[PC-BSD] Authentication error when attempting to login following fresh install.

J

jaaj

Greetings forum.

I downloaded and burned to CD, PC-BSD 1.5.1 (2 CD's) and just finished installing it. The install seemed to go without issue.

Following the completion of the install I removed the second CD and rebooted the machine as prompted. I have been brought to a login screen and have the option of entering the user name and password that I created at install.

When I enter the requested information I get the following error:
Code: 
Authenticating [I]username[/I].....
 
A critical error occured.
Please look at KDM's logfile(s) or contact your system administrator.

I have searched the Internet looking for an explanation of this error and found only one possibility that may hold a solution: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=2053

In this thread the OP (mrfontana) was able to login a couple of times before he started having problems.

This is not the case with me. I am not able to login at all with the user name that I created. And I cannot log in to the root account either.

When I try to boot into 'Safe Mode" I