Stretch install appears buggy (incorrect ROOT PW storage)

[Turtletronic]

Seeing all the other threads covering Stretch slip-ups and that there is at least one other thread implementing PW problems which is being denied by Deb fanbois:

- Brand new TERMINAL install Stretch (debian-live-9.0.1-amd64-kde.iso) on a three-year-old Gigabyte mobo, 8BGB RAM, nvidia GT610, 500GB SATA.
- Installer asks me to set ROOT PW. Tick "visible on screen", make sure to enter PW (e.g. "MasterControlProgram") as intended. Enter repeat PW. All okay.
- Intaller asks me for wanted User name (e.g. "stewpiduser"). No prob.
- Installer asks me to set USER PW. Tick "visible on screen", make sure to enter PW (e.g. "DickTurpinSoftware") as intended. Enter repeat PW. All okay.
- Installer finishes, reboot.

Make note: no numbers or locale-dependent (e.g. z/y chars) used! System starts, desktop comes up. I want to change TIME. Program ask for ROOT PW (not USER). Entered as above. AUTHORIZATION FAILED. Whut? I check CAPS. All okay, so I try again. AUTHORIZATION FAILED. Reboot and try again. Nope, AUTHORIZATION FAILED. Wait, a pop-up requester notification of UPDATES. Start updater, click UPDATE ALL. Program asks for ROOT PW (not USER). Entered as above. AUTHORIZATION FAILED. I try a few other things which demand USER PW. All work fine. But ROOT PW? Screwed. Ooookay. Grab another keyboard. Reinstall via GRAPHICAL INSTALL. Bob's yer uncle, same issue.

So this time I reboot and edit GRUB, get into terminal and force-change my ROOT PW. Just for the fun of it using the SAME! password entered above ... terminal accepts 'new' password without a flinch. I reboot the machine, then change TIME. Enter ROOT PW. No error. Start updater. Enter ROOT PW. No error. This shows me that the original entry of the ROOT PW was FUBAR by the installer itself, as in: Please enter password - password "Donut" - okay, you said "Chips" - no, I said "Donut" - thank you, "Chips" stored.

Holding in mind to whom Stretch is dedicated to it really upsets me to see that this release turned out to be a meaningless public beta.

[Wheelerof4te]

Yes, another user had the same problem as you. The thread is here:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=133551

For future installations avoid using live images, so either netinstall or CD/DVD image should work. At least untill the bug is fixed.

[None1975]

install Stretch (debian-live-9.0.1-amd64-kde.iso)

I made about a ten installs of Debian 9 with Network installer. Very smooth, user friendly and trouble free installation. Maybe a live .iso is a problem? I never used Debian live iso for installation. I used it only for test hardware compatibility. In general it is a good policy to use Live CD's for testing etc...and use the installation CD for installing the OS. Live CD's are notorious for having problems.

Holding in mind to whom Stretch is dedicated to it really upsets me to see that this release turned out to be a meaningless public beta.

And yes, i think more *buntu users try Debian, more "problems" will arise

[Turtletronic]

For future installations avoid using live images, so either netinstall or CD/DVD image should work. At least untill the bug is fixed.

I cross-checked this last night and encountered no problem whatsoever, whereas a new test with a Live media again failed. This would point into the direction that the bug indeed originates from the (KDE) Live media.

And yes, i think more *buntu users try Debian, more "problems" will arise

Implying that I am an Ubuntu user or that all Ubuntu users are incapable of handling Debian clearly shows your state of mind but has nothing to do with this obvious bug. In fact my two rigs have been running perfectly well under AmigaOS and Debian for years, thank you, and the only time I ever touched Ubuntu was on a test rig wanting to see if Unity was really as bad as claimed. I might share your basic opinion regarding Ubuntu in itself but at least I don't run around claiming that its users are challenged/dumb.

[MALsPa]

Maybe a live .iso is a problem? I never used Debian live iso for installation. I used it only for test hardware compatibility. In general it is a good policy to use Live CD's for testing etc...and use the installation CD for installing the OS. Live CD's are notorious for having problems.

Bugs happen, but using a live iso for installation shouldn't be a problem, if everything works as it should. I haven't yet tried installing with the Stretch live images, but I've done so plenty of times in the past with other distros and releases. (Anyone here remember Mepis? But that's just one example, and from a very long time ago...)

They're called "live install images" for a reason, right? https://www.debian.org/CD/live/#choose_live

[Lysander]

Implying that I am an Ubuntu user or that all Ubuntu users are incapable of handling Debian clearly shows your state of mind but has nothing to do with this obvious bug. In fact my two rigs have been running perfectly well under AmigaOS and Debian for years, thank you, and the only time I ever touched Ubuntu was on a test rig wanting to see if Unity was really as bad as claimed. I might share your basic opinion regarding Ubuntu in itself but at least I don't run around claiming that its users are challenged/dumb.

