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very strange login problem - won't accept known good password

I have brought an old powerbook G4 back to life, mostly to run old apps that dont run on the current system.


I did a clean install of Tiger (10.4). It worked fine, but did nto support some security protocols for secure web pages and email access, so i decided to upgrade to 10.5 (Leopard). It did so successfully. so i thought.


Got to login screen. Correct machine network name. Correct user ID (me). Put in password. Long delay, screen "shakes head". This occured many times. Caps lock is not on. Password is correct.


So, you say" it probably wasnt". OK, i put in the original 10.5 DVD and rest the password. Tried again. No go, same problem.


Called Apple. They have no clue. said re-install 10.5, something in login corrupted. So i did. Booted up - c'est le meme chose.


Can anyone think of what's up? and in fact, since it was set ( in tiger) automatically boot, why its even asking for login credentials? I suspect the two may be linked.


TIA,


Grant

Posted on Jan 16, 2015 8:12 AM

Reply
14 replies

Jan 16, 2015 9:41 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

Might try this...


Reset OS X Password Without an OS X CD...


http://theappleblog.com/2008/06/22/reset-os-x-password-without-an-os-x-cd/


Admin Hack...


http://www.hackmac.org/?q=node/4


Starts up like the first time you buy a new Mac, but after filling in all that info again, you should have access to the computer and the other Users & files will still be there... give the new User a different name than an existing one.

Jan 16, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

there is no

/var/db/.applesetupdone


"no such file or directory"


So, that means that the setup (which should have been carried over from Tiger) is lost, i think.


This kinda explains why it wont accept a login, if it thinks there are no accounts set up... but then why would it not boot into setup, and further, why did it allow me to change a password that shouldn;t yet exist, and why did it pre-fill my login name?


Curiouser and curiouser as Lewis Carrol wrote


Grant

Jan 16, 2015 10:21 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

well, i did a little more rooting around (literally!). There is indeed no /var/applesetupdone file. I also went over to /users and all the pre-existing accounts are in fact there. So the problem seems to be bad communications between Apple's login stuff and the underlying UNIX data. I wonder if the re-install i did simply looked for files, said "yep they are there" and left damaged files intact. I may need to format the drive and re-install, but this is both a lot of elapsed time and I lose all the stuff i installed and configured.


TIA,


Grant

Jan 16, 2015 11:03 AM in response to BDAqua

This will look odd.


Originally, as noted above, yes and yes, but no AppleSetupDone file.


2nd time, to double check, yes, yes, yes.


rm'd it. No go - "read only filesystem" It did ask something like "over-ride root/wheel, i tried "y" and "yes" but got the same result each attempt.


How do i get around this? Will using the terminal utility off the CD get me to a normal filesystem?


I may be going out the door momentarily - dont be surprised if i disappear until next week.


Grant

Jan 16, 2015 11:41 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

This was Posted by: JoseAranda at September 9, 2006 3:48 AM


"OK, restart your computer, hold down Command-s and type in the following:

/sbin/fsck -fy Enter

/sbin/mount -uaw Enter

rm /var/db/.applesetupdone Enter

# The rm command is the remove command which deletes the file.

# Robert: I'd rename the file via: mv /var/db/.applesetupdone /var/db/.applesetupdone.old

reboot Enter


Are you entering the dot before applesetupdone that makes it hidden in the finder?

Jan 16, 2015 12:26 PM in response to BDAqua

OK, update ( sometimes people being late is ok).


That worked, mostly.

I ran the filesystem check, looked ok.


Next command i do not understand, btu it did the trick.


removed .applesetupdone and checked it was gone.


rebooted


made new admin account

logged in

old admin account was GONE, but home directory was there

recreated and linked to home directory.


reboot

seems ok


ran software update - claimed i dont have privileges to save the file - -seems to be updating anyway, we shall see. More oddity.


Will reboot next week. Gotta go.


Many thanks, btu this is a work-in-progress


OOOPS!!! Kernel panic while updating. Leaving dodge. Speak next week.


Grant

Jan 19, 2015 7:37 AM in response to BDAqua

First, thanks for the note on the command. I suspected that MUST be it, but was not familiar.


As to what' wrong, i see why you'd begin to suspect RAM, and maybe i should, but this machine was working reliably until i re-installed the system, and even then when it was 10.4. I only went to 10.5 for practical reasons, (email, web security compatibility). It was then that trouble began.


So, for now, i have dropped back and will partition, format, and clean install 10.5.


Too bust to do much today. Watch this space and thanks again for your suggestions so far.


Grant

Jan 19, 2015 10:48 AM in response to BDAqua

Partition, format, clean install, and update, and all is well. :-)


Now i get to re-load and re-configure a bazillion programs. Yuk. Oh, why, oh, why does apple keep changing ,mail and other data formats so i cant drag them in from another mac? (rhetorical, don't answer that!)


Thanks again. It was simple, old-fashioned upgrade corruption. An all too frequent issue that generally makes me do a clean re-install.


Grant


ps: when made this reply, i got an error that [not me] is banned from posting. Refresh, re-login and all is well. I apparently attract gremlins.

very strange login problem - won't accept known good password

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