can't login - help please!

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can't login - help please!

Hope you are very well, hope someone could help me to solve this problem. I am running Tiger in a powerbook G4. Last time I used was in UK and everything was normal. Then I came to Mexico and found a problem. The system starts up normally, the login window appears but when I select my user name nothing seems to happen. The passsword field never appears. As I am away from home, I do not have the installation disk with me. Can anybody tell me what can I do?

powerbook G4

Posted on Aug 2, 2007 8:39 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 2, 2007 11:55 AM in response to ulisesxl

Try holding S while starting up to see if your computer will come up in single user mode. If it does then we're making progress. Post back if it works.

P.S. If you've never used single user mode it looks like a black screen with white text. There should be a prompt that has a blinking cursor for us to type in. If you can get there, don't do too much poking.

Message was edited by: ArthurKeech

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Answer 2

ulisesxl Author

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Aug 2, 2007 5:03 PM in response to ArthurKeech

Hi ArthurKeech

Thanks so much for your help. I have been able to make the computer to come up with single user mode by holding apple+S while the starting up. The black screen shows several lines of white text. The last one goes like this:

localhost:/ root #

I haven't done anything, so I would like to kindly ask for your advice

regards

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Answer 3

Aug 3, 2007 1:29 AM in response to ulisesxl

Hi there, well its positive that the everything but the login system seems to working. What we're going to attempt is going to change the root password because it could be interfering on the login screen.

To do this we're going to go back into single user mode and type
/sbin/fsck -y press enter (this checks the disk and makes sure its allright)
/sbin/mount -wu / enter (This loads the disk)
/sbin/SystemStarter enter (This starts the actual OS X kernal)

then passwd root enter

It should now ask you for a new password. Enter anything BUT your password you were using before for the normal login.

Cross fingers and reboot.

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Answer 4

ulisesxl Author

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Aug 3, 2007 8:23 AM in response to ArthurKeech

Hi Arthur, thanks so much for your help. I typed:

sbib/fsck/ -y

and the computer showed me somthing like this:

** Checking HFS Plus volume
fsck_hfs: Volume is Journaled. No checking performed
fsck_hfs: Use the -f option to force checking
localhost/root:

Then I found some info on fsck here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

and then I typed:

/sbin/fsck -fy

And then the computer showed me:

** /dev/rdisk0s9
** Root file system
** Checking HFS Plus volume
** Checking extents overflow file
** Checking catalog file
** Checking multi-linked files
** Checking catalog hierarchy
** Checking extended attributes file
** Checking volume bitmap
** Checking volume information
** the volume cawpowerbook appears to be ok

then I typed

/sbin/mount -wu /

And computer showed this:

root_device on/ (local, read only, journaled)
devfs on /dev (local)
fdesc on /dev (union)
localhost/root:

then I typed:

/sbin/SystemStarter

and I got this:

Aug 3 16:15:37 SystemStarter[93]: Could not create IPC bootstrap port: com.apple.SystemStarter

After this I typed the passwd root line but it did not asked me for password. I do not kow what to do now. So I would like to, again, ask you for some more advise please.

regards

Ulises

Message was edited by: ulisesxl

Message was edited by: ulisesxl

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Answer 5

Aug 3, 2007 10:56 AM in response to ulisesxl

Hi

The system starts up normally, the login window appears but when I select my user name nothing seems to happen. The passsword field never appears.

Before tinkering around in Single User Mode, try a Safe Boot: see Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode and Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?. You should be aware that because of the disk checking, Safe Boot Takes Longer Than Normal Startup.

Safe Boot will run a full disk check, and re-run if it finds anything to repair. But since you have already run fsck this should be OK. Let us know if Safe Boot will allow you to log in.

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Answer 6

ulisesxl Author

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Aug 3, 2007 11:49 AM in response to Michael Conniff

Hi Thanks for your help. I have started in safe boot. But again, I have been unable to login. The same problem persists. Can I ask for some more of your kind advice please?

regards

Message was edited by: ulisesxl

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Answer 7

Aug 3, 2007 2:52 PM in response to ulisesxl

Hi again

I have started in safe boot. But again, I have been unable to login.

Then you will need to look at your logs, in particular system.log, which will have a record of what was happening. You will need to start in Single User Mode again, using the Command (Apple) and 'S' keys, to do this. If you can, print these instructions out in a mono-spaced font for clarity, but don't worry, your disk will stay "read-only" so you can't harm anything.

When the text has stopped at a '#' prompt, type carefully:

tail -100 /var/log/system.log | more

Note the '|' ('pipe' symbol) is normally above the '\' on Apple keyboards. This command combination looks at the last 100 lines, but the more recent stuff will be to do with the Single User reboot. The information will be displayed one screenful at a time: a space moves to the next screen, a return moves down one line, a "b" moves back one screen in case you overshoot. "q" quits the more program.

Look especially for messages saying something like "login authorization failed" or "loginwindow[xxx] : exiting to console" or something similar. Copy the lines above that and post them here. If you don't see this specific message, post some of the lines immediately before the "shutdown" message. We're looking for messages such as this: "AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username".

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Answer 8

Aug 3, 2007 4:44 PM in response to Michael Conniff

System.Starter failed to load? Thats interesting....the only way that I could see taht happening is if somehow the permissions were changed to root losing control of the System files. Im sure a chown command would work but we don't really want to point that thing around without knowing specifically whats wrong.

In the last 100 lines you may see "access denied" etc. If you do post back what the system was denied to.

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Answer 9

ulisesxl Author

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Aug 3, 2007 7:25 PM in response to ArthurKeech

Hi all. Thanks so much for your help. I typed:

tail -100 /var/log/system.log | more

Then I got the lines. In the last part, I found a 'chunk' with a message related to login:

UlisesXolocotzin configd[51]: setting hostname to "UlisesXolocotzin.local"

UlisesXolocotzin /System/Library/CoreServices/LoginWindow:
Login Window Application Started

UlisesXolocotzin loginwindow[73]: Login Window Started Security Agent

UlisesXolocotzin shutdown: reboot by root:

UlisesXolocotzin SystemStarter[84]: authentication services (95) did not complete succesfully

localhost kernel[0]: standard timescicling quantum is 1000 us

localhost kernel[0]: vm pagebootstrap: 6106 free pages

localhost kernel[0]: mig table_maxdispl= 78

localhost memeberd[50]: memberd starting up

localhost kernel[0]: 69 prelinked modules

Does thsi says something useful?. Otherwise, I will check againto find more info. Thanksso much for your advice

regards

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Answer 10

Aug 4, 2007 5:19 AM in response to ulisesxl

Does thsi says something useful?. Otherwise, I will check againto find more info

Well, you maybe need to look more closely at the part of the log before the "reboot" message—that was you starting in Single User Mode.

If you are going to do this again, start up normally until it fails, then reboot in Single User Mode and look for the last reboot when you do the tail command. If there is anything between the "Login Window Application Started" message and the "reboot", please post it.

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Answer 11

Aug 4, 2007 5:22 AM in response to ArthurKeech

Arthur

System.Starter failed to load?

That might have worked in 10.3, but it doesn't work in 10.4. I don't know how it would help anyway, and setting a new password like this is only asking for trouble.

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