*** Please type your report below this line ***

_PROBLEM HISTORY_
I've been doing a series of Debian installs over the last
several months.
Purpose:    Evolve a install meeting a personal minimal and
Functional.
Constraint: NO network physically available. Install from
purchased set of DVDs.

I have a history of problems with the root password not
being recognized.

If the problem *DOES* occur on a  individual install
iteration , it *WILL* occur
on *EVERY* cold boot and *EVERY* time a root password is
required.
If the problem *DOESN'T* occur on a  individual install
iteration , it *WILL NEVER* occur on *ANY* cold boot and
*ANY* time a root password is required.

The problem is independent of:
    a.   install media    - downloaded LiveCD or purchased 8
DVD set
    b.   install mode    - whether or not "graphical" is in
menu line chosen
    b.   target machine - Lenovo ThinkPad or Lenovo desktop

For history of my investigation see thread beginning at
http://lists.debian.org/507EE968.2000308@cloud85.net .

_TEST PROCEDURE USED TO DEMONSTRATE PROBLEM_
Power off the machine
Power up and chose DVD as boot device
With Debian 6.0.5 DVD 1 of 8 in drive, select "Graphical
Expert Install"
------------from here on only entries when default entry NOT 
chosen----

1. after network configuration failed due *NO* network existing
    chose "Do not configure network at this time"
2. Did not enable shadow passwords
3. Did not chose "set clock using NTP"
4. Set time zone to Central
5. Partitioning choices made
    Manual
    Delete *ALL* existing partitions
    Create a 20 GB primary partition at beginning of drive,
format as Ext3,  mount point /
    Create a 5 GB logical partition at end of drive for swap
6. Driver selection - Generic [I usually choose targeted]
7. Software selection - Chose ONLY "Standard system utilities"
8. Finish the installation - said clock not set to UTC


First boot after install
1. User name and password accepted
2. Attempted "sudo apt-get install gdm3"
    Received error message "-bash: sudo: command not found"
3. Attempted "su", neither root nor user password accepted
4. Rebooted with CNTRL-ALT-DEL
5. Chose rescue mode
6. System appeared to start as expected

    The last three lines displayed on monitor are:

Setting up console font and keymap...done.<CRLF>
sulogin: root account is locked, starting shell<CRLF>
root@debian:~# [    9.683173] IBM TrackPoint firmware: 0x0e,
buttons: 3/3
[    9.892571] input: TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint as
/devices/platform/i8042serio1/serio2/input/input10

I then hit <ENTER> receiving a new prompt of "root@debian~#"

7. Entered "apt-get install gdm3", received a prompt of "Do
you want to continue [Y/n]?" to which I responded with <ENTER>

*NOTE BENE* NO PASSWORD(s) were requested or given after I
started Rescue mode.

8. That process appeared to run to a normal finish.
9. Then entered "apt-get install gedit gparted" which also
seemed to conclude normally.
10. Rebooted by typing "exit"
11. Received an apparently normal Gnome request for password
which was accepted.
12. Attempted to run both "root terminal" and "gparted",
neither would recognize the root password.


Re-did the above installation except chose "Install" when
DVD booted.
Every thing was the same through Step 2 under "1st boot
after install".

When entering "su" in step 3, the root password *WAS* accepted.
Doing "apt-get install gdm3" and "apt-get install gedit
gparted" both proceeded to apparently normal finish. Typing
"exit" returned me to the user prompt. I then rebooted using
CNTRL-ALT-DEL.

Attempting to run Root Terminal proceeded normally thru
prompting and accepting the root password. The terminal did
not appear - I've had that happen before, apparently
although the icon for Root Terminal appears in the
Applications sub-menu, the underlying program is not installed.

Gparted started without asking for a password while
displaying the screen titled "Granted permissions without
asking for password". Confirmed my suspicion by powering
down and rebooting. This time I started Gparted first [it
did ask for root password] and then attempting to star Root
Terminal. I received the screen titled "Granted permissions
without asking for password". The Root Terminal again DID
NOT appear. Installing gnome-terminal with Synaptic caused
Terminal to appear in Applications menu. Now both Root
Terminal and Terminal are functional.

Hi,

Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:

It would be useful, if you could try to reproduce that bug with
the current daily build for Wheezy:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/


thanks
Holger

Holger Wansing wrote:

I only have occasional acces to a high speed internet
connection. Normal connection is dial-up :(

Holger Wansing wrote:
(11/17), but only had time to download first CD from page
you referenced.
I think, from just rereading page, it's a weekly rather than
daily build. Identifying info
debian-wheezy-DI-b3-i386-CD-1.iso, size 678428672 bytes,
MD5: 3ffcca4aaa228260ac8799134cf8533c.

I did the install twice.
When "shadow password" was *NOT* enabled the problem
occurred as in my original report.
When "shadow password" was  enabled the problem did *NOT*
occur.

I launched only from 1st line in GRUB menu - did not test in
'rescue mode'.

Hello,

Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> wrote:

I did several test installations (with different beta4 i386 images),
and the problem is reproducible:
when shadow passwords are not used, the installation ends up with
a locked root account.
There is nothing related in the installation logs.

Holger

reassign 693464 user-setup-udeb
thanks

It is the same here. The password field is a * in /etc/passwd. Easily
changed by booting into rescue mode. Reassigning to what I think is the
correct package.

Regards,

Brian.