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Password setup problem

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egreena42
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Password setup problem

#1 Post by egreena42 »

Okay... I have some ANTIQUE and borked hardware. it's so borked, that despite having TWO EIDE channels, it can't figure out more than one drive at a time. Worse, even if it did, it won't boot from the Debian DvD (but will with older OSes from 2012), and won't boot from a USB at all.

Why do I keep trying.

Anyways, I figured I could load the drive on another machine. shove it in, and bingo... NOT. At first it was confused because I'm guessing it was different drivers for the graphics card, but once I installed without any graphical support, I ran into my next problem.

I can't log in to any account, root, nor the user.

HOWEVER, I can boot into recovery mode, and when it asks for the root password there, it WORKS!
But I simply let it continue from there, on into multi-user, it won't accept any password.

I've tried setting the root password again, no luck.
I've tried creating a new user, and actually got an error message, something along the lines of "Corrupted Double linked list", and it halted, hard.
It had finished that acct creating, but trying to log into that causes a core crash.

Other minor note, I think it didn't reformat the drive when doing the second install, because I can see 2 versions of Debian in the grub advanced list, but neither work except for recovery mode, root only.

Any ways to rebuild the password system?

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BBQdave
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Re: Password setup problem

#2 Post by BBQdave »

egreena42 wrote: 2023-03-29 12:56Any ways to rebuild the password system?
I think I understand the information you have provided. If you are moving a hard drive to different systems and trying to boot, there would be a lot of configuration to set. The most efficient way to configure, would be to install the hard drive on the system you wish to use, and then a fresh install.

You could wipe and set the drive up and configure the hardware with a fresh install :)
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Re: Password setup problem

#3 Post by steve_v »

BBQdave wrote: 2023-03-29 14:56If you are moving a hard drive to different systems and trying to boot, there would be a lot of configuration to set.
I've been doing exactly that for over 20 years, and often take a similar approach when it comes to new builds. Assuming the distro ships a generic kernel and/or initrd (which Debian does), there's no reason it shouldn't work, at least as far as CLI login goes anyway.
GPU drivers (and X configuration, back when that was a thing) are a different story of course, but I don't see what that has to do with anything here.
BBQdave wrote: 2023-03-29 14:56install the hard drive on the system you wish to use, and then a fresh install.
Uhh, how's that going to work then, considering OP stated the box won't boot from recent install media or USB? Are you suggesting a "fresh install" from floppy disks perhaps?

egreena42 wrote: 2023-03-29 12:56it won't boot from the Debian DvD (but will with older OSes from 2012), and won't boot from a USB at all.
That sounds like it could be just old BIOS shenanigans. There are a few ways of building a bootable CD/DVD, and some BIOS's were very picky. Would need more detail on exactly what happens when you try it to speculate any further though.
Also possible it just doesn't like DVDs of course, in which case a netinstall from CD would be the obvious thing to try.
FWIW, I have found Plop Boot Manager extremely useful for old machines with flaky (or non-existent) CD/USB boot. Saved my bacon innumerable times and quite possibly worth a poke here too. It can even boot a 486 from USB... Just, ahh, don't ask how I know that. ;)

Just how ancient is this box anyway, and what hardware? I assume it's newer than most of my antiques, and I have, for example, Jessie (last i586 compatible release, 2018) running (installed from CD) on a K6/2 over here...
egreena42 wrote: 2023-03-29 12:56got an error message, something along the lines of "Corrupted Double linked list", and it halted, hard.
TBH I have no idea how I'd go about investigating that (or the other, related weirdness you're seeing) without being physically in front of the machine... It really smells like hardware problems to me, especially that halt.
RAM test OK and all that jazz? Disk controller / cables / driver not flaky? Could maybe be some modern-ish CPU instruction not being supported (or buggy), but that seems unlikely if the system boots at all...

I guess if push really came to shove, you could install some appropriately old release from CD (again, I'll plug Jessie for dinosaurs) and dist-upgrade it all the way... It's a bit of a trip to be sure, but not impossible if you like that kind of adventure. :P
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Re: Password setup problem

#4 Post by BBQdave »

steve_v wrote: 2023-03-30 12:08
BBQdave wrote: 2023-03-29 14:56If you are moving a hard drive to different systems and trying to boot, there would be a lot of configuration to set.
I've been doing exactly that for over 20 years, and often take a similar approach when it comes to new builds. Assuming the distro ships a generic kernel and/or initrd (which Debian does), there's no reason it shouldn't work, at least as far as CLI login goes anyway.
GPU drivers (and X configuration, back when that was a thing) are a different story of course, but I don't see what that has to do with anything here.
BBQdave wrote: 2023-03-29 14:56install the hard drive on the system you wish to use, and then a fresh install.
Uhh, how's that going to work then, considering OP stated the box won't boot from recent install media or USB? Are you suggesting a "fresh install" from floppy disks perhaps?
That's interesting. I did not know you could pull hard drive from one GNU/Linux machine, put it in another machine with different network card, different graphic hardware, different memory, different cpu and the GNU/Linux install will recognize the new hardware and operate normally.

I'm not sure about floppy disks, it's been 20 years since I used 3.5" floppy disks :)

If the OP has different hardware, and trying each with the hard drive, I would put together the best combination of hardware and do a fresh install. I might be missing what the OP is trying to explore, but if it is combining or trying different hardware for a successful GNU/Linux install (exploring hardware combination aside) the most efficient would be a fresh install :)
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Re: Password setup problem

#5 Post by Bulkley »

HOWEVER, I can boot into recovery mode, and when it asks for the root password there, it WORKS!
At that point I'd do

Code: Select all

# apt update && apt upgrade
Look for firmware (free and non-free) that is needed by your new machine.

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Re: Password setup problem

#6 Post by CwF »

steve_v wrote: 2023-03-30 12:08
BBQdave wrote: 2023-03-29 14:56If you are moving a hard drive to different systems and trying to boot, there would be a lot of configuration to set.
I've been doing exactly that for over 20 years, and often take a similar approach when it comes to new builds. Assuming the distro ships a generic kernel and/or initrd (which Debian does), there's no reason it shouldn't work
Absolutely. I do all like that, create the image in a vm, customize, write to new gadget with qemu-img, works.

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Re: Password setup problem

#7 Post by steve_v »

Whichever way you slice it, IMO OP really needs to sort out the IDE/ATA problem first... Not only is "can't figure out more than one drive at a time" going to be a complete PITA, it smacks of an underlying hardware problem or misconfiguration, and solving that may very well also solve the inability to login and crashes.
IME, trying software/installation hacks to work around serious hardware problems is an exercise in futility, at least until those problems are positively identified as isolated to one subsystem or component. For example, the issues with the second IDE channel could be due to general bus instability or bad power delivery... in which case any OS install method is pretty much guaranteed to go sideways.
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egreena42
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Re: Password setup problem

#8 Post by egreena42 »

Well, I never got the Password issue fixed.

And most of you were right... figure out the @#$@#$ EIDE settings. It was more that it didn't like SOME of the drives I gave it. And it's BIOS was borked and was doing some crazy non-sense with the USB, so once I fixed all that I got it booted from Debian 11 (it's a 386), and the install went fine.

My next problem is it doesn't like the built in network card, but I'm working around that with a different one.

So thanks everyone.
But I'm sure I'll be back.

Evan
PS, the reason I bother: I'm hoping to turn it (and several other old 686s into Beowulf nodes, so the first thing I do is not even install the Graphics modes. I start in run-level 3 (multiuser.target).

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