Given that, I would imagine, the majority of Linux users started on Ubuntu [certainly within the last few years], linking Ubuntu users with technical incompetence may not be completely accurate. In fact, Hardy Heron was one of my first Linux installs back in the day [which I left for gaming reasons], and I have spoken about my support for Ubuntu previously on these forums.

The 'problem' would not be Ubuntu users per se, but those Ubuntu users who expect Debian to behave like Ubuntu and treat it as such, whatever margin that may be. There are plenty of users who come from Ubuntu to Debian [myself included] who do not treat the latter like the former.

I did, on the other hand, manage to completely break my first Ubuntu install for years [16.04] when I came over from Windows 7! I think it took less than half an hour.

[luvr]

For future installations avoid using live images, so either netinstall or CD/DVD image should work. At least untill the bug is fixed.

That's a pity... I had just completed downloading the 9.0.0 live images (so I could serve them through BitTorrent) when the 9.0.1 images were uploaded.

I then downloaded the updated, 9.0.1, images the day before yesterday (again to serve them through BitTorrent), and now, these are found to be bitten by a nasty bug as well...

I have never installed Debian from the live discs myself, so I have no idea how they work. These days, I'm running Debian Testing, so I don't have to do anything special to upgrade to the next version--I can simply do a "dist-upgrade" and Bob's my uncle.

My first suspicion would be that there's a problem with the keyboard layout, but that's highly unlikely, since in that case, the password for the normal user account would go wrong as well. Plus, the live session user would experience keyboard layout problems anyway, and that doesn't seem to be the case.

Perhaps the root password gets saved to the live session system, instead of the target system?

Whatever the cause, this sure sounds like a cumbersome bug to me. I have a few ideas that I could try, to try and find out what atually happens, but I'm afraid I won't find the time to do so. And, by the time I get around to it, the bug may have been resolved anyway.

[luvr]

Hmmm... I must be an idiot, but how do you start the installer from a Live session? The Live install images page claims:

Launcher: In addition to text and GUI install options in the boot menu, the desktop flavors contain a launcher on the desktop that can be used to install while running the live image.

So, thinking that debian-live-9.0.1-amd64-xfce.iso should be one of the “desktop flavors”, I burnt that image to a DVD, and booted from it. According to the above quote, there should be a “launcher on the desktop that can be used to install while running the live image”, but I don't see any. Where is it hiding?

I then also tried the debian-live-9.0.1-amd64-gnome.iso image, but it’s the same there: where is the “launcher on the desktop that can be used to install while running the live image” hiding?

All in all, I find the Live images (even ignoring whether or not they should contain a “launcher on the desktop that can be used to install while running the live image” in the first place) rather disappointing anyway, in that they do not appear to provide an obvious way to set the keyboard layout. With XFCE, I know how to get there, but with GNOME?

[Wheelerof4te]

in that they do not appear to provide an obvious way to set the keyboard layout. With XFCE, I know how to get there, but with GNOME?

Kinda off-topic, but it's in the "Region and Language" settings. I know, it's not that obvious, but I found it after...one minute

[luvr]

Kinda off-topic, but it's in the "Region and Language" settings. I know, it's not that obvious, but I found it after...one minute

That’s where I went looking, but (at least on the GNOME Live session), it didn’t offer any keyboard layouts to choose from.
I’m sure that, once GNOME is installed, the “Region and Language” settings will be the place to look (it would be brain-dead otherwise), but under the Live session, it’s less than helpful.

[Wheelerof4te]

https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help ... ts.html.en

I found my language under "other" when you click on "+".

[ticojohn]

I've been using Stretch for over a year on two different machines. One is amd64, the other i386. Never had a single problem with netinst, other than those that were self inflicted, Had many problems trying to get the iso hybrid version to even boot from USB.

[ticojohn]

I've been using Stretch for over a year on two different machines. One is amd64, the other i386. Never had a single problem with netinst, other than those that were self inflicted, Had many problems trying to get the iso hybrid version to even boot from USB.

STRANGE THAT IT DOUBLE POSTED !

[luvr]

https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help ... ts.html.en

I found my language under "other" when you click on "+".

Good for you—but for me, under the GNOME Live session, clicking “+” didn’t help.

Never mind—I won’t be using GNOME anyway. I ran away when it morphed into GNOME3. I did decide to try and use it exclusively for a month or so when I installed Debian 8 (“jessie”) for the first time, but I just couldn’t get used to it. Just to be sure, I gave it an extra two weeks, but it just isn’t my cup of tea, so I migrated to XFCE.

If GNOME3 works for you, all the more power to you—but for me, it just doesn’t.

[luvr]

Program ask for ROOT PW (not USER). Entered as above. AUTHORIZATION FAILED. Whut? I check CAPS. All okay, so I try again. AUTHORIZATION FAILED.

