Problem logging in on powerpc

[Biggysmiles]

I also ran into this problem after upgrading a 12" powerbook g4 to Jaunty 9.04. I managed to login after doing the following:

Got to the root prompt after using stream303's suggested boot: ("Linux single" also didn't work for me)

Linux nosplash rw init=/bin/bash
After getting to "root@(none):" I tried "passwd <username>"

passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
passwd: password unchanged

I then tried "adduser test" (successful), created a password, and rebooted. Still no joy, same result for all users.

I booted to recovery mode again, verified that /home still had my original user and "test" user directories (it did) and tried changing the password again for test (successful) and for my original user (failed). (not sure if changing the password was significant or not so I'm making a note of it)

From another thread someone suggested typing "pwconv" with success so I tried it and rebooted.

After rebooting my original user failed to login but "test" user and password returned the message "adding user test" and logged me in!

I booted to recovery mode again to see if I could repeat the "authentication token manipulation error" when changing my original user password but this time it was successful. I was able to login with my original user after rebooting.

I'm not sure which actions did the trick as I'm a noob but maybe it'll help.

[stream303]

NICE WORKAROUND! Reports like that make my day for sure.

I wonder if we can simplify the process...maybe:

1) Get into rescue mode with Linux rw init=/bin/bash

2) run pwconv

3) Just delete your existing user and add it back again?

deluser <username>

adduser <username>

4) reboot.

Maybe this will do the trick. Wish I knew if it was a PAM issue, something hardware-related like the G4 powerbook clock somewhow messing with the password file entries.....

Anway, glad you got it running and thanks again for the detailed work around. 1st-post to boot!

[johntoups]

This variant was almost exactly my fix. I installed 9.04 and was unable to login. I followed the procedure quoted below, with the minor exception that the deluser command failed - user did not exist!

I performed an adduser as below, but before rebooting ran visudo and duplicated the root user sudo permission line for my new user. I am now functional.

Subjective diagnosis - the install failed to create the user.

This answer also applies to this thread...

NICE WORKAROUND! Reports like that make my day for sure.

I wonder if we can simplify the process...maybe:

1) Get into rescue mode with Linux rw init=/bin/bash

2) run pwconv

3) Just delete your existing user and add it back again?

deluser <username>

adduser <username>

4) reboot.

Maybe this will do the trick. Wish I knew if it was a PAM issue, something hardware-related like the G4 powerbook clock somewhow messing with the password file entries.....

Anway, glad you got it running and thanks again for the detailed work around. 1st-post to boot!

[Vlammetje]

Well, thanks for the tips! I managed to create a user with a working password, nbut that had to be the end of the joy. There is no group admin on my system, and I do not know how to create one. Thus my user has no sudo rights, and I am stuck now

Any suggestions?

[dragonhunter]

Hi Guys

I've have an eMac power pc at the school that I work for, and I was founding exactly the same problem as most of you. I've followed Stream303 and BiggySmiles tips but no success. Then I figured out as BiggySmile said that PAM has a problem with dates, and as most of those computers already has a certain age the CMOS battery doesn't hold the date anymore.
So to make a workaround on this issue I would suggest to do that

1) Get into rescue mode with Linux rw init=/bin/bash

2) run pwconv

3) Change your system time with "date -u MMddhhmmYYYY"

4) Synchronize your CMOS time with the system time using "clock -w"

5) adduser --home /home/<username> --ingroup sudo <username>

6)exit


At this point my machine said there was something wrong with the filesystem and didn't boot up. So I've restarted it into single mode without mounting the filesystem to run the fsck

Linux nosplash init=/bin/bash

then

fsck -ry

Restart it and everything was working perfectly!

Hope it helps!

[96fps]

I'm having the same problem here (installed Ubuntu 9.04 ppc using the alternate cd), along with me needing to edit xorg.conf as I'm using a very picky iMac G3. I had the same problem when i installed bare-bone debian from a net-install disk without internet on the iMac. It may be inherited from the new ppc debian releases(?), but i have no idea. also sorry for resurrecting an old thread.

All the suggested solutions ask me to login (or do after i hit control-option-f1 when the launch X.

Someone told me i should try installing ubuntu 6, and upgrading from that.

~thank you for reading this.