Root password no longer accepted except for SDDM login manager

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Root Password does not work except with the SDDM Login Manager - Package i installed and what i idd to get my OS working again:

Im using opensuse tumbleweed
I when to Yast2 > to install NIS
yast told me that the NIS package was not available
So i downloaded a .RPM of it instead ans installed that
It added 3 extra repositorys - one of which is for Devs
My system then had problems boot up after that and also would not shut down properly
because i use the btrfs FS, i decided to copy over ALL the previous days OS’s root folders from one of my btrfs snapper snapshot backups - as a sort of ‘go back in time’ procedure
This worked
However, i have this root password issue

I found some useful sutff via google:

journalctl -b -f

leave it running and try to authenticate, it should print info from polkit about what went wrong.

Authenticate = mean to type in your admin password
Then review the messages in terminal

"Does rebooting help?

Have you manually changed the pam configuration?

I’m not at all sure here. However, my experience suggests that these requests from policy-kit depend on the systemd user agent. Presumably the user agent communicates with the main systemd process.
If an update restarts the main systemd process, that breaks the communication and it might not work properly until reboot. And if the systemd entry is removed from the pam configuration, that also breaks the communication."

Repositorys that i removed that were added by the NIX package

Home:munix9
home:beyerle:IAC
devel:tools:ide

https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/500773-Root-password-not-accepted

Check the system journal; run this command as root in terminal:
Code:

journalctl -b -f

leave it running and try to authenticate, it should print info from polkit about what went wrong.

Authenticate = mean to type in your admin password
Then review the messages in terminal

"Does rebooting help?

Have you manually changed the pam configuration?

I’m not at all sure here. However, my experience suggests that these requests from policy-kit depend on the systemd user agent. Presumably the user agent communicates with the main systemd process.
If an update restarts the main systemd process, that breaks the communication and it might not work properly until reboot. And if the systemd entry is removed from the pam configuration, that also breaks the communication."

TERMINAL OUTPUT:

Aug 15 09:22:01 IntelPC su[6632]: The gnome keyring socket is not owned with the same credentials as the user login: /run/user/1000/keyring/control
Aug 15 09:22:01 IntelPC su[6632]: gkr-pam: couldn’t unlock the login keyring.
Aug 15 09:22:01 IntelPC unix_chkpwd[6633]: check pass; user unknown
Aug 15 09:22:01 IntelPC unix_chkpwd[6633]: password check failed for user (root)
Aug 15 09:22:01 IntelPC su[6632]: pam_unix(su:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=1000 euid=1000 tty=/dev/pts/3 ruser=starman rhost= user=root

Do i need to re-install tumbleweed OS again from scratch ?

2

I am not sure I understand all of this, but NIS is available in the standard OSS repo.

The client was even installed at installation “automatic” on my system (packages yp-tools and a YaST module yast2-nis-clinet).

Server pacxkages I see: ypserv and yast2-nis-server.

And for the rest you are not providing real information. Saying things like “So i downloaded a .RPM of it instead ans installed that” is not telling us much. Which RPM, from where, how did you install?

PLease show at least one example where your root password is not accepted.

And BTW, you should NEVER use root for a graphical login.

And please, please:

There is an important, but not easy to find feature on the forums.

Please in the future use CODE tags around copied/pasted computer text in a post. It is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor. When applicable copy/paste complete, that is including the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt.

An example is here: Using CODE tags Around your paste.

3

I know all of the above
I do not have a practice of logging in as root

The URL where i downloaded the file is:

https://software.opensuse.org/ymp/YaST:Head/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/yast2-nis-client.ymp

Yast does not accept the root password

4

I still do not understand. As far as I see, NIS client is already installed at installation. And when not, it is available in the OSS repo. Now I use Leap, but I would be amazed if that is not the case in Tumbleweed.

Then you try to use a 1-click installation. In general the advice is against that. repos are added by this and people tend to forget to manage these (mostly disabling them after installation) which often leads to many problems later on.

