please help. I don't want to reinstall the whole system at this point, if I don't have to. Thanks!

After running "addusers.sh", and "delusers.sh", and rebooting, it now won't log on to any user.

Post those scripts so members can see what you have done.

Mandrake Linux Community 10.1

Don't use that, it's from 2004, get a modern supported distro/version. No repos for it, no support, no updates....

http://man.he.net/
https://linux.die.net/man/

https://linux.die.net/man/8/useradd
https://linux.die.net/man/8/userdel

Please help. I don't want to reinstall the whole system at this point,

Don't, put something that you can use on it. That's a security problem right off the bat. That's like installing windows XP...don't.

Post those scripts so members can see what you have done.

I will as soon as I get to my home computer.

Don't use that, it's from 2004, get a modern supported distro/version. No repos for it, no support, no updates....

...But that's exactly why I am using it... It's from 2004. It runs older apps that newer OSs won't run. That's exactly why I want to use it here as an application server. I don't want to rely on it for at the very least, most of my infrastructure. Slightly newer software runs that.

However, I want to run it as an App server, because it runs apps that you basically can't get or are harder to find now. I'm not quite ready to phase it out completely. I'm slower to phase out older technology, when it still has uses for today's world.

The only reason I would NOT run it here, is if something won't technically work or something. But I'm not to that point yet.

Don't, put something that you can use on it. That's a security problem right off the bat. That's like installing windows XP...don't.

...By the way...

I am indeed running two copies of Windows XP as servers. They are both Windows XP Proffessional. One is a "server" server. I'm running it to run older server apps. The other is a client server (app server). I'm running it to run Apps. In both cases, I specifically want to run older versions of software - or just plain older software.

I specifically wanted to do this because they can run older apps. The only reason I'm not also using Windows 98 and Windows 95, is because they don't run the remote access software well enough with the resolution I need to be running at.

But I will run them in another way, because there is older software I want to run that I am not ready to abandon yet. I just phase it out of the client machines, but not the other machines.

I'm doing this for a reason.

Yes, eventually everything will get too old to use even this way, but it's not for now. I want it this way unless technology changes to a way in which it will not work anymore. And especially unless it changes before it gets implemented to begin with.

...

Here are the scripts:

I got it working, except for the password policy. Something is wrong the the PAM configuration thingy. If needed, I could post what I changed it to, just that file for now. Whatever is wrong, passwords cannot be changed. It says that the tokens cannot be updated or something like that. Please help me fix this problem.

Note that I DID, have to go ahead an reinstall the server to get it working again. At least with the new scripts and most of the bugs fixed, now I can login to the server, as long as my password is not expired.

*** I feel EMBARRASED ***

I misread what the prompt was asking me to do, and that was why it was failing. It was a reading mistake, where I was trying to read slightly too fast for my brain to understand what I was reading and decode the English properly. Oops! There is nothing wrong with the PAM configuration.

...At least...

I don't "think". There is something wrong, some bug. I get a few small errors alright when I try to add the users using "addusers.sh". But they appear to add right anyway, despite the errors. Should I fix them, or call it quits until I find an actual problem with the users and groups?

Anyway, the first problem solved.

Also, I CAN log on now, so the first part of the problem is solved.

vmandrakelinux is complete enough to pass for a working server. I guess I shouldn't debug them further right now, because the server is working okay. So they are good enough for now. I now have another working server on my hands.