[X4U] Login troubleshooting

[Scott]

On Feb 2, 2005, at 2:50 PM, Samantha Cornell wrote:


> I have been presented with a Mac problem that I cannot nail down.
>
> A classmate (I've recently gone back to school) asked me to 
> troubleshoot his girlfriend's iBook.  She is unable to login.  When 
> the iBook boots (running 10.2.8) the login window comes up, but there 
> are no accounts listed.
>
> When she enters her username and password, and clicks the button, it 
> "looks like it is logging in" for a moment or two, then reverts right 
> back to the login window.  It does not jiggle back and forth like it 
> does when you input a bad username or password.
>
> She claims that the problem start gradually (getting info is like 
> pulling teeth - very frustrating), and seems to have first occurred 
> when the internet connection in her building went down overnight...and 
> she awoke to find a "black screen with a whole bunch of words on 
> it...one of them might have been ethernet."
>
> Don't you love these folks?


That's about standard for phone support... If you can get anything more 
than "The thingie doesn't work" you're having a good day. Since you're 
there in person, you've got it easy. You don't have to talk her through 
the fix.
>
> I suggested re-installing the OS (frankly, I'm not sure you can do 
> that without a valid username, can you?), but they are 
> resistant...claiming that it is a pain to upgrade it.
>

It won't fix it.

> I did boot it from the install disk...and tried to do a password reset 
> from disk utility.  No accounts showed up on the harddrive.
>

The netinfo database is hosed.

> Is it possible to delete the one and only account under 10.2.8?  If 
> so, would it behave like this?

You can delete *all* accounts. Since she has only the one, it'll have 
that effect.

> Does anyone have any ideas?

This is the part you don't want to have to talk her through. It's 
entirely possible, but requires a good bit of repetition and "hush. 
Just do it."

You need to remove the database that stores user information and 
recreate it. This does not touch her home folder, but you do need to 
make sure you mjuse the SAME short user name when creating the new 
user.

This is basically "Section III" of this article : 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107210 .


1. Restart the machine, booting in single user mode. Hold down Apple-s 
at boot time to start in single user mode.

2. Check the disk, and mount the disk so you can make changes.
At the prompt, type the following two commands.

fsck    -yf      (Repeat this until it reports that the volume 
'harddrivename' appears to be ok'
mount    -uw /

3. This is not mentioned in the article, but you can prevent headaches 
later. Check to see what her existing user's short name is:

ls     /Users

This should list at lest two items. One is "Shared", and the other is 
her user's home folder. Note the name, including spelling, any 
punctuation, and case. Depending on what version of the OS her iBook 
ahd initially, the short name (for a user named 'Jane User' will 
probably be either jane or janeuser . This assumes she accepted the 
default when she setup initially.

4. Remove the netinfo database. Those familar with command line 
operations can do this in 1 or 2 commands, but this method avoids "Bad 
Things Caused By Typos", and has been used successfully  by me and 
others over the phone with completely non-technical (and sometimes 
not-so-cooperative) users.

    Go into the /var/db folder.
cd  /var/db

     Remove the .AppleSetupDone file:
rm  .AppleSetupDone

     go into the netinfo folder:
cd   netinfo

    remove the database:
rm   -r   local.nidb

Restart the computer
    reboot

5. When the computer restarts, it will go into the setup assistant. You 
can skip the registration portion by pressing apple-q.

When you reach the point where you enter a short name, erase whatever 
the computer suggests, and type in the  short user name you determined 
in step 3.

You're probably done now. If hers was not the only user, or other users 
were created first, you might have to repair permissions on her home 
folder.