Hey there, Folks!
I´m experiencing some odd behaviour in my system lately:
Starting up any application needing root permission pops up a window asking for the pass - and that is where the normal precodure ends. Now when punching in the pasword, absolutley nothing happens. It doesn´t even matter if the pass is correct or not. BUT executing the same application through console in sudo mode just works perfectly.
Please tell me what is messed up and how to cure it if you are able to. Thanks.
look in /etc for a file named passwd
there may or may not be several passwd.[something] where ‘something’
might be ‘YAST2save’]
notice the dates on all versions of passwd and passwd.[something]
would any of those dates match the time when you first noticed the
“odd behaviour in my system lately”
i mean, if “lately” was yesterday and there is a passwd dated
yesterday, then you might need to save and then replace passwd dated
yesterday with passwd.[something] dated yesterday or before
CAUTION: if i’m wrong you could do more damage than fixin’…so
CAREFULLY plan a way back…
oh, what happens if you pop open a terminal and just type
su -
and hit enter…then give your root pass…do you get a root prompt?
–
palladium
As I already said: In sudo/su mode through console I get asked for the password and everything is fine. And if I get a root prompt? Console asks for the pass - just as supposed to.
Maybe I should digg a little deeper: This issue doesn´t seem to be wired directly to YaST, but rather even occurs when startung a desctop link executing kdesu…
TheMask wrote:
> As I already said: In sudo/su mode
you had only mentioned sudo…su is different, and i was hoping for
some slight differentiation to know where to begin digging…
apparently the fault is not at system level (since both sudo AND su
work) but rather in X or ??
> Maybe I should digg a little deeper:
try this: while logged into kde or gnome as yourself press down and
hold the left Alt button and then press and release F2, in the
resulting popup type
kdesu yast2 [or, if using gnome: gnomesu yast2]
does yast2 start?
if so, navigate to Security and Users > User Management and add a new
user (say, named test) and give ‘test’ a password…
then, close YaST, log out (change user—not required to reboot) and
log back in as test…if the problems you see as you are not seen if
logged in as test, then the problem is in one of the hidden files
named /home/[you]/.[something]
–
palladium
Hey Mask,
This has already been described a while ago. Does just ‘su’ and ‘yast2’ not work? And does ‘su -’ and yast2 work? Don’t know what it was, disappeared after some updates. Don’t have the time for searching the forum right now, shopping is expected to be done…that’s PARADISE 
TheMask wrote:
> Hey there, Folks!
> I´m experiencing some odd behaviour in my system lately:
>
> Starting up any application needing root permission pops up a window
> asking for the pass - and that is where the normal precodure ends. Now
> when punching in the pasword, absolutley nothing happens. It doesn´t
> even matter if the pass is correct or not. BUT executing the same
> application through console in sudo mode just works perfectly.
>
> Please tell me what is messed up and how to cure it if you are able to.
Did you configure “sudo” at any stage? If “yes” then root’s password is
user’s password so you have to provide the last one.
Usually, when a popup window asking for a pass just quits and no application
is openned, means that you provided the wrong credentials (username or
password) so you have to re-check that ones.
Greetings,
–
Camaleón
palladium, thanks for then hint, but this didn´t work. As mentioned, the system only opens the door when asking for password via console.
Plugging my own password int one of those popups does not work either. Knurpht, please take a second to look up the thread you mentioned - the popped up window does NOTHING (not even show an error message) when putting a password into it. Looks like a program failing its purpose…
Hi
When the dialog shows are you entering the sudo password or the root
passwd?
Have you set a root passwd? if so has it been accidentally changed?
running the commands sudo -i then changing roots passwd with the passwd
command should sort things out.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.29-0.1-default
up 17 days 22:46, 3 users, load average: 0.16, 0.12, 0.05
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.18
Hm… Knurpht, your post confuses me somehow. Up until now I´ve never had two different passes for sudo and root.
The password propmt doesn´t even react - means, there is no error message when pressing ‘ENTER’, no matter what I put in there.
TheMask wrote:
> Hey there, Folks!
> I´m experiencing some odd behaviour in my system lately:
>
> Starting up any application needing root permission pops up a window
> asking for the pass - and that is where the normal precodure ends. Now
> when punching in the pasword, absolutley nothing happens. It doesn´t
> even matter if the pass is correct or not. BUT executing the same
> application through console in sudo mode just works perfectly.
>
> Please tell me what is messed up and how to cure it if you are able to.
> Thanks.
Try putting in your own password instead of roots. Ever since adding my
self to the sudoers list, when I start yast it wants my password
although the dialog says ‘root’. When I sudo I have to put in root’s
password which I always thought was goofy. That’s the point of sudo-
being able to grant individual users admin rights w/o giving away the
keys to the kingdom.
Anyway, see if maybe that isn’t the case here…
–
Kevin Miller - http://www.alaska.net/~atftb
Juneau, Alaska
In a recent survey, 7 out of 10 hard drives preferred Linux
Registered Linux User No: 307357, http://counter.li.org
Hey, please re-read my previous post. It doesn not matter what I put in the password field (my pass/roots pass/fake pass…) - absolutely nothing happens.
It just stays the same with the hidden pass in it. No error, no movement. Just a window without a function. That sucks.
TheMask wrote:
> absolutely nothing happens. It just stays the same with the
> hidden pass in it. No error, no movement. Just a window without a
> function. That sucks.
even if signed in as a NEW user, created since this trouble began–right?
–
palladium
Will OpenSuse delete ALL files after deleting the user account? I´ll try as soon as I get out of University.
TheMask wrote:
> Will OpenSuse delete ALL files after deleting the user account? I´ll try
> as soon as I get out of University.
as far as i know if you delete “test user” in YaST it will delete
/home/[test user]/* and all references to him/her in all
setup/password and access files…
if you find that ‘test user’ can use the system as intended, then it
means that you (or someone else, or something done by an out to lunch
program) did something to some file in /home/[you], in some hidden
configuration file…
with enough patience you can use a program like diff to find the
differences between the BROKEN files in your home and the still
unbroken files in test user’s home…
on the other hand, if test user’s machine is also broke i’d guess it
is likely time to seek more competent help…
–
palladium
TheMask wrote:
> Hey, please re-read my previous post. It doesn not matter what I put in
> the password field (my pass/roots pass/fake pass…) - absolutely
> nothing happens.
> It just stays the same with the hidden pass in it. No error, no
> movement. Just a window without a function. That sucks.
Read the logs to get any clue about the failure. As root, run:
cat /var/log/messages | grep sudo
cat /var/log/messages | grep pam
Greetings,
–
Camaleón
The only thing that I experinced here is that ‘cat /var/log/messages | grep pam’ tells me “no conversation function”. Whoa, can´t believe I am -again- the only one having such an issue.
TheMask wrote:
> The only thing that I experinced here is that ‘cat /var/log/messages |
> grep pam’ tells me “no conversation function”. Whoa, can´t believe I am
> -again- the only one having such an issue.
Copy/paste here the error, it should be more verbose 
Greetings,
–
Camaleón
> The only thing that I experinced here is that ‘cat /var/log/messages |
> grep pam’ tells me “no conversation function”. Whoa, can´t believe I am
> -again- the only one having such an issue.
I don’t have that exact issue, but lately with update coming out on KDE 4.3
I am seeing a lot of issues with communications between Kontact applications
and Kwallet. It was all bodged up for a few days, then I updated again and
it was back to normal. Updated again recently and now the Kmail/Kwallet
problems are back. I suspect your screen input is going elsewhere. You
don’t happen to have VMware running with ‘Grab All Keys’ enabled? I
discovered that issue recently.
@Camaleón: Here we go: Console logged (executed in su mode).
If one is able to give a quick fix I appreciate the effort. I might re-format the drive with that partcular OS in http://counter.opensuse.org/11.2/small.de.png
Have a good one and enjoy your evening!
TheMask wrote:
> @Camaleón: Here we go: ‘Console logged’ (http://pastebin.org/49349)
> (executed in su mode).
Thanks
I see nothing wrong in your “sudo” listing. I’d expect something like:
Oct 28 12:44:31 stthpc sudo: hpc02 : 1 incorrect password attempt ;
TTY=pts/2 ; PWD=/home/hpc02 ; USER=root ;
COMMAND=/opt/kde3/bin/kdesu_stub -
That would point to a password error, but it seems a clean log :-?
> If one is able to give a quick fix I appreciate the effort. I might
> re-format the drive with that partcular OS in [image:
> http://counter.opensuse.org/11.2/small.de.png]
> Have a good one and enjoy your evening!
BTW, it seems the “pam” search outputs a warning. You should type:
cat /var/log/messages | grep pam
Note the lack of the last trailing slash ("/") in word “messages”.
Greetings,
–
Camaleón
