Re: built debian-live iso using Version: 2.0~a16-1, but cannot login when booting from the corresponding burnt DVD

["Alan W. Irwin" <irwin@beluga.phys.uvic.ca>]

On 2010-07-01 00:53-0700 Alan W. Irwin wrote:

> Today I tried building a debian live iso for the first time.  (The idea is
> to check out the problematic debian testing Intel X stack on my debian lenny
> desktop production computer before doing a permanent install of debian
> testing on that computer).
>
> The iso appeared to be generated without obvious errors.  When I burn that
> iso to a dvd, boot with that dvd, and use the live menu item the boot
> messages that roar by look okay to me with no obvious errors. kdm comes up
> with a window giving me an opportunity to login. (which is a quick check
> that my X configuration is fine).  However, the documented default username
> and password of "user" and "live" do not work. ctrl-ALT-F1 puts me in a
> console, but I also cannot login there with that combination of username and
> password.  So I am completely stuck as to how to use the iso and
> corresponding DVD that I have generated!
>
> If Version: 2.0~a16-1 of live-helper has a different default username or
> password than what is documented ("user" and "live") please let me know.

I have investigated this further by mounting the iso loopback and then
mounting the live/filesystem.squashfs contained in that iso loopback as
well.  Here is the resulting shadow and passwd files in the etc subdirectory
of that squash file system.

software@raven> cat shadow 
root:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
daemon:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
bin:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
sys:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
sync:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
games:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
man:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
lp:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
mail:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
news:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
uucp:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
proxy:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
www-data:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
backup:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
list:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
irc:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
gnats:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
nobody:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
libuuid:!:14791:0:99999:7:::
Debian-exim:!:14791:0:99999:7:::
messagebus:*:14791:0:99999:7:::
haldaemon:*:14791:0:99999:7:::

software@raven> cat passwd 
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/bin/sh
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/bin/sh
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/bin/sh
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/bin/sh
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/bin/sh
libuuid:x:100:101::/var/lib/libuuid:/bin/sh
Debian-exim:x:101:103::/var/spool/exim4:/bin/false
messagebus:x:102:105::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
haldaemon:x:103:106:Hardware abstraction layer,,,:/var/run/hald:/bin/false

It appears that (a) there are no user accounts at all, and (b) all system
accounts (e.g., root) are disabled so that explains why it has been
impossible for me to login after booting the DVD.

The next question is why is the generated iso completely shutdown against
login?

I suspect adduser was never actually run or if it did run it silently failed
during the build.

Here is everything related to "user" that is in the output from the lh build
command:

software@raven> grep -i user lh_build.out
  adduser akonadi-server akregator apt-utils ark aspell aspell-en busybox
    gnutls-bin gpgsm gpm krb5-doc krb5-user libvisual-0.4-plugins
      adduser akonadi-server akregator alsa-base alsa-utils apt-utils ark
aspell
  usb-modeswitch-data usbutils user-setup uuid-runtime vbetool
  Get:80 http://mirrors.kernel.org squeeze/main adduser 3.112 [157kB]
  Get:618 http://mirrors.kernel.org squeeze/main user-setup 1.28 [124kB]
  Selecting previously deselected package adduser.
  Unpacking adduser (from .../archives/adduser_3.112_all.deb) ...
  Selecting previously deselected package user-setup.
  Unpacking user-setup (from .../user-setup_1.28_all.deb) ...
  Setting up adduser (3.112) ...
  Adding system-user for exim (v4)
  Setting up user-setup (1.28) ...
  2010-06-30 20:36:35
URL:http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian//pool/main/u/user-setup/user-setup-udeb_1.30_all.udeb
[128802/128802] -> "user-setup-udeb_1.30_all.udeb" [1]
2010-06-30 20:36:35
URL:http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian//pool/main/u/userdevfs/userdevfs_0.15_all.udeb
[2710/2710] -> "userdevfs_0.15_all.udeb" [1]

Is there anything obvious related to user that is missing from this list?

Let me know if there is any other file you would like me to pass on from the
generated live/filesystem.squashfs file in the iso to help diagnose what
is causing this login issue.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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