Arch Linux

DudeMan123

Member

Registered: 2017-06-26

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

Hello,

My computer suspended normally last night, but today there are issues with logging in.

I use LightDM for the login management and usually there is a a default entry for my user.

Today there wasn't. I changed "greeter-hide-users" to false, logged in as root, to see if that would change anything. It didn't.

It only shows the "Other..." option in the drop down and when I put in the correct credentials it doesn't output anything.

If I had to guess, I'd think my /etc/ files got corrupted, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to diagnose that.

Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by DudeMan123 (2017-06-26 15:02:01)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 78,881

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

grep <your username> /etc/passwd

Ensure your home directory and your private data is still there ...

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DudeMan123

Member

Registered: 2017-06-26

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

grep <your username> /etc/passwd

Ensure your home directory and your private data is still there ...

Output

alexander:x:1000:1000::/home/alexander:/bin/zsh

Forgot to add that everything is still there. Home directory is unaffected.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,545

Website

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

First, is there any real evidence for your /etc/ corruption suspicion?  Are there symptoms beyond the DM failing?

Specifically, can you log into a tty with your user?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

DudeMan123

Member

Registered: 2017-06-26

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

First, is there any real evidence for your /etc/ corruption suspicion?  Are there symptoms beyond the DM failing?

Only speculation. None that I know of.

Specifically, can you log into a tty with your user?

No. I get:

Login Incorrect

I'm able to change the password in root, but the same credentials return the above.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 78,881

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

If it's not just a bug in lightdm, your user might be deactivated?

passwd -S alexander

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

DudeMan123

Member

Registered: 2017-06-26

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

If it's not just a bug in lightdm, your user might be deactivated?

passwd -S alexander

Output:

alexander P 06/26/2017 0 99999 7 -1

DudeMan123

Member

Registered: 2017-06-26

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

So I've figured it out.

My /etc/passwd has:

alexander:x:1000:1000::/home/alexander:/bin/zsh

but it fails because I removed Z shell and didn't update the file.

Changing it to the regular:

alexander:x:1000:1000::/home/alexander:/bin/bash

solved the issue.

Thank you anyway for working with me.

Last edited by DudeMan123 (2017-06-26 15:02:27)

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

Changing it to the regular:

alexander:x:1000:1000::/home/alexander:/bin/bash

Glad you got this solved. I hope you used "chsh" to change the shell to bash, and did not edit /etc/passwd directly.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ault_shell

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

Glad you got this solved. I hope you used "chsh" to change the shell to bash, and did not edit /etc/passwd directly.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ault_shell

It doesn't matter which method is used, all chsh does is edit the /etc/passwd file. The result is the same either way.

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

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2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

It doesn't matter which method is used, all chsh does is edit the /etc/passwd file. The result is the same either way.

You're right, but editing /etc/passwd directly is a good way to break your system if you are not careful. chsh exists for a reason.

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2017-06-26 16:05:01)

DudeMan123

Member

Registered: 2017-06-26

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] No Longer Able to Login

Cheers for the tips.

In my case it was already broken, but I could see how a misplaced char could screw it up even more.