[X4U] Login troubleshooting

[Samantha Cornell]

Thanks for the advice.  I'll try it tomorrow and report back.

Thanks again!

Samantha

On Feb 2, 2005, at 6:23 PM, Scott wrote:

>
> 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.
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