This makes zero sense - entering passwords
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This can no longer be a coincidence. I've lost count of the number of times where I've installed a Linux distribution on this old laptop of mine (which I primarily keep to tinker with different Linux distributions), I create my login username/password, everything's fine, then upon the first reboot...my password is rejected as if I've made a typo. Yet if I type it into the username field, just to be able to view the individual characters (and ensure it's not a caps-lock type of thing), I can confirm I'm entering it correctly. This has happened with multiple versions of multiple distributions. Yet I've never had this happen with Windows. I always use the same password so I can type it reliably with muscle memory. The laptop I'm installing Linux on isn't being used for anything particularly important and doesn't contain any important data, so my workaround, when this happens, is to reinstall (!) and then to simply set the password as 'password'. Pretty lame, but I swear, if I use a combination of uppercase/lowercase, digits, symbols, etc then any login attempt after the initial OS install fails to recognize it. It makes absolutely no sense, and I feel crazy just writing this down to ask if anyone's ever seen this. It has happened so many times to me it *cannot* be mere coincidence. Am I losing my mind?
Ok, for a real reply. Just assuming you're installing a distro that gets a GUI going by default. If that's the case, then reboot into the console or single user mode if you know the root password. The switch user (su) command can be use for more than just root access. So, try something like this:
Quote:
su - user2
If you can't login that way, there's a problem with your password. And if that's the case, what you can do to make sure it's not the install process is create a second user after a fresh install and before you reboot. See if you can login with that user instead afterwards. If you can, then maybe the install process messed something up.
Jeremy Falcon
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Are you using any special characters like < > | etc? That might mess up a shell command/sed/regexp etc? The setup might be collecting info into a template that barfs when it tries to read it back.
Not those characters specifically, but I do have some non-alphanumeric characters...but nothing that would even be rejected as part of a filename.
englebart wrote:
The setup might be collecting info into a template that barfs when it tries to read it back.
I suppose if the installer is using one validation routine, but the login code uses something that's not 100% identical...that *could* mess things up? But you'd think this sort of thing would've been found/fixed - my password isn't that sophisticated...but who knows.
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Ok, for a real reply. Just assuming you're installing a distro that gets a GUI going by default. If that's the case, then reboot into the console or single user mode if you know the root password. The switch user (su) command can be use for more than just root access. So, try something like this:
Quote:
su - user2
If you can't login that way, there's a problem with your password. And if that's the case, what you can do to make sure it's not the install process is create a second user after a fresh install and before you reboot. See if you can login with that user instead afterwards. If you can, then maybe the install process messed something up.
Jeremy Falcon
The problem is that the distro doesn't *prompt* you to create a root account and doesn't document what the default root password might be. Going through the entire installation process, I'm only ever prompted to create one set of credentials. Since those are no good, after a reboot...I'm basically completely locked out.
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dandy72 wrote:
Am I losing my mind?
Yes
Jeremy Falcon
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The problem is that the distro doesn't *prompt* you to create a root account and doesn't document what the default root password might be. Going through the entire installation process, I'm only ever prompted to create one set of credentials. Since those are no good, after a reboot...I'm basically completely locked out.
If that's the case, I'm willing to bet (hoping to bet) the install puts the default account as a sudoer. So, you should be able to run
sudo suwithout needing the root password, to gain root access.Jeremy Falcon
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If that's the case, I'm willing to bet (hoping to bet) the install puts the default account as a sudoer. So, you should be able to run
sudo suwithout needing the root password, to gain root access.Jeremy Falcon
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...right? But if I can't even reach a command prompt (because I have to login), how would I run sudo su at all?
You don't have access to the machine before the reboot? What distro is this?
Jeremy Falcon
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You don't have access to the machine before the reboot? What distro is this?
Jeremy Falcon
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
You don't have access to the machine before the reboot? What distro is this?
Not sure if I've explained this right. Clean hard drive, I boot from an ISO, and run the distro's installer. At some point, it'll ask you for credentials, and it creates that account. You're not prompted to supply a password for the root account. That means the distro creates the account you've just supplied credentials for as part of the sudoers list. Finish the install, reboot, you have to supply credentials to login. That's when the password I had initially supplied is simply not recognized. Can't reach a command prompt to run sudo or anything else. The laptop I was tinkering with was running some instance of Fedora at one point. Then it was running Zorin. Then (and this is where I did my tinkering last week) I installed Lubuntu. They all had the same problem.
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Jeremy Falcon wrote:
You don't have access to the machine before the reboot? What distro is this?
Not sure if I've explained this right. Clean hard drive, I boot from an ISO, and run the distro's installer. At some point, it'll ask you for credentials, and it creates that account. You're not prompted to supply a password for the root account. That means the distro creates the account you've just supplied credentials for as part of the sudoers list. Finish the install, reboot, you have to supply credentials to login. That's when the password I had initially supplied is simply not recognized. Can't reach a command prompt to run sudo or anything else. The laptop I was tinkering with was running some instance of Fedora at one point. Then it was running Zorin. Then (and this is where I did my tinkering last week) I installed Lubuntu. They all had the same problem.
I don't use any Ubuntu variants, but what happens if you install Debian directly without the GUI installer, using the ncurses installer? Never once ran into that issue with Debian, so if you do then there's gotta be another reason than the install process.
Jeremy Falcon
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I don't use any Ubuntu variants, but what happens if you install Debian directly without the GUI installer, using the ncurses installer? Never once ran into that issue with Debian, so if you do then there's gotta be another reason than the install process.
Jeremy Falcon
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
if you install Debian directly without the GUI installer, using the ncurses installer?
I'm just a guy who happens to tinker with Linux every once in a while, by booting from the ISO and following the prompts on the pretty wizard screens. If I have to get my hands more dirty than this, this early in the process, it's not likely to be a distribution I'll be spending time with. :-) I mean, I've installed plenty of Debian versions, and derivates of it, but "without the GUI installer, using the ncurses installer", is mostly gobbledygook to me. :-) I'm not that dedicates to it, and I'm happy for now with my solution... I do appreciate the suggestions however.