Re: Sarge system now refusing all login attempts

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

Carl Fink wrote:
> I apt-get updated the system this morning.  I now find that I can't
> do anything that requires login authentication.  I noticed it when a
> sudo attempt just hung forever.  Checking discovered that I can't
> sign on as either root or a user, at any prompt including VT's (which
> would rule out an X problem).  Any such attempt just hangs
> indefinitely.
>
> Everything else works fine.  I can open new xterms in my current X
> session, for instance.  Load is low.
>
> I'm afraid to reboot, because I might be permanently locked out.
>
> Any suggestions?  I'm downloading a current Knoppix CD right now to
> use as a boot disk if I can't get it bootable again, but that would
> be very annoying.

  look at the logs, there is probably something about something there 
:-) try ls -lrt to see which logs were changed last (right after you do 
sudo or something that doesn't work)

  you can also try strace of the program that doesn't work...

  you can get sort of working system by booting with init=/bin/sh (at 
lilo prompt, type the lilo label followed by init=...), you get a root 
shell.

	erik