[SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

jpirie · 2012-08-03 16:43:45

Hi all,

My problem appears to be the same as specified in https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=144483, namely that after an arch linux update when I attempt to log in to my machine with a non-root user I get the message: "System is booting up.".

The solution there however did not work for me. After doing "pacman -Syu" and "mkinitcpio -p linux" the problem still persists, even though I'm sure have the latest initscripts package and these commends executed without error.

In /var/log/slim.log, when attempting to log in with a non-root user the output is this:

slim: pam_authentication(): Authentication failure
slim: System is booting up.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? I didn't force the installation of any packages during the update so hopefully I've dodged that particular bullet.

Thanks!

John

Last edited by jpirie (2012-08-05 04:14:35)

Pres · 2012-08-03 17:20:26

What happens if you boot to runlevel 3 and try to login from a tty?

jpirie · 2012-08-03 17:44:14

I can't seem to spawn any tty terminals, it's my understanding this is known problem with some nvidia graphics installations.

I notice though that when I login as root through slim, spawn a terminal and switch user with 'su' to a non-root user and then use a sudo command, the output is this:

# su jpirie
% sudo touch test
Password:
System is booting up.

Sorry, try again.
Password:

Hopefully this will give some kind of clue...

yuyu · 2012-08-05 03:37:25

I have the exact same symptom. This is on an embedded device running ArchArmlinux, yes, I know I should post there but this seems appropriate since OP has exactly the same problem. Particularly I have the "system is booting up" message when attempting to run something as sudo. I have overcome the logging in problem (see below).
For me it occurred after updating the uboot on the device so that I could upgrade to 3.4.6 kernel, before the new uboot we were stuck on 3.10.1, something like that.
The update went well and no problems for a day or two. Then I did a pacman -Suy and after that update I can no longer run things as sudo. Su still works fine. I have spent several hours on the problem to no avail. Oh, also my device is set up for ssh no password access. It also would not work after problem appeared, I worked around it by changing the "Use PAM?" from yes to no in /etc/ssh/sshd_config.
Also, completely bizarre, I know for a fact that I upgraded to the new kernel on 7-26-11 because I posted a question about it on the ArchArm forum at the time. Yet the pacman.log shows nothing for that day and only shows the updated kernel happening yesterday, when I ran pacman -Suy again. Yesterday I did think it odd that it had to remove the 3.10.1 files AGAIN, I definitely saw them removed on 7-26 also <scratches head> And it most certainly was the new kernel on the 7-26 update because I ran uname -r and pasted it directly in this ArchArm post. But anyhow, the problem did not pop up until I updated 2 days later. Here is the pacman.log of that update:

[2012-07-28 12:34] Running 'pacman-color -Suy'
[2012-07-28 12:34] synchronizing package lists
[2012-07-28 12:34] starting full system upgrade
[2012-07-28 12:34] warning: /etc/protocols installed as /etc/protocols.pacnew
[2012-07-28 12:34] warning: /etc/services installed as /etc/services.pacnew
[2012-07-28 12:34] upgraded iana-etc (2.30-2 -> 2.30-3)
[2012-07-28 12:34] error: could not create database entry filesystem-2012.6-4.1
[2012-07-28 12:37] Running 'pacman-color -Suy'
[2012-07-28 12:37] synchronizing package lists
[2012-07-28 12:37] starting full system upgrade
[2012-07-28 12:42] Running 'pacman -Suy'
[2012-07-28 12:42] synchronizing package lists
[2012-07-28 12:42] starting full system upgrade
[2012-07-28 12:54] Running 'pacman -S --force filesystem'
[2012-07-28 12:59] Running 'pacman -Suy'
[2012-07-28 12:59] synchronizing package lists
[2012-07-28 12:59] starting full system upgrade
[2012-07-28 13:00] upgraded libcups (1.5.3-6 -> 1.5.4-1)
[2012-07-28 13:00] upgraded libsystemd (186-2 -> 187-2)
[2012-07-28 13:00] upgraded systemd-tools (186-2 -> 187-2)
[2012-07-28 13:35] Running 'pacman-color -Suy'
[2012-07-28 13:35] synchronizing package lists
[2012-07-28 13:35] starting full system upgrade
[2012-07-28 13:59] Running 'pacman -S initscripts-systemd'
[2012-07-28 13:59] ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/getty@.service' '/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service'
[2012-07-28 13:59] :: Append 'init=/bin/systemd' to your kernel command line in your
[2012-07-28 13:59]    bootloader to replace sysvinit with systemd
[2012-07-28 13:59] installed systemd (187-2)
[2012-07-28 13:59] ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/arch-modules-load.service' '/etc/systemd/system/sysinit.target.wants/arch-modules-load.service'
[2012-07-28 13:59] ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service' '/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/rc-local.service'
[2012-07-28 13:59] ln -s '/usr/lib/systemd/system/rc-local-shutdown.service' '/etc/systemd/system/shutdown.target.wants/rc-local-shutdown.service'
[2012-07-28 13:59] installed initscripts-systemd (20120704.1-1)
[2012-07-28 14:08] Running 'pacman -S openssl-cryptodev'
[2012-07-28 14:09] removed openssl (1.0.1.c-1)
[2012-07-28 14:09] upgraded openssl-cryptodev (1.0.1.c-1 -> 1.0.1.c-1)

I've since reinstall pam and pambase. I've never used -force option with pacman except when it was specifically recommended by Arch to overcome some short term difficulty.
This posting has been good for me as I do see a couple of funny things in that pacman.log that I have not pursued yet. If I do stumble (and I do mean stumble) across a solution I'll let you know.
Thanks all.

Last edited by yuyu (2012-08-05 03:45:23)

jpirie · 2012-08-05 04:11:56

I happened to fix this earlier this evening (though I guess describing this time as 'evening' is a little bit of a stretch ^^).

More as a guess than anything else I did rm -rf on /etc/pam.d and then reinstalled pam, pam-base, and the dependancies of those packages. After that I was able to log in again as a non-root user. I guess something in that folder must have been incorrect, though I'm not sure what. Ah well, perhaps I'll enjoy having my desktop back up and running than analysing this to death. :-)

yuyu · 2012-08-06 07:44:02

Thank you jpirie! All fixed now.
<big grin>

bernarcher · 2012-08-06 09:24:58

Only as a cautionary aside. Do not remove probably valuable information too soon. Do some simple backup instead.
In this case you might just move /etc/pam.d aside by a simple rename, e.g. /etc/pam.d.old.

yuyu · 2012-08-06 23:49:10

Thank you bernarcher for the excellent advice, I did do that, I should have posted it to save you the trouble but it was late and I was suddenly happy
So far it doesn't seem that I'll need it, but we'll hang on to it for a while.

Last edited by yuyu (2012-08-06 23:50:37)

yuyu · 2012-08-25 05:13:34

I'm back. It was fine for a few weeks. Today we had an update of sudo to 1.8.5.p3-1 and same problem occurred. Same remedy. Now I have two backup pam.d directories...

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-03 16:43:45

[SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#2 2012-08-03 17:20:26

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#3 2012-08-03 17:44:14

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#4 2012-08-05 03:37:25

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#5 2012-08-05 04:11:56

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#6 2012-08-06 07:44:02

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#7 2012-08-06 09:24:58

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#8 2012-08-06 23:49:10

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

#9 2012-08-25 05:13:34

Re: [SOLVED] Non-root user authentication problem (System is booting up.)

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