Login issues

drees5 · 2022-04-24 22:22:29

After updating my system and rebooting, I am met with a "Login failed" messge when entering my username (no password has been entered).

I've tried chrooting into my installation and changing the user password, but running passwd USERNAME gives the error: passwd: Authentication token manipulation error

Any help would be much appreciated!

nick_0189 · 2022-04-24 22:33:52

What did you find when you searched for the error?

What does `ls -l /etc/shadow` give you?

drees5 · 2022-04-24 22:40:05

I found and tried lots of links that included lots of pam fixes from 2020 (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=258313), looking for a login.pacnew file (doesn't exist).

ls -l /etc/shadow returns: -rw-r----- 1 root root 817 Apr 24 22:55 /etc/shadow

V1del · 2022-04-25 02:08:53

Does your username start with a number? If so you have a technically illegal username that can lead to all sorts of issues, i'd best to rename that.

For the immediate issue, afaik the pam module of systemd_home got more stingy you could try to comment the relevant entries from your system-auth.

Also those /etc/shadow perms should be 600 instead of what it is now. Did you try to merge a pacnew file for the shadow file or run some sketchy script as root?

Last edited by V1del (2022-04-25 02:10:57)

drees5 · 2022-04-25 08:41:37

My username is "dylan" so I should be good there, I tried commenting out all the lines with systemd_home in my system-auth but had no luck there either.

And with regards to the /etc/shadow file I'm pretty sure I changed the permissions earlier when trying to fix this problem as suggested by one of the threads I found, I think I've changed it back to what it should be now though.

ls -l /etc/shadow now returns: -rw------- root root 817 Apr 24 22:55 /etc/shadow.

seth · 2022-04-25 11:32:41

running passwd USERNAME gives the error: passwd: Authentication token manipulation error

Before or after entering the password?

What does /etc/shadow look like (DO NOT POST IT!)
There should be a line w/ your username that looks kinda like

dylan:$6$<some salt>$<some hash>:123:456:789:123:456:

Post that line BUT obfuscate the salt and the hash!
The only interesting bits are the first number ("6" above) and the numbers afterwards and whether there're some exclamation points (outside salt and hash)
The file is documented in https://man.archlinux.org/man/core/shadow/shadow.5.en

drees5 · 2022-04-25 14:27:07

The "Login failed" message shows before entering a password, when entering any text for the user it is shown. When you just press enter with an empty user the message does not show however.

And the /etc/shadow line is

dylan::0:0:999999:7:::

I didn't obfuscate anything by the way I just copied directly as there was no walk nor hash.

Last edited by drees5 (2022-04-25 14:29:35)

seth · 2022-04-25 14:36:36

can you "passwd dylan" as root?

drees5 · 2022-04-25 14:38:44

Nope

Still getting the error

 Authentication token manipulation error

seth · 2022-04-25 14:40:31

grep dylan /etc/passwd

(unlike the name suggests, there're no passwords inside that)

drees5 · 2022-04-25 14:42:04

That returned

 dylan:x:1000:1000::/home/dylan:/bin/zsh

seth · 2022-04-25 14:52:38

That's fine.
Does the root have a password hash entry in the shadows file and can you "passwd root"?

If so, try to just remove the line for "dylan", but there may be stray characters in the file at which point you could just move it away and see whether you can now "passwd root" and "passwd dylan"

drees5 · 2022-04-25 14:59:09

Root has a password hash entry but passwd root returns the same error, I tried moving the /etc/shadow file anyways, however I'm still getting the same error after moving the file.

Last edited by drees5 (2022-04-25 14:59:31)

seth · 2022-04-25 20:43:49

pacman -Qs pam
pacman -Qikk pam pambase shadow

drees5 · 2022-04-25 20:53:27

 pacman -Qs pam

returns

 local/pam 1.5 2-1
loca/pman-gnupg 0.3-1
local/pambase 20211210-1
local/pamixer 1.5-3
loca/shadow 4.11.1-1

and

 pacman -Qikk pam pambase shadow

shows missing files for pambase and shadow, for pambase the altered files are

 
/etc/pam.d/system-local-login (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/system-login (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/system-remote-login (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/system-services (No such file or directory)

and for shadow the altered files archangede

 
/etc/pam.d/chage (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/chagepasswd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/chpasswd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupadd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupdel  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupmems  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupmod (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/newusers  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/passwd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/shadow  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/useradd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/uderdel  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/usermod (No such file or directory)
/usr/bin/newgidmap (Permissions mismatch)
/usr/bin/newuidmap (Permissions mistmatch)

seth · 2022-04-25 20:58:22

/etc/pam.d/system-local-login (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/system-login (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/system-remote-login (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/system-services (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/chage (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/chagepasswd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/chpasswd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupadd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupdel  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupmems  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/groupmod (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/newusers  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/passwd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/shadow  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/useradd  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/uderdel  (No such file or directory)
/etc/pam.d/usermod (No such file or directory)
/usr/bin/newgidmap (Permissions mismatch)
/usr/bin/newuidmap (Permissions mistmatch)

This is like really super bad.
You'd at least have to re-install shadow, pam and pambase, but if you can't explain why all those files are missing ("I did stupid"), chances are that there're more issues and possibly your disk is dying.

LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk | grep -v ' 0 altered files'

and https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SMART

drees5 · 2022-04-25 21:09:01

Oh shit you're right, I can't copy all the errors here as there was a LOT. Loads of packages have missing files, checksum mismatches, size mismatches and modification time mismatches. Some of the included packages just reading from the bottom are: xorg, sdmm, shadow, php, pacman, host, fstab, locales. Basically everything important it seems.....

Any idea what could have happened? Last time I logged in everything seemed file, I'd not updated in approximately 3 weeks as I was away but surely that can't have caused this?

To add some more information on what I was doing before the error occured, I dual booted into windows, installed a game (valorant) then did a windows update, before finally booting back into arch.

V1del · 2022-04-25 21:20:40

Run the linked SMART test and post the output of

smartctl -a

. FWIW I've seen some reports floating around of the Windows update potentially altering the partition layout, which would be a pretty huge bug on their part

seth · 2022-04-25 21:25:36

SSD? https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Solid_state_drive#TRIM - see the warning.

I dual booted into windows

3rd link below. Do you access the linux partition from windows (w/ an extfs driver)?

And check "smartctl -a".

Once you figured that the drive is ok, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … l_packages …

drees5 · 2022-04-25 21:30:39

Hmm I don't have smartctl installed and pacman isn't working because I think my pacman-mirrorlist or network isn't working due to all the files being broken. What would be the best way to install the package (ideally not using a 2nd USB as I don't have one available to me right now)

I'm using an SSD and the output of lsblk --discard shows that my drive supports disk trimming.

seth · 2022-04-25 21:35:04

Until we know that the disk is fine you should not write to it at all.
You could eg. use https://grml.org/

The broken installation should not affect the archinstall iso or it's network availability at all and you can't rely on the installed system anyway and so will likely ultimately have to fix it offline, using pacman --sysroot from the install iso.

drees5 · 2022-05-12 19:25:34

Sorry for the really slow reply, I'd been quite busy with work.

Here's the output from smartctl: http://0x0.st/omyu.txt

seth · 2022-05-12 19:43:14

202 Percent_Lifetime_Remain 0x0030   093   093   001    Old_age   Offline      -       7

looks scary, but idk. how reliable thse SSD parameters are.
The rest is unsuspicious.
You could re-install all packages, but I'd then be careful about data trimming. Did you so far continuously or periodically?

drees5 · 2022-05-12 19:50:00

Thanks for the reply and all the help so far, if I'm being completely honest I'm not sure if I set up any trimming. I'll double check if I had it enabled after reinstalling all the packages.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-04-24 22:22:29

Login issues

#2 2022-04-24 22:33:52

Re: Login issues

#3 2022-04-24 22:40:05

Re: Login issues

#4 2022-04-25 02:08:53

Re: Login issues

#5 2022-04-25 08:41:37

Re: Login issues

#6 2022-04-25 11:32:41

Re: Login issues

#7 2022-04-25 14:27:07

Re: Login issues

#8 2022-04-25 14:36:36

Re: Login issues

#9 2022-04-25 14:38:44

Re: Login issues

#10 2022-04-25 14:40:31

Re: Login issues

#11 2022-04-25 14:42:04

Re: Login issues

#12 2022-04-25 14:52:38

Re: Login issues

#13 2022-04-25 14:59:09

Re: Login issues

#14 2022-04-25 20:43:49

Re: Login issues

#15 2022-04-25 20:53:27

Re: Login issues

#16 2022-04-25 20:58:22

Re: Login issues

#17 2022-04-25 21:09:01

Re: Login issues

#18 2022-04-25 21:20:40

Re: Login issues

#19 2022-04-25 21:25:36

Re: Login issues

#20 2022-04-25 21:30:39

Re: Login issues

#21 2022-04-25 21:35:04

Re: Login issues

#22 2022-05-12 19:25:34

Re: Login issues

#23 2022-05-12 19:43:14

Re: Login issues

#24 2022-05-12 19:50:00

Re: Login issues

Board footer