Bug#600320: Installation: set password for root; did not create a user; could not login after 1st reboot.
Hello John,
On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 9:06 PM, John Hunter <jmdh01@btinternet.com> wrote:
> I was installing "squeeze" over an old version of Ubuntu which had users
> already set up in /home. I set up the root password but declined to create any
> [more] users. The install apparently finished OK and then I rebooted. Upon
> reboot, the system would not let me log in as root so that I could not manually
> set up /etc/password, /etc/shadow, /etc/group and /etc/sudoers. I then had to
> resort to using the CD in recovery mode to set up the users.
>From your description it looks like you did not formated the partition
of data. Debian Installer cannot be installed (and it is not designed
to be used in this case) to install over an existent system. In case
you have a /home in a separated partition it can be reused but the
system _need_ to be installed into a fresh partition.
> If the setup script has not created a user then root should be allowed to log
> in; otherwise one's laptop is as useful as a bag of slates.
See my description above. If it is not the case, please describe your
use case more extensively.
> I would call myself "experienced"; I am a retired comp-sci academic with *nix
> experience going back to System VII. I have seen install glitches in my time,
> but none as stupid as this.
I won't comment on this.
> In passing, I should mention that on the 6th October, I tried to install
> squeeze using the network install image (191MB). That got as far as installing
> a bootstrap system then did not seem to have a script or any instructions to
> load anything more: thus resulting in another bag of slates. Was that ever
> tested?
Without the URL I can't know which version you've used. I must remind
you that Squeeze is still in development and you being an
"experienced" user you must know that during this process we can end
up breaking the system sometimes.
If you wish a stable system, use stable releases. For Squeeze
Installer, alpha1 is the last release and beta1 is being prepared so
we're proud of receiving feedback from users (be it positive or
failure reports) but sarcasm is not going to help in fixing the bugs
you found (or think to have found).
Cheers,
--
Otavio Salvador O.S. Systems
E-mail: otavio@ossystems.com.br http://www.ossystems.com.br
Mobile: +55 53 9981-7854 http://projetos.ossystems.com.br
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