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osxrules · Nov 29, 2004, 09:47 PM

I was just using Mac OS X experimenting with some telephone answering software when I decided I needed to use the terminal and use some su commands. To my surprise, when I typed in my password, it didn't authenticate. I figured it was because I was tired and typed so I tried numerous times.

Then I thought it must be a terminal quirk so I tried some dialogs that need an administrator password and they were the same. So, I logged out to find that instead of the user list, the start up splash screen for Mac OS X was starting and asked me for my user details.

When I entered my old details, it rejected my name saying it couldn't make user. I then changed the name and I got an exception in an error dialog. I then just quit the splash leaving no option but to reboot.

Upon rebooting, I was again presented with the splash screen but this time my old details worked. My system seems ok now. My user folder is the same and all my files seem to be ok. Has anyone had that experience before?

The only thing I can think drastic that I did was to try and enable caller id on my internal ibook modem using zterm but I ran a whole load of apps so I would find it hard to narrow it down exactly.

Xeo · Nov 30, 2004, 12:10 AM

That is strange. Perhaps netinfo was crashed? Honestly I don't know. But everything is up and running now?

betamike · Nov 30, 2004, 01:44 PM

I had a similar problem a few months ago. OS X would not take the password in Terminal or any other dialogs. Unlike you though, The system would not accept it, and an Archive and Install did not help. I had to do a full clean install. It's a really wierd problem, but I'm glad your problem resolved tself.

osxrules · Nov 30, 2004, 02:26 PM

Yeah, everything is running fine. Thankfully I didn't need to re-install anything and I didn't lose any data - guess I was just lucky. It was really weird. I know that netinfo is used for stuff like user data and I actually opened that app to see if I could do anything. I found that my username was still there but it just wouldn't accept my password.

I checked the logs and netinfo doesn't show any problems.

It had obviously lost track of some admin user data or some link so that there were no admin users registered with the machine. I guess that's why the machine launched the splash. No idea how it happened though. I also tested the zterm again and it didn't do anything - it also doesn't work, stoopid Apple disabled all the caller id functionality and used non-voice-enabled modems. Oh well, at least I'm admin again.

betamike: did you try the reset password option on the install cd before re-installing? That was the next thing I was going to try if the splash screen didn't let me recreate my old admin account.

betamike · Nov 30, 2004, 07:45 PM

Yeah, I tried creating a new admin account, tried reseting the password... nothing wanted to work. Our problems might not be identical though. I'm glad everything is fine now for you.

(and If there is one thing I learned from this, and from my PC hard drive physically crashing this week, it is that I need an external HD for Christmas for backup)

typoon · Dec 2, 2004, 01:49 PM

Originally posted by betamike:
Yeah, I tried creating a new admin account, tried reseting the password... nothing wanted to work. Our problems might not be identical though. I'm glad everything is fine now for you.

(and If there is one thing I learned from this, and from my PC hard drive physically crashing this week, it is that I need an external HD for Christmas for backup)

Why not just log in via root and try resetting the password.