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Bug#866206: cdimage.debian.org: Setting root password in d-i on live image doesn't seem to work



On Wed, Jun 28, 2017 at 12:28:17PM +0200, Jonathan Carter wrote:
>Package: cdimage.debian.org
>Severity: normal
>Tags: d-i
>
>Dear Maintainer,
>
>Using the debian-live-9.0.1-amd64-xfce.iso image, I booted to the install
>option from the syslinux menu that started up debian-installer.
>
>I installed setting a root password, and creating a new normal user.
>
>After installation, the root password seems unset (not in /etc/shadow),
>and my newly created user in the system does not have sudo rights, leaving
>no normal method for a user to escalate or log in as root.

I've found the problem now.

vmdebootstrap explicitly locks the password for root in /etc/shadow
using "passwd -l". That changes the crypted root passwd from "*" to
"!*". Later on, user-setup-udeb in the installer only looks for a
locked root account containing "*". It doesn't recognise the "!*" and
assumes that's a valid password so doesn't change it.

I'll get user-setup-udeb fixed, but for now I have a quick-hack fix in
live-customise.sh to replace '!*' with '*'. All works after that
point.  \o/

-- 
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                steve@einval.com
"I suspect most samba developers are already technically insane... Of
 course, since many of them are Australians, you can't tell." -- Linus Torvalds


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