Because I wanted to know what happened there, I installed Debian 9 from a Live DVD. (However, since there doesn’t seem to be such a thing as the “launcher on the desktop that can be used to install while running the live image”, I selected the option to launch the installer from the boot menu of the DVD.)

I set a password on the ‘root’ account, completed the installation, and then rebooted.

I successfully logged on with my user account, and ran the su command to “become root”:

Code: Select all

$ su -
Password: 
su: Authentication failure
$

Hmmm... It was clear to me, that I wouldn’t be able to diagnose this problem unless I could somehow “become root”, so I decided to try sudo instead:

Code: Select all

$ sudo -i

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

    #1) Respect the privacy of others.
    #2) Think before you type.
    #3) With great power comes great responsibility.

[sudo] password for luvr: 
luvr is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.
$

So—that didn’t work too well either...

Thus, I rebooted the computer, and started another Linux system on the machine—one on which I knew that I could “become root”, of course...
I used the sudo command to “become root”, I mounted the newly installed Debian 9 system partition, and took a peek into the “/etc/shadow” file on the partition:

Code: Select all

# grep '^root:' shadow
root:!*:17337:0:99999:7:::
#

Oops! The password simply wasn’t written to the ‘/etc/shadow’ file! Instead, the ‘root’ account was left locked (as evidenced by the exclamation mark—i.e., “!”—as the first character of the password field), with an invalid, but irrelevant anyway, password (the “*” character in the password field).

The Remedy:

The easiest way to recover from this issue, and enable the su command to “become root”, is to clear the password field on the ‘root’ account.

Since the newly installed system won’t let you “become root”, you will have to boot another Linux system on the computer—this could be, e.g., another installed Linux partition, or a Live image, or a Slackware disc, or a SystemRescueCD, etc. Then:

• Execute this procedure under the ‘root’ account. If you are running, e.g., a Slackware disc or a SystemRescueCD, then you will be ‘root’ by default; otherwise, use the “su -” or “sudo -i” command as required.
• Mount the newly installed Debian 9 system partition.
• Enter the “etc” directory of the Debian 9 system partition:

  Code: Select all

  # cd MOUNTPOINT/etc

  (where ‘MOUNTPOINT’, obviously, represents the location under which the partition was mounted.)
• Check and double-check that you’re in the right location before proceeding!
• Triple-check that you’re in the right location before proceeding!
• Proceed only if you are sure that you’re in the right location!
• Edit the ‘shadow’ file in this directory, and clear the password field on the ‘root’ account—i.e., remove the “!*” character sequence.
  The line should, then, look something like:

  Code: Select all

  root::SOME_NUMBER_GOES_HERE:AND_HERE_TOO:AND_ANOTHER_ONE:AND_YET_ONE_MORE:::

  (where the numeric values are irrelevant for this discussion, but should be left untouched. Also, make sure that you keep the correct number of colons—i.e., the “:” characters.)
  If you cannot find a text editor that you’re comfortable with on this system, then consider running the following sed command instead to make the modification:

  Code: Select all

  # sed --in-place --expression='s/^root:!\*:/root::/' shadow

  To verify the result of the sed command, you may want to run the following command to display the modified line:

  Code: Select all

  # grep '^root:' shadow

You can now reboot the newly installed Debian 9 system. However, since the ‘root’ account is now unprotected, the first thing that you should do, is to set a new password on it, as follows:

Code: Select all

$ su -
# passwd
# exit
$

Avoiding the problem:

To avoid the problem in the first place, do not set a password on the ‘root’ account when you install Debian 9 from a Live image.
When you subsequently boot the installed Debian system for the first time, you can then run the sudo command to “become root” and set a password:

Code: Select all

$ sudo -i
# passwd root
# passwd -u root
# exit
$

From then on, you can use the good old trusted su command again, with the newly set password.

[neodeb]

LOL how many wouldn't set the root password on live install????

just add...
init=/bin/bash
... at the end on the linuz line via GRUB "e" edit. Hit F10
mount -o remount,rw /
passwd
done!

[luvr]

just add...
init=/bin/bash
... at the end on the linuz line via GRUB "e" edit. Hit F10
mount -o remount,rw /
passwd
done!

You’re quite right, of course.

I preferred booting another Linux distro, however, so I would have a completely operational environment to diagnose the problem. Then, while I was there, I could resolve it at well.

Off-Topic: Furthermore, I have learned to avoid the GRUB console as much as possible, because it will not let me remap the keyboard. According to the documentation, it should support a keyboard input module that does support keyboard maps, but that module doesn’t work—it locks up before I can do anything useful with it. I did try to add a sort of keyboard mapping support the Legacy-GRUB-way, but (even though it did work to some degree) that was less than satisfactorily. While I do have a general idea about what goes wrong with the keyboard-mapping module, I doubt that I will ever get around to solving the problem.