Can't get to login screen

Question

Can't get to login screen

"Darwin User-1s-iMac.local 10.4.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.4.0: Fri Apr 23 18:28:53 PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.7.4~1/RELEASE_I386 i386"

On boot, I see the blue screen (differing shades) forever. I can ssh in, and I see looping messages:
__________________________________________________________________
Nov 28 17:46:14 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[6059]: Could not allocate LoginAuthRefMgr instance.
Nov 28 17:46:14 User-1s-iMac com.apple.loginwindow[6059]: Could not allocate LoginAuthRefMgr instance.
Nov 28 17:46:14 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[6059]: Login Window Started Security Agent
Nov 28 17:46:14 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[6059]: Login Window - Returned from Security Agent
Nov 28 17:46:14 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[6059]: AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username ((null)). Exiting.
Nov 28 17:46:14 User-1s-iMac com.apple.loginwindow[6059]: AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username ((null)). Exiting.
_______________________________________________

Single user mode works. fsck comes up clean.

From what I've researched, I need to rebuild netinfo. Except that I don't have netinfo in Snow Leopard. So, what do I do?

Thanks!

P.S. The user I installed doesn't show up (short or long name) is /etc/passwd. Is that significant?

More drivel: before the last reboot, computer was going very slowly. Top showed Dock ⚠ spinning 100% of the CPU.

imac 20inch, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Nov 28, 2010 2:52 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 28, 2010 3:01 PM in response to nachman ziskind

You can give this a try:

Start up in Single-User mode by restarting the computer. After the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until you see white text on a black background. When this has finished you will see a prompt ending in '#', although there may be other messages. Enter the following commands after the prompt:

/sbin/fsck -fy

Press RETURN. Wait a few seconds for 8-10 lines of output. If the last line says repairs were carried out, repeat this command until you get a message 'The volume <yourdiskname> appears to be OK'. Then continue with:

/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Library/Preferences
rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
rm com.apple.windowserver.plist
cd /Library/Caches
rm -r *
cd /System/Library/Caches
rm -r *
reboot

Press RETURN after each command.

This should now take you to a proper login screen after the normal boot sequence. You should then Repair Permissions by using Disk Utility (in your /Applications/Utilities folder).

This may not work but shouldn't do any damage. If it fails I'd suggest reinstalling Snow Leopard. Reinstalling will not erase the drive.

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2010 4:38 PM in response to Kappy

Didn't work, thanks. Same error.
Any other suggestions? Computer is 2nd hand and seller never gave us disks. 🙂

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Answer 3

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 28, 2010 5:49 PM in response to nachman ziskind

Get replacement discs from Apple. Usually available with serial number for nominal S&H charges. Netinfo replaced by Directory Services: http://www.macworld.com/article/61097/2007/11/netinfo.html

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Answer 4

Nov 29, 2010 11:31 AM in response to baltwo

Discs on order - thanks for the tip. Meanwhile, how do I nuke/rebuild Directory Services?

Thanks!

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Answer 5

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 29, 2010 11:37 AM in response to nachman ziskind

Click on Desktop->Finder->Help->Mac Help->search for Directory Services and click on the applicable selection.

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Answer 6

Nov 29, 2010 11:54 AM in response to baltwo

Uh, thanks, but I'm in a chicken-and-egg situation: can't get the GUI working, see. Is there a CLI equivalent (I can go single user, or ssh into multi-user)?

Thanks!

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Answer 7

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 29, 2010 12:11 PM in response to nachman ziskind

What are you using to ssh into the computer? No other Mac available? Try a google search for *directory services site:developer.apple.com* and also look at dscl manpage.

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Answer 8

Nov 29, 2010 6:51 PM in response to baltwo

Ah! Dscl. I just read the man page. Nothing there to rebuild, repair or the like.

There's only two users on the system (one of which I care about). If I delete them, how much info do I lose?

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Answer 9

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 29, 2010 10:36 PM in response to nachman ziskind

Everything associated with the users.

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Answer 10

Nov 30, 2010 11:28 AM in response to baltwo

Hmmm. If I delete a user, and the system then boots up, and re-add the user, what have I lost? Not the documents, etc., right?

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Answer 11

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 30, 2010 12:00 PM in response to nachman ziskind

When you delete a user and don't save it's data, everything is gone. BTW, you still haven't explained how and why you're using ssh to access the machine. Many details missing.

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Answer 12

Nov 30, 2010 12:27 PM in response to baltwo

Sorry, I though I did. As above, the machine is unresponsive (blue screen, differing shades). However, the machine accepts ssh connections, and I'm connecting from another machine.

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Answer 13

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Nov 30, 2010 12:43 PM in response to nachman ziskind

See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2087835

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Answer 14

Nov 30, 2010 3:32 PM in response to baltwo

Thanks for that tip. It didn't work - computer gets far past the point where permissions on / would be a problem. It actually goes multiuser - just stalls as it tries to put up the login screen.

Already tried fsck. Any other CLI hard disk checks I can run?

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Answer 15

Nov 30, 2010 3:58 PM in response to nachman ziskind

Anyway, after some fiddling, I now get these error messages, over and over:

_________________________________________________________
Nov 29 00:30:39 User-1s-iMac /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow[14547]: Login Window Application Started
Nov 29 00:30:40 User-1s-iMac com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.WindowServer): Throttling respawn: Will start in 1 seconds
Nov 29 00:30:41 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[14547]: Could not allocate LoginAuthRefMgr instance.
Nov 29 00:30:41 User-1s-iMac com.apple.loginwindow[14547]: Could not allocate LoginAuthRefMgr instance.
Nov 29 00:30:41 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[14547]: Login Window Started Security Agent
Nov 29 00:30:41 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[14547]: Login Window - Returned from Security Agent
Nov 29 00:30:41 User-1s-iMac loginwindow[14547]: AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username ((null)). Exiting.
Nov 29 00:30:41 User-1s-iMac com.apple.loginwindow[14547]: AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username ((null)). Exiting.
______________________________________________________________

Anyone care to chime in with a suggestion? I'd like to reinstall, but my disks from Apple will arrive tomorrow or the next day. Any other ideas?

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