At lunch today, the system booted-up as normal, then shut-down as normal. A handful of updates were installed during that time.
This evening, however, I arrive at the password splash screen, enter my password, and then the system churns a few seconds before resetting the splash screen. No error message, no “wrong password,” just a normal splash screen. I tried going into Xen, the default 11.3 and failsafe – same thing happened with each. When I navigated to the command line, my password worked fine, both for user and super-user.
I am not much of a penguin, so please help me to access my operating system…
At lunch today, the system booted-up as normal, then shut-down as normal. A handful of updates were installed during that time.
This evening, however, I arrive at the password splash screen, enter my password, and then the system churns a few seconds before resetting the splash screen. No error message, no “wrong password,” just a normal splash screen. I tried going into Xen, the default 11.3 and failsafe – same thing happened with each. When I navigated to the command line, my password worked fine, both for user and super-user.
I am not much of a penguin, so please help me to access my operating system…
So, what desktop are you trying to start? For instance, if it where KDE, but you did load more than one Desktop, you could select the sessions option on the bottom left and pick another desktop. Start it, go into YaST and try to reload everything that belongs to it. For instance, I might search on KDE and then reload all KDE 4.4 stuff, trying to fix the issue. It might be a setup file issue and perhaps creating a new user or removing a hidden .kde4 file might start you over.
If you can not get a Desktop to run or did not load any others, you can run the text version of YaST from the terminal prompt and try to reload your desktop from there.
I am running KDE, and will try to get in using a different desktop – though it will be a new experience for me!
How does one run a text version of YaST, reloading my desktop from there…?
To use YaST from the terminal prompt, login as root or issue the command su -, the root password, and become root and then type in yast. Running the terminal version of yast will take some getting used to as well, but it does work.
I did figure out how to use the command-line YaST (it likes the tab key), and I re-entered my password while there. The problem persisted until I tried the “remote login” option, then hit the menu button and chose the normal login – which, for some reason, allowed me to move past the splash-screen into the operating system. Feeling relieved, I went about my normal computer routine for a few moments… when the thing crashed again, booting me out to the command line. When I tried this method again, the original problem started up again, despite repeated attempts.
The thought occurs to me that I can use YaST to eliminate the password splash-screen altogether, which I’ll try now… although, somehow, I don’t think that’s what is needed. I’ll let you know…
After accessing the command-line YaST, I went to the password utility, tabbed through my name and password (entry field plus confirmation), then x’d between the parentheses next to “turn off user login” (or whatever the wordage).
When I rebooted, it not only took me back to the login splash-screen, but it said that my password is incorrect. When I went back to the command line and tried to login there, the password was not accepted.
So, apparently I’ve screwed myself completely now, as YaST somehow changed my password when I tabbed through those fields.
Is there a default password for those fields (i.e., it seems like there were 5 or 6 asterisks in the password field, which does not match the number of characters in my actual password, so maybe Linux provides a particular password that is known only to smart penguins), in cases when dumb penguins like me try maneuvers like this?
On Mon January 3 2011 10:06 pm, adreampuppet wrote:
>
> Well, that did not go well at all.
>
> After accessing the command-line YaST, I went to the password utility,
> tabbed through my name and password (entry field plus confirmation),
> then x’d between the parentheses next to “turn off user login” (or
> whatever the wordage).
>
> When I rebooted, it not only took me back to the login splash-screen,
> but it said that my password is incorrect. When I went back to the
> command line and tried to login there, the password was not accepted.
>
> So, apparently I’ve screwed myself completely now, as YaST somehow
> changed my password when I tabbed through those fields.
>
> Is there a default password for those fields (i.e., it seems like there
> were 5 or 6 asterisks in the password field, which does not match the
> number of characters in my actual password, so maybe Linux provides a
> particular password that is known only to smart penguins), in cases when
> dumb penguins like me try maneuvers like this?
>
>
adreampuppet;
“Disable user login” does exactly what it says. It prevents the user from
logging in. If you have no other user you could use, your best bet now is to
login as root from the CL. Run YaST and enable login for your user. Then
logout as root. Do not muck around while you are root, just do what needs
to be done.
P. V.
“We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.” Red Green
As mentioned, my password is no longer accepted at the CL. I don’t know why, as I did not change it when telling YaST to “disable user login.” It seems to have changed on its own when I tabbed past the two password fields. I was hoping someone would have had this experience and would know what to do.
Thank you – I was confused, thinking that su = root. I was able to login as root, then use YaST to restore user login.
Unfortunately, I’m still unable to get beyond the splash-screen. It now accepts my password, but simply recycles to the same screen when I press enter.
Is there something else I can do in YaST, or is there a CL command that will take me directly into the operating system?
One thing You could try is create a new user using Yast and see if the user has the same problems loging to KDE. If that works than it most likely means You have something messed up in your KDE configuration if that doesn’t work You could try installing another desktop environment as already suggested by jdmcdaniel3. You can also do this using command line YaST or zypper. After the installation just switch to the newly installed desktop and see if You can log in.