Arch Linux

permagreen

Member

From: Portland, OR

Registered: 2009-09-08

Posts: 9

Problem with passwd during install

So I was install Arch on my eeepc and everything was smooth as can be until I got to setting up my root password. Every time I try to enter the password I want (or any other random password I can think of) I get the following error:

passwd: Authentication token manipulation error

Normally this wouldn't be too big of an issue, but I can't seem to exit out of the passwd dialog asking me to type in my new password. Since I'm right in the middle of install (okay, technically right at the end of the install, but I've still got all the GRUB stuff to do) this is something of an inconvenience. Anyone have this problem before and/or have any ideas as to what I ought to do about it? For preference, is there any solution that doesn't involve completely restarting the installation process? Because this seems like a pretty dumb reason to have to do so.

To reiterate, I am stuck in an infinite loop of

Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
Enter new UNIX password:

n0dix

Member

Registered: 2009-09-22

Posts: 956

Re: Problem with passwd during install

Hi permagreen,

I've found a couple of posts that tall about it -- the most promising suggests that your receiving that error because the filesystem is in read/only mode- If so you can make it read-write with the command:

mount -o remount,rw /

Good luck

Last edited by n0dix (2010-01-25 23:00:11)

tacitdynamite

Member

Registered: 2009-07-28

Posts: 12

Re: Problem with passwd during install

Did anyone find the solution to this? There is no way to enter mount -o remount,rw / at the "Retype new UNIX password:" prompt.

lilsirecho

Veteran

Registered: 2003-10-24

Posts: 5,000

Re: Problem with passwd during install

Perhaps the previous install steps have resulted in the read-only mode by mistake..................check fstab.....

---

Prediction...This year will be a very odd year!
Hard work does not kill people but why risk it: Charlie Mccarthy
A man is not complete until he is married..then..he is finished.
When ALL is lost, what can be found? Even bytes get lonely for a little bit!     X-ray confirms Iam spineless!

tacitdynamite

Member

Registered: 2009-07-28

Posts: 12

Re: Problem with passwd during install

CTRL+C didn't work, so I had to CTRL+Z, then exit, then start the entire installation over. What a waste of bandwidth; all the packages had to be redownloaded! The problem was with using vi to edit root password config. I'm a vimmer, so I thought I understood what using vi to set that up, but it got locked in an infinite loop. The next time I used nano, and it worked just fine.