KDE root password no longer accepted

[SilverSurfer60]

My security level is standard. I did try taking off the auto login but nothing happens.

With your reply here I assume you logged in as a normal user. Would this be correct? If so then it's highly unlikely the keyboard translation is at fault. I say this because you would be using kde to log in. Is this just the root password that is affected in gui?

[Jimtim]

Yes, that's all correct. I logged in as a normal user and my problem only concerns my root password when I need to enter it in a GUI application. Having said that, I use auto-login, but with my previous attempts to see what happens when this is disabled I had no trouble logging in as a normal user. Your point is a good one, Silver Surfer: if it was a problem of keyboard translation I wouldn't be able to do this.

[SilverSurfer60]

One thing you could try (as a shot in the dark) is change your root password via a console (terminal).

Just incase you are not sure of how to do this, open a console and su to root then

 

passwrd root

 

On pressing enter you will be prompted for a new password and confirmation of the new password.

On completion all your tokens will be updated.

This will have the effect of clearing any botched tokens that you may have.

Don't forget your new password

See how that goes. Best of luck.

[Jimtim]

Hmm, guess what? That doesn't work either!! Same problem: I can launch applications from a terminal using the new password but when I'm prompted for my password for GUI applications my password is deemed incorrect! Have I done something here or is it just another bug in Mandriva 2007??

[Jimtim]

Here's an interesting development. I uninstalled Katapult to see if that would make a difference. It didn't, of course. However, when I double-clicked the rpm folder to re-install it, I was prompted for my root password in a GUI window and...it was accepted! It's not the same type of window, though, and my password still isn't accepted by the other type, ie the one that appears when you start the MCC etc.

[SilverSurfer60]

Well I've been googling around and find that katapult is an application that uses plugins for quick launch of other applications. I really do think this could be the cause of your problems. It may be worth your while un-installing katapult and delete any reference to it in your home directory and in the root directory. Root has a desktop folder as well as a root folder so there maybe references to katapult in any of these places. Also check in your /etc directory for a config file or something. You will need to do this whilst root in a console.

[Jimtim]

Yes, when you look around problems with Katapult pop up all over the place. But now I've remembered something that didn't seem important at the time. When I installed Katapult I got this message:

 

The following packages have bad signatures:

/home/james/Download/katapult-0.3.1.4-1mud2007.0.i586.rpm: Invalid signature (NOT OK (no key): /home/james/Download/katapult-0.3.1.4-1mud2007.0.i586.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID b29840a4)

 

Do you want to continue installation ?

 

Could this be significant?

[SilverSurfer60]

It's not usually fatal to NOT have a key, but they are there for verification and normally present. I would still proceed as I suggest , that way you can rule it out of the equation. One can always re-install if it turns out not to be the problem. For me it would be niggling in the back of my mind, but then that's me. ;)

[Jimtim]

Yes, that's me too! Can you enlighten me as to what the key does?

[SilverSurfer60]

To put in very simple terms the 'key' verifies the rpm package is from whom it says is it is. Of cousre there is more to it than that. There is very detailed information if you google for 'rpm+key'.

[Jimtim]

OK, I went round hunting for all references to Katapult. I took out everything in my Home directory and then had a look at the root directory. I found a lot of stuff in usr/lib/kde3. I tried deleting these files one by one with the command "name-of-file -e", but I sometimes got the message Segmentation fault. What does that mean? And besides, the files I thought I deleted seem to still be there. Am I using the correct command? You can see how limited my knowledge of Mandriva shell commands is!!

[Greg2]

I tried deleting these files one by one with the command "name-of-file -e"

As root it's

rm name-of-file

:)

[Jimtim]

Thanks, Greg, for the correct command.

I've hunted the entire computer for anything Katapult and it STILL doesn't work!! Perhaps the problem lies in one of the dependancies. Here is the complete list. Problem is, I can't remember what was already on the computer. Is there anyone out there who can tell me if there are any of these that I shouldn't remove?