And what when you do a simple

su -

You somewhere say that you added repos, but agaian no information whatsoever about them (and why you did so). Thus please a list of repos:

zypper lr -d
5

That is correct: quote from GitHub - yast/yast-nis-client: YaST module nis-client*
The package yast2-nis-client is only maitained for SUSE SLE 15 and openSUSE Leap 15 products. No new features will be implemented and the packate will be dropped from future products. Tumbleweed does not provide this package anymore.*

because i use the btrfs FS, i decided to copy over ALL the previous days OS’s root folders from one of my btrfs snapper snapshot backups - as a sort of ‘go back in time’ procedure

Interesting… I’m not too sure that copying files from a snapshot is the recommended procedure, that strikes me as a potential recipe for problems :wink: - rollback to a working snapshot would have been a better option.

This worked
However, i have this root password issue

Then I question whether it “worked”…

Do i need to re-install tumbleweed OS again from scratch ?

Try to rollback to a working snapshot.

For future reference please use https://paste.opensuse.org for Text and Image Hosting.

6

Did not know that. I tend to think that things that are functioning satisfactory for > 30 years will be with us forever. :\

Dropping being the case, I assume it will be better for the OP to search for an alternative then trying to stumble on with packages found somewhere in the dark places of the internet.

And I agree, snapshots are for rollback, they are no backup replacement where one can restore files from.

7

Password Issue:

starman@IntelPC:~> su -
Password:
su: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
starman@IntelPC:~>

8

Root password no longer accepted - Tumbleweed - 2nd Response back:

“I still do not understand. As far as I see, NIS client is already installed at installation. And when not, it is available in the OSS repo. Now I use Leap, but I would be amazed if that is not the case in Tumbleweed.”

  • I have literally no idea why under Yast there was a complaint about the NIS package not being available. I had tryed twise to install it with the same error
    I recall there being some posts about this recently within the last 2-3 weeks here on ther mailing lists (Im subscribed to)
    I went into yast softwre manager to see if i could locate it manually, i did see a yp package there (either ypserv, yast2-nis-server yast2-nis-clinet)
    In any case - this is not actualyl what my main problem is, hence why i did not originally provide much info about it

“Then you try to use a 1-click installation. In general the advice is against that. repos are added by this and people tend to forget to manage these (mostly disabling them after installation) which often leads to many problems later on.”

  • I my thinking was that the NIS module was probably officially undergoing maintenance, due to bugs/code changes and hence was temporarily taken out, and that the nessessity for one to be manually installed (aka a 1-click option) was nessessary

In any case, the situation here is no root password accepted

starman@IntelPC:~> su -
Password:
su: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
starman@IntelPC:~>

starman@IntelPC:~> zypper lr -d

| Alias | Name | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh | Priority | Type | URI | Service

