Can't login & hal broken

[Paul Kaplan]

I'm running Kubuntu 7.10 on a Thinkpad T43 and until now haven't had any significant problems.

I tried to install likewise-open and noticed that as soon as I attempted to start it, kpowermanager lost track of my system battery (which I ignored at the time). I then discovered that my system wouldn't auto-detect a USB memory stick. When I attempted to manually mount the stick, I found that the system would no longer recognize my user password. I subsequently discovered that another user's password was also not recognized.

I tried logging on in recovery mode to reset the user passwords, but this didn't allow me to log in.

I also tried removing the likewise-open package, but again, no change.

I decided to see what system services were running using the module in "System Settings", but got a message that the module couldn't be loaded and was told that either I have an orphaned module or an old 3rd party module lying around...not helpful.

Finally, I traced down all the remaining likewise-open files and manually removed them. Still no solution.

Any explanations? Can someone get me pointed in the right direction to fix? I really want to avoid reinstalling the system.

Thanks,
Paul

[dibl]

Re: Can't login & hal broken

Did you install likewise-open from the repository, using apt-get, or adept, or synaptic? That kind of damage and destruction is rather unusual, when simply installing or removing packages.

I don't understand what you said about your user password. To manually mount a device, it requires "sudo" and the root password. Did you try it that way? I seems unlikely that there would have been a change to the sudoers file, but you may be facing a crash course in the visudo command, if that file requires editing.

I would say open a Konsole window and try running one of your desired applications, like kpowersave, and then observe the error output and post it here. It may provide a clue about what is wrong with your system.

[Paul Kaplan]

Re: Can't login & hal broken

Did you install likewise-open from the repository, using apt-get, or adept, or synaptic? That kind of damage and destruction is rather unusual, when simply installing or removing packages.

I don't understand what you said about your user password. To manually mount a device, it requires "sudo" and the root password. Did you try it that way? I seems unlikely that there would have been a change to the sudoers file, but you may be facing a crash course in the visudo command, if that file requires editing.

I would say open a Konsole window and try running one of your desired applications, like kpowersave, and then observe the error output and post it here. It may provide a clue about what is wrong with your system.

I installed likewise from a deb file (for 7.10) that was on the likewise site. Since it's part of 8.04, I'm a bit surprised that it caused such a problem. I suppose it could hvae been related to runing likewise.

Re the mounting problem, I know about sudo...that's what set me off on finding these problems. The system wouldn't (and still won't) accept my user password...anywhere, whether by sudo or at the login prompt. I can only get in via rescue mode which allows passwordless access to the root account.

Kpowersave is running (it's in the system tray)...it just is convinced that there's no battery installed-even when the system is running on battery.

Paul

[dibl]

Re: Can't login & hal broken

Hmmmmmmmmm.

*buntu distributions are built (with some deviations) upon Debian Gnu/Linux, so usually installing a downloaded .deb file of the correct architecture is not destructive. But maybe you have discovered the exceptional case. It's always safest to stay with the packaged applications in the repositories -- you are correct that likewise-open is available to me from the standard repos, with Hardy Heron installed.

Obviously some bad things happened when you ran it. The power management and device mounting issues would normally be fixable, but the loss of all users and/or their passwords is pretty serious, and not on the list of "commonly encountered problems".

Were it me, I would make one attempt, at the recovery console, to log in as the root user with

sudo su

followed by my password. If it lets you in, then as root you can theoretically fix everything, set up user accounts, etc. etc. If it doesn't let you in as root, I think you're looking at a reinstallation. I'm not real experienced in problems of that kind -- maybe another Forum member can think of something more elegant.

Good luck -- sorry to hear of such a mess. :P