no sound and "I have no name!' user login

MarcusG · 02-21-2006, 10:10 PM

I recently upgraded to 10.2.

Everything is working, but:

When I login as anyone but root, the login name is "I have no name!@darkstar:~$"

What do I need to do to correct?

When I try to play mplayer I get:

[AO OSS] audio setup:Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: No such device
alsa-init: so sound cards found: Success
could not get user name from user id

I have not tried to solve the alsa issue. Alsaconf cannot detect my card. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

gilead · 02-21-2006, 10:36 PM

For the 'I have no name' problem... Can you type the following from a terminal window (but substitute your username for the word 'username'):

Code:

grep username /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f5

If you just get back a blank line, you haven't entered your name when you created the user account. You can fix it with (run as root, but substitute your username for the word 'username'):

Code:

usermod -c 'Your name' username

For the other problem I'm not sure that I can help...

MarcusG · 02-21-2006, 10:43 PM

I get back "username,,," not a blank line. What are my options?

SaintsOfTheDiamond · 02-21-2006, 10:45 PM

I had a similar issue with the login and sound as well. Can you still see all of your files in your /home/xxxx directory where xxxx is your username? That's how mine was and I just made a backup of the /home/xxxx directory and then made a new user with adduser and then copied the /home/xxxx directory backup into the new user's directory. I'm not sure if that makes any sense or if that's the "right" way to do it, but it's worked for me so far.

I had the exact same error with the sound. I went to the ALSA site and downloaded the most recent version of ALSA and used this site to find the correct drivers for my card and used this guide to install them.

I'm sure there are much easier fixes for your problems, but those got me back up and running *relatively* quickly once you account for the fact I'm still negotiating the steep learning curve.

Hope that helps or at least gets you on the right track.

MarcusG · 02-21-2006, 10:51 PM

Thanks. I've lost no files under the original names whatsoever. I just can't get a real login user id. Everything else is working great. But I added a user with adduser as a test to see what was going on in the /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/shadow files. But my test user still comes up "I have no name!"@darkstar. So your solution I am not sure will work. Good to hear I am not totally alone in this, though. Damn. I am wondering if the user id issue with the sound is related to the user id generally and audio group or some other configuration. But I cannot run sound in root, either.

gilead · 02-21-2006, 11:05 PM

It looks like I spoke to soon - I can't get that error to occur here whether I leave the comment blank or create a user called username. Sorry about that - but can you post the line from /etc/passwd for the user's account?

SaintsOfTheDiamond · 02-21-2006, 11:07 PM

Well I'm probably not the definitive source of info you're looking for, just thought I'd throw my two cents out there since it seemed like it was similar to one of the (many) problems I had.

So I assume you can log in as root? Are you saying you can't download any of the files from the ALSA site, or you just can't install them?

MarcusG · 02-21-2006, 11:08 PM

From the /etc/passwd

root:x:0:0::/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:
adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/log:
lp:x:4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:
sync:x:5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
mail:x:8:12:mail:/:
news:x:9:13:news:/usr/lib/news:
uucp:x:10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucppublic:
operator:x:11:0

perator:/root:/bin/bash
games:x:12:100:games:/usr/games:
ftp:x:14:50::/home/ftp:
smmsp:x:25:25:smmsp:/var/spool/clientmqueue:
mysql:x:27:27:MySQL:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/bash
rpc:x:32:32:RPC portmap user:/:/bin/false
sshd:x:33:33:sshd:/:
gdm:x:42:42:GDM:/var/state/gdm:/bin/bash
pop:x:90:90:POP:/:
nobody:x:99:99:nobody:/:

mark:$1$Bu2OC0z1$UOe.OuEmapw4XDMefrenH1:1000:100:mark,,,:/home/mark:/bin/bash
sparky:x:1001:100:Sparky Test Profile,,,:/home/sparky:/bin/bash

MarcusG · 02-21-2006, 11:16 PM

I can do everything in root. I just cannot figure out what is going on with my user profiles and if this does not bode well for the upgrade generally. I'll take care of the sound at alsa and see what happens there.

MarcusG · 02-21-2006, 11:47 PM

Alsa was a simple fix. I have sound, now. Just no user names. Puzzling. Thanks all for your time.

MarcusG · 02-22-2006, 12:12 PM

loaded the alsa upgrade
alsaconfig found my sound card all is working

solved the "I have no name!"@darksar by loosening the permission on the /etc/passwd file to users. This had also caused KDE to issue a fatal sound error: cannot find user from user id. Permission must have been changed in the upgrade. Working good now.

pdw_hu · 02-22-2006, 12:27 PM

Actually you might want to use shadow, because storing passwords in /etc/passwd is _highly_ unsecure.
if those were from /etc/shadow then nevermind.

gilead · 02-22-2006, 01:31 PM

Everything I found on google about the "I have no name" message relates to problems with the /etc/passwd file. The entry for the user mark that you posted looks like it has the password in the /etc/passwd file instead of in /etc/shadow. Do you have the shadow package installed and is there an entry for mark in /etc/shadow?

I'd have expected to see something more like:

Code:

/etc/passwd
mark:x:1000:100:mark,,,:/home/mark:/bin/bash
/etc/shadow
mark:$1$Bu2OC0z1$UOe.OuEmapw4XDMefrenH1:13152:0:99999:7:::

MarcusG · 02-22-2006, 01:51 PM

Good point. I have not dealt with the pass word in the etc/passwd yet. Should be x for password in /etc/passwd. I'll have to check /etc/shadow when I return to the box tonight. I know the Test Profile I made is password protected with an x in /etc/passwd and the appropropriate etc/shadow entry. I am not sure what is going on with the mark user in /etc/passwd. I'll have to invesigate this and edit it back into shape. I know editing these files must be done with caution. Any advice?

gilead · 02-22-2006, 04:11 PM

Apart from backing up /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group and /etc/gshadow before you start, I'd suggest using vipw to edit /etc/passwd and vipw -s to edit /etc/shadow. From http://www.linux-tutorial.info/modul...rial&pageid=69

Quote:

vipw creates a copy of the password file, which is what you actually edit. When you are finished editing, vipw replaces the /etc/passwd with that copy. Should the system go down while you are editing the file, the potential for problems is minimized

That's pretty much it - there's a useful command listing for managing users at http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/...cruserman.html to give you an idea of many of the commands related to managing users.