 

libc.so.6()(64bit)

libkdeui.so.4()(64bit)

libICE.so.6()(64bit)

libXfixes.so.3()(64bit)

libXdmcp.so.6()(64bit)

libXext.so.6()(64bit)

libqt-mt.so.3()(64bit)

libDCOP.so.4()(64bit)

libresolv.so.2()(64bit)

libmng.so.1()(64bit)

libkio.so.4()(64bit)

libstdc++.so.6(GLIBCXX_3.4)(64bit)

libkwalletclient.so.1()(64bit)

libXau.so.6()(64bit)

libXft.so.2()(64bit)

liblcms.so.1()(64bit)

libdl.so.2()(64bit)

libfontconfig.so.1()(64bit)

libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit)

libutil.so.1()(64bit)

libidn.so.11()(64bit)

libSM.so.6()(64bit)

libXcursor.so.1()(64bit)

libX11.so.6()(64bit)

libXrender.so.1()(64bit)

/bin/sh

libjpeg.so.62()(64bit)

libstdc++.so.6()(64bit)

libkdesu.so.4()(64bit)

libpng12.so.0()(64bit)

libart_lgpl_2.so.2()(64bit)

rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1

libkatapult.so.2()(64bit)

libpthread.so.0()(64bit)

libacl.so.1()(64bit)

rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1

libxml2.so.2()(64bit)

libkdecore.so.4()(64bit)

libXinerama.so.1()(64bit)

libm.so.6()(64bit)

libgcc_s.so.1()(64bit)

libfam.so.0()(64bit)

lib64katapult = 0.3.1.4-1mud2007.0

libkdefx.so.4()(64bit)

libXrandr.so.2()(64bit)

libz.so.1()(64bit)

libfreetype.so.6()(64bit)

libattr.so.1()(64bit)

[SilverSurfer60]

I think we may be getting somewhere now. There are two references to katapult in your list. By all means delete them, but don't delete a whole bunch of them they will be needed by other apps. However they should not give you any problems as they are only called on when needed. Rather like your dll in windows.

Can you post a screen shot of the dialog box that requests your root password? You can aquire a snapshot by pressing 'Print Screen/SysRq' as this should bring up ksnapshot. You will know when you have it on screen, and, I'm sure you'll know what to do if it comes up. If the application does not launch you will need to install it. Take a snapshot of just the dialog box and post it. I'm curious to know if it is a standard dialog box or something else.

[mandrivsen]

... o o o...

So, is the fact that I get "permission denied" when I'm in GUI a sign that something's wrong?

Also, forgive me for being a little slow, but I don't understand how the first step will tell me something about why my password doesn't work in GUI as I'm doing the commands in a console and not in GUI itself.

You get "permission denied" becaise you have have repeated these steps as a different user, perhaps as root first. To fix this enter the following as root:

chmod 666 /tmp/my-saved-passw

And then repeat all the steps as I told you before. Do not forget. The above command must be entered as root, which will relax permissions on the file that you unfortunately created with restrictions that second time around another user could not write to.

 

Alternatively you root could also delete the /tmp/my-saved-passw.

 

Whatever you do, be careful that you do not repeat the same mistake again and create a file with a different user, or root. Since your root password is broken you have be extra careful follow the steps exactly, and remain one and the same user for all actions. If you have to do something as root I suggest you logout immediately after root privileges are not needed any more!

 

The first step with one greater sign (">") will always reinitialize the file anew with one password from one (say GUI) environment, and the second with the double greater sign (">>") will add a password to it in the other (non-GUI) environment.

 

Providing you do not misspell your passwords or misskey the commands, or do some new blunders with permission issues, all these steps will, not do anything else but confirm the diagnosis, so we will know how to fix or avoid the problem.

 

Do not delete and or reinstall half of your system before you know what's wrong!

 

Good luck

Edited March 17, 2007 by mandrivsen