# 7.2 Installed (yes) incl. KDE4, but no login for a normal user (duh)



## Caliante (May 6, 2009)

Hi :e

So, thanks to the help of SirDice and some fiddling around with the online handbook and the book I bought I have 7.2-release installed, and on top of that KDE4 (pkg_add). I managed to get it all up and running, but I am running into a rather weird situation: 

During install I created a normal user, and added that to the wheel group. Whenever that user wants to log in BSD says 'log in failed'. I changed it's password (using KDE4), but it keeps on saying the login failed. I have no clue why? (The funny thing is: since KDE starts up automatically now I can't log in as root (not allowed under KDE as you know) and not as the normal user).

I think this is related to FreeBSD and not to KDE, since I also can't login using the command prompt. Would anybody happen to know why this is?

Thanks for any help


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## vivek (May 6, 2009)

Press CTRL+ALT+F1 or something like that and you will see login prompt. Here login as root (remember root password was set during installation). Once logged in add regular user to WHEEL group:

```
pw user mod USERNAME -G wheel
```

If you forgot root password, than login into a single user mode and reset the password ( http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-freebsd-reset-recover-root-password.html ).


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## tangram (May 6, 2009)

I'm not quite sure I've understood the problem but...

Press CTRL+ALT+F2. You should see FreeBSD's VT console and a login prompt.

Enter root and root's password. Afterwards run `# passwd username`, replace username with with whatever username you use on your system.


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## Caliante (May 6, 2009)

vivek said:
			
		

> Press CTRL+ALT+F1 or something like that and you will see login prompt. Here login as root (remember root password was set during installation). Once logged in add regular user to WHEEL group:
> 
> ```
> pw user mod USERNAME -G wheel
> ...



Thank you, the funny thing is, the user already is a user of the wheel group.


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## Caliante (May 6, 2009)

tangram said:
			
		

> I'm not quite sure I've understood the problem but...
> 
> Press CTRL+ALT+F2. You should see FreeBSD's VT console and a login prompt.
> 
> Enter root and root's password. Afterwards run `# passwd username`, replace username with with whatever username you use on your system.



Thank you, I will try this.

So this would mean changing the password from within the KDE user control panel doesn't actually change anything (because that I tried).

On another note, isn't it strange that root is able to log in without a password? I am most sure I have entered that during the install, yet when the system boots (normal mode, not single user mode) at the login prompt I enter 'root' and then I am in; it doesn't even ask me for a password. That's weird.


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## tangram (May 6, 2009)

Let's take it from the top. Can you login with both root and your user to the console? Or did you forget root or the other user's password?


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## Caliante (May 6, 2009)

tangram said:
			
		

> Let's take it from the top. Can you login with both root and your user to the console? Or did you forget root or the other user's password?



Thanks :e

1. Root can login from the console but a password is *not* required which I find strange. This has been the case after the fresh sysinstall.
2. The normal user can't login from the console, it just says 'login failed'. This happened from the very first time I tried to login, after having setup the user & pwd during sysinstall. Could it be BSD has the user set to 'locked' or something like that (similar to Windows).


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## tangram (May 6, 2009)

Ok.

Then start by giving root a password by running `# passwd` and typing the desired password.

Afterwards run `# pw user mod USERNAME -G wheel` replacing USERNAME with your user.

Next change its password with `# passwd USERNAME`.


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## phoenix (May 6, 2009)

Caliante said:
			
		

> Thank you, I will try this.
> 
> So this would mean changing the password from within the KDE user control panel doesn't actually change anything (because that I tried).



I don't know about KDE4, but the KDE3 user admin apps never worked on FreeBSD.  Too many Linuxisms in the passwd manipulation code.

Don't use GUI admin tools.  Stick to using the CLI admin tools.  It'll save you a lot of headaches.



> On another note, isn't it strange that root is able to log in without a password? I am most sure I have entered that during the install, yet when the system boots (normal mode, not single user mode) at the login prompt I enter 'root' and then I am in; it doesn't even ask me for a password. That's weird.



Sounds like you either didn't enter a password, hitting enter twice for a blank password, or otherwise gibbered the root password.  It's impossible to install FreeBSD without a root password unless you manually set it to empty.

Or, the KDE user admin tool has b0rked your /etc/passwd, /etc/master.passwd, and related files.


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## Caliante (May 6, 2009)

phoenix said:
			
		

> Sounds like you either didn't enter a password, hitting enter twice for a blank password, or otherwise gibbered the root password.  It's impossible to install FreeBSD without a root password unless you manually set it to empty.
> 
> Or, the KDE user admin tool has b0rked your /etc/passwd, /etc/master.passwd, and related files.



I know it may sound like me not entering a pwd, but on the other hand, I can assure you having worked with PCs since 1991 on a daily basis I am actually quite confident that I have entered those passwords and have not left them empty 

The KDE admin tool b0rking my /etc/ files could happen of course, but then again, the problems occurred even before I installed KDE (right after the fresh sysinstall).


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## Caliante (May 6, 2009)

tangram said:
			
		

> Ok.
> 
> Then start by giving root a password by running `# passwd` and typing the desired password.
> 
> ...



Ha! It's getting weirder 

Changing root pwd wasn't a problem. However, when I wanted to add the normal user to the wheel group it said 'no such user'. *However:* /usr/home/normal_user did exist...:stud

So I used adduser to add the user and next added it to the wheel group. Funny thing; in doing so I couldn't tell it bash was the shell, yet again, I am most sure during sysinstall I explicitly added bash to install (since that was noted in the book I used).

Weird things :e


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## vivek (May 6, 2009)

You can see list of users and their shell using

```
cat /etc/passwd
less /etc/passwd
```


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## SirDice (May 6, 2009)

If you want to change the user's shell use vipw, chsh or the pw commands. Do NOT edit the /etc/passwd file directly.


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## Caliante (May 7, 2009)

Prrt, a weird system this is 

I installed Nvidia driver from ports. Upon reboot X couldn't load with all kinds of crappy messages (EE here, EE there, EE & blabla everywhere), so I have set back the driver to "nv" in xorg.conf and will have to check that one out later.

I think 'the powers that be' have decided to have loads of things go wrong in order to get me to learn as much as possible in as little time as possible :e


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## tangram (May 12, 2009)

Run `# grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log` and post the output along with the contents of /etc/rc.conf and /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Ideally create a new post because that issue has noting to due with the current thread.

I'm sure we can narrow down the issues.


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## Caliante (May 12, 2009)

tangram said:
			
		

> Run `# grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log` and post the output along with the contents of /etc/rc.conf and /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
> 
> Ideally create a new post because that issue has noting to due with the current thread.
> 
> I'm sure we can narrow down the issues.



Thank you Tangram for your reply :e

It turned out there is something wrong with the Nvidia-driver that installs from ports. I have downloaded and installed the latest one from Nvidia.com (ports did not contain the latest, even although I CVsupped first), and now it all works.

Thanks again


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## tangram (May 12, 2009)

Stick to the x11/nvidia-driver.

Read the following HOWTO: Install and configure NVIDIA drivers.

The difference between using the port instead of a direct download/install from nvidia.com is that the port can be upgraded and removed at will. Plus, the port contains FreeBSD specific patches and a Makefile to integrate it with the ports infrastructure.


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