Hi all. I wanted to make this message as prominent as possible for new Kubuntu users.
The CD install offers 'auto keyboard layout' detection, but if you get this wrong, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOG IN to your new system!
But don't panic.
If you're having this problem, firstly, verify you can log in to the text console:
1) Hold down CTRL+ALT, then hit F1.
2) You should see a text console 'login:' prompt.
3) Try entering the username+password you entered during CD install.
4) If you can login, you've probably got your keyboard mis-configured.
To fix:
1) At the console you just logged into above, type
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
2) Skip through all the options about video card configuration and detection,
as they should already have the proper values if you had a graphical Kubuntu
KDM login screen after the CD installation.
3) Re-answer any keyboard-related questions, taking care to do so accurately for
your language of PC. I had configured 'US-intl' by mistake, with a PC105 keyboard,
when I really needed 'US' (no -intl) and a PC104 keyboard.
4) You may need to restart X (the graphical window manager). Type:
/etc/init.d/kdm restart
Apparently 'kdm', the graphical login manager, takes your keyboard language into account when sending your password on to the 'pamd' authorization system, which can mess up your password in transit! If your keyboard is mis-configured, and you use punctuation like "@^$&" in your password, it'll get messed up during translation.
Hopefully this helps other people.
Kubuntu/Ubuntu people: This should be documented in BIG RED LETTERS during the CD install and in the FAQs (maybe it is already in the FAQ, but people new to Linux shouldn't be expected to troll through the net for this obscure information).
Even though this was my own fault rushing through the CD installation, it made for a bad out-of-box experience, and I'm sure lots of other people will make a similar mistake. If we're going to beat that certain other OS on the desktop, things like this need to be safer! :-)
It's a wonderful distro, don't get me wrong; but I'm glad I had Linux experience otherwise I would have had no clue how to fix this!
The CD install offers 'auto keyboard layout' detection, but if you get this wrong, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOG IN to your new system!
But don't panic.
If you're having this problem, firstly, verify you can log in to the text console:
1) Hold down CTRL+ALT, then hit F1.
2) You should see a text console 'login:' prompt.
3) Try entering the username+password you entered during CD install.
4) If you can login, you've probably got your keyboard mis-configured.
To fix:
1) At the console you just logged into above, type
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
2) Skip through all the options about video card configuration and detection,
as they should already have the proper values if you had a graphical Kubuntu
KDM login screen after the CD installation.
3) Re-answer any keyboard-related questions, taking care to do so accurately for
your language of PC. I had configured 'US-intl' by mistake, with a PC105 keyboard,
when I really needed 'US' (no -intl) and a PC104 keyboard.
4) You may need to restart X (the graphical window manager). Type:
/etc/init.d/kdm restart
Apparently 'kdm', the graphical login manager, takes your keyboard language into account when sending your password on to the 'pamd' authorization system, which can mess up your password in transit! If your keyboard is mis-configured, and you use punctuation like "@^$&" in your password, it'll get messed up during translation.
Hopefully this helps other people.
Kubuntu/Ubuntu people: This should be documented in BIG RED LETTERS during the CD install and in the FAQs (maybe it is already in the FAQ, but people new to Linux shouldn't be expected to troll through the net for this obscure information).
Even though this was my own fault rushing through the CD installation, it made for a bad out-of-box experience, and I'm sure lots of other people will make a similar mistake. If we're going to beat that certain other OS on the desktop, things like this need to be safer! :-)
It's a wonderful distro, don't get me wrong; but I'm glad I had Linux experience otherwise I would have had no clue how to fix this!
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