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User profile for user: TracyCV
TracyCV Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

I cannot log in to a MAC 10.5.8 and File Vault was NOT turned on.

Dear Mac Experts:


I know that there are many pages of information about using, remembering and managing passwords. I have read most of them.I know the passwords and File Vault was not on. I am working at someone's home on their computer and running their business. The computer is running MAC 10.5.8 and I don't know if it can be updated. The computer had an Admin account and no user accounts. I tried to change this so the compuer would be secure but my client did not want to. When I left yesterday the computer was fine. When I came in today there were a number of apps hanging. I forced quit Firefox and some other apps and logged out an shut down the computer. When I tried to log into the Admin Account which is the main user account I got the error messages below:


Your FileVault-protected home folder did not open and needs to be repaired.

click ok to repair the folder and continue logging in.


I clicked ok


then I got a new error message:


You are unable to log in to the user account "x" at this time because and error occured.


Clicked OK


File Vault was not turned on at anytime that I know of in the last couple of months. I luckily had a guest user set up and logged in as guest. In order to create another Admin account I had to use the password for the initial Admin main user account which unlocked the preferences pane and allowed me to create a new Admin Account.


Checked that FileVault was turned off.


After reading all of your comments and suggestions for the last 2 hours my head is spinning.

I don't know unix or type commands. I don't know where the install discs are.


As the new Admin I went into the keychain files and tried to verify and repair the original Admin's info.


Here is what I got:


Verification started

Checking keychain configuration for Susan F (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/suero

Checked login keychain

Error: login keychain not found

Unable to get info for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain, reason: No such file or directory

Checked password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain

Unable to verify password for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-25294)

Unable to read settings for ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain (-25294)

Checked default keychain

Problems were found; you should choose the Repair option to fix them

Verification failed


Repair started

Checking keychain configuration for Susan F (user ID=501)

Home directory is /Users/suero

Checked login keychain

Error: login keychain not found

Warning: some problems were not fixed

Repair failed



The machine is backed up onto a lacie external hard drive every hour.


In addition, while I was poking around I found the following:


com.apple.kerberos.kdc certificate

not trusted

com.apple.systemdefault certificate

not trusted


Could there be some malware at work? What can I do to get her files, home directory and everything back?

Thank you in advance for your patience with an old OS and a MAC user who does't feel comfortable mucking around under the hood.

Tracy


Message was edited by: TracyCV

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 2.4 Intel Core Duo 2external backup

Posted on Aug 23, 2013 6:54 PM

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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
239,561 points

Posted on Aug 23, 2013 8:40 PM

Hi Tracy,


I don't suspect Malware yet, Id guess Disk corruption or failing Hard Drive with Files not found.


Could be many things, we should start with this...


"Try Disk Utility


1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.

2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)

*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*

3. Click the First Aid tab.

4. Select your Mac OS X volume.

5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."


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


Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.


(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)


If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.

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User profile for user: TracyCV
TracyCV Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Aug 24, 2013 4:49 PM in response to BDAqua

Dear BDAqua:


I need to leave for the evening and tomorrow is the Jewish Food Festival and I am and east coast girl living on the west coast that needs a hot pastrami on rye and some potato pancakes badly. I really appreciate your help and putting up with all this. I am out of ideas and have gone through the drawers and notebooks and files looking for hints to unlock filevalut


What I found is that for years there was no password the login was to hit return.

Then I found something that said there is no password for File Vault somewhere along the way either the master password and the home account password was only to hit return. Then I added a real user password and why it should suddenly create and error with the FileVault system I cannot expain.


So I am off to have that cocktail and will check in sometime tomorrow and try to resplve this again.


What good is a back up system that I can't access? I cannot say but I will not be doing it this way again.


Thank you and the saga continues.


tracy

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User profile for user: BDAqua
BDAqua
User level: Level 10
239,561 points

Aug 24, 2013 5:51 PM in response to TracyCV

Hi, got this so far...


Impossible to tell what's going on. I'd recommend the Genius Bar, assuming there's one anywhere in the area, but wonder if legacy File Vault is so old, they won't know much about it.


Sure does sound like the sparsebundle is corrupted, though.


Perhaps a try to repair it (the one on the internal HD) would be in order? If it can be mounted, drag it into DU's sidebar to repair? That works on TM sparsebundles.

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User profile for user: TracyCV
TracyCV Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Aug 26, 2013 4:17 PM in response to BDAqua

Thank you and the lounge for taking a look at the issue. I ate way too much at the food festival and could not think about work. In your reply you wrote: "Perhaps a try to repair it (the one on the internal HD) would be in order? If it can be mounted, drag it into DU's sidebar to repair? That works on TM sparsebundles."


I am not sure what DU or TM are referring to. Sorry the MAC acronyms are not my forte. I was a nextstep person in the early 1990's then a pc person up until I got my MAC Book. So the issues that occur with my client have never happened to me.


THANK you so much for giving me an education.


There is a MAC store about 25 minutes away and I can call them but I think they are too young to know about this issue.


Tracy CV

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User profile for user: Pondini
Pondini
User level: Level 8
38,863 points

Aug 26, 2013 5:10 PM in response to TracyCV

TracyCV wrote:

. . .

There is a MAC store about 25 minutes away and I can call them but I think they are too young to know about this issue.

Hi, Tracy,


I'm the one that was discussing this with BDAqua elsewhere.


First, by all means, make an appointment at the Genius Bar of the Apple Store: http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/. You can cancel it if you don't need it. They do take "walk-ins," but there might be a long wait.


That old version of File Vault was quite problematic under the best of circumstances; I never used it except to do some testing, so am not very familiar with it, either.


It sounds like the data is hopelessly scrambled, but what we were referring to was a log shot of trying to repair the sparse bundle disk image containing the encrypted home folder. Since a disk image is kind of a disk-within-a-disk, with it's own format, directories, data, etc., repairing the disk it's on doesn't look inside it.


As an Admin user, locate it via the Finder. It should be one of the folders inside the /Users folder at the top level of the HD, something like this:


User uploaded file


Now open Disk Utility. See if you can drag the sparsebundle to Disk Utility's sidebar -- it may take a moment to appear, or you may get an error message. If it does appear, click Repair Disk. If it's large, that may take quite a while, but should eventually either fix it or say it's hopeless.


Give that a try and report the results. If something unusual appears, post a screenshot so we get the full details.

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I cannot log in to a MAC 10.5.8 and File Vault was NOT turned on.

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