[Solved] Can't login after update

KenJackson · 2011-08-13 04:10:02

I ran sudo pacman -Syu then canceled when I saw there was going to be a kernel update, because I didn't want to close all my applications to reboot. But I did update a few of the packages listed, inclucing pam.

When I finally did close everything and run sudo pacman -Syu again, pam complained that it didn't recognize a module.

I logged out. I haven't been able to login since.

My plan is to type e at the grub window and add single to boot in single-user mode. If that works, I'll try to rename some pam files/directories in /etc and reboot.

Can anyone guess if this will work?

That machine has no CD, so I'll have to burn Arch or a recovery iso to a thumb drive if I can't get logged in.

Any other advice?

Last edited by KenJackson (2011-08-13 18:20:10)

MoonSwan · 2011-08-13 18:02:29

Your idea of booting into the TelInit 1 shell is a good idea. If I were you, I'd then try to use:

telinit 3

After that, use pacman to either uninstall or re-install pam. If that fails you'll have to look into the logs to see what's wrong. The silver lining is that you'll be in a shell properly with access to all the tools you may need to fix this.

KenJackson · 2011-08-13 18:19:38

I'm in!

Single worked: at grub press e to edit, then down arrow to the kernel line and press e again, add single, press b to boot, and when prompted enter the root password.

To get the network up I entered rc.d start network. It said it failed, but it gave me network access.

Then pacman -Syu twice got everything straight (twice because pacman itself was updated), and reboot to a usable system.

ZekeSulastin · 2011-08-13 21:13:09

Now that it's solved, just a couple things for future reference:

1) Don't EVER do partial upgrades unless it's specifially indicated - they're described as unsupported in the wiki due to stuff like this happening, similar to the warnings never to install a package using -Sy <package>.

2) Pacman won't force a reboot - all it does is packages, leaving you to deal with config files, reboot, etc. at your leisure

Last edited by ZekeSulastin (2011-08-13 21:13:55)

KenJackson · 2011-08-13 22:17:22

ZekeSulastin wrote:

Don't EVER do partial upgrades ...

Don't ever do this and don't ever do that. There's lots and lots of don't evers around. And it's easy to sound wise by admonishing someone after they got in trouble.

There have been occasions when I let my Fedora systems go for a while without updating. Sometimes when I've done a yum update, I've been presented with over a 100 packages that were ready for update. That makes me very nervous. When you get 50 packages into a large update and then one of them has a problem (rare, but it has happened), you're left regretting doing them all at once. Even if I'm going to do them all in one sitting, I usually try to do them in groups. You rarely need to type very many names because yum is very wise about pulling in dependencies.

I haven't been using Arch very long, and my Arch system has fewer packages installed on it, but I still want to be able to upgrade some packages without upgrading everything that's available. I will consider it a serious shortcoming if it causes more than the odd problem.

fsckd · 2011-08-13 22:38:05

KenJackson wrote:

ZekeSulastin wrote:
Don't EVER do partial upgrades ...
Don't ever do this and don't ever do that. There's lots and lots of don't evers around. And it's easy to sound wise by admonishing someone after they got in trouble.
There have been occasions when I let my Fedora systems go for a while without updating. Sometimes when I've done a yum update, I've been presented with over a 100 packages that were ready for update. That makes me very nervous. When you get 50 packages into a large update and then one of them has a problem (rare, but it has happened), you're left regretting doing them all at once. Even if I'm going to do them all in one sitting, I usually try to do them in groups. You rarely need to type very many names because yum is very wise about pulling in dependencies.
I haven't been using Arch very long, and my Arch system has fewer packages installed on it, but I still want to be able to upgrade some packages without upgrading everything that's available. I will consider it a serious shortcoming if it causes more than the odd problem.

Unfortunately this is an artifact of the rolling release nature of Arch. You could get away with partial upgrades with no problems or more likely, you might end up with a broken system. You saw yourself what the risks are. If you want to keep doing it, that's your call but please do not dismiss such advice casually. Anyhow, this topic has been discussed extensively many, many times. If you're curious about the details, they're only a short forum search away.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-13 04:10:02

[Solved] Can't login after update

#2 2011-08-13 18:02:29

Re: [Solved] Can't login after update

#3 2011-08-13 18:19:38

Re: [Solved] Can't login after update

#4 2011-08-13 21:13:09

Re: [Solved] Can't login after update

#5 2011-08-13 22:17:22

Re: [Solved] Can't login after update

#6 2011-08-13 22:38:05

Re: [Solved] Can't login after update

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