Unable to log-in

[Fraser Campbell]

On Monday 22 September 2003 13:52, Alex Maynard wrote:

> Thanks very much. Can I reinstall the package while running another
> installation (e.g. from floppy or 2nd partition.)?  As it is now I can't
> do anything from the original system because I can 't log in as root (or
> as anyone else. Maybe this is like the chicken and the egg: could fix the
> system if I could log in and could log in if I fix the system?)

I would assume that you have a few different shells installed try using 
something other than bash.

I would mount the drive in another system and then chroot into it something 
like this:

    chroot /debian/root/filesystem /bin/ash

This will get you into the root filesystem.  From there you will need to mount 
/var and /usr ... if you didn't make them separate partitions then you're 
fine.  Then reinstall libncurses5:

  apt-get install --reinstall libncurses5

See if bash works now by running /bin/bash ... if not rinse and repeat with 
whatever other problems you found.

If you installed debsums you'll be able to look for (some) other corrupted 
files with "debsums -c" ... a lot of Debian packages don't come with 
checksums unfortunately.

-- 
Fraser Campbell <fraser-Txk5XLRqZ6CsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org>                 http://www.wehave.net/
Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada                             Debian GNU/Linux

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