—±-------------------------------------±-----------------------------------------------------------------±--------±----------±--------±---------±-------±----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------±-------
1 | MEGAsync | MEGAsync | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://mega.nz/linux/repo/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
2 | Packman | Packman | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
3 | Snappy | snappy | No | ---- | ---- | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/system:/snappy/openSUSE_Tumbleweed |
4 | download.opensuse.org-non-oss | Main Repository (NON-OSS) | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/ |
5 | download.opensuse.org-oss | Main Repository (OSS) | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/ |
6 | download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed | Main Update Repository | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/tumbleweed/ |
7 | filesystems | Filesystem tools and FUSE-related packages (openSUSE_Tumbleweed) | Yes | (r ) Yes | No | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/filesystems/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
10 | https-download.opensuse.org-3ef3a63d | home:ArturGaspar:branches:home:munix9:test | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ArturGaspar:/branches:/home:/munix9:/test/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
8 | https-download.opensuse.org-28e99270 | home:munix9:test | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/munix9:/test/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
11 | https-download.opensuse.org-885b0234 | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tumbleweed/standard/ |
9 | https-download.opensuse.org-2930f734 | home:Dead_Mozay:anbox | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Dead_Mozay:/anbox/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
12 | https-download.opensuse.org-aed120a7 | openSUSE:Factory | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Factory/snapshot/ |
13 | https-download.opensuse.org-cecbb81c | home:e_dimas | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/e_dimas/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
14 | https-download.opensuse.org-ec1227f8 | home:harish2704:jami | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/harish2704:/jami/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ |
15 | jami | Jami x86_64 - jami | Yes | ( p) Yes | No | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /nightly/opensuse-tumbleweed |
16 | repo-debug | openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Debug | No | ---- | ---- | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/tumbleweed/repo/oss/ |
17 | repo-source | openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Source | No | ---- | ---- | 99 | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/source/tumbleweed/repo/oss/ |
18 | skype-stable | skype (stable) | Yes | (r ) Yes | Yes | 99 | rpm-md | Index of /rpm/stable |
19 | teamviewer | TeamViewer - x86_64 | Yes | (r ) Yes | No | 99 | rpm-md | https://linux.teamviewer.com/yum/stable/main/binary-x86_64/ |
starman@IntelPC:~>

9

[QUOTE=CatMan;3150350]

starman@IntelPC:~> su -
Password:
su: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
starman@IntelPC:~>

This implies that root user is missing in /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow,

P.S. your messages are unreadable. These were the only lines more or less clear although you continue to ignore explicit request to use code tags.

10

Sorry, I can’t answer those questions, you would need to contact the YaST/NIS developers.

  • The only support i see from the Grub2 menu, is the option to mount from a RO backup snapshot - I did do this, it works fine, but, it’s well, RO only ?
  • I was also a little bit iffy about this, and i was not sure about proper ways to change a RO only snapshot to a standard RW one - hence why i figured it would be just easier to copy accross a snapshot 1 day beforehand
    over the top of the current existing OS files

If you are able to boot into a RO snapshot then you should be able to perform a “Rollback”. Take a look at this document for details: System Recovery and Snapshot Management with Snapper | Reference | openSUSE Leap 15.0

I still think that rollback to a working snapshot would be a better option, continuing as you are after the “unorthodox” recovery may well lead to further problems becoming apparent; file permissions or ownership issues perhaps.

  • Yes it did work, i then had a perfectly working bootable OS once again - with the “1” exception that my root password no longer works

Well, by my definition that is not “a perfectly working bootable OS once again” - but I guess we’ll have to agree to differ on that :slight_smile:

11

As a follow up to that, this thread on the Factory mailing list may be of interest to you.

12

[quote="“arvidjaar,post:9,topic:152270”]

  • What messages are you referring to exactly ? you have not quoted one single message in which i was"unclear" ??
    as for TAGS - I admit should have used a TAG earlier for the many TERMINAL lines of output for the rpm’s i was listing
    the above was only about 3-4 lines as such, it was not nessessary to use tags in that that last case
13

Yes i agree about that entirely - I have to re-read up about this procedure wise
Thank you for the link as well:)

14

All your posts in this thread. Each post is one single flow of text without any clear markup to distinguish between information you provide, quotes you make, computer text or your actual questions. And yes, using proper tags does help in interpreting your posts.

You have problem, you are asking for help, so it is in your best interest to assist others in helping you. Making it harder than necessary will result in either your posts being skipped or in picking out some part of your post and making the incomplete/wrong answer based in incomplete/wrong understanding.

15

Dear @CatMan.Maybe I should remind my post #2 above, part of which I will quote:

And please, please:

There is an important, but not easy to find feature on the forums.

Please in the future use CODE tags around copied/pasted computer text in a post. It is the # button in the tool bar of the post editor. When applicable copy/paste complete, that is including the prompt, the command, the output and the next prompt.

An example is here: Using CODE tags Around your paste.

Now, of course feel free to do that or not. But be aware that people will leave your thread for more rewarding activities when you willingly do not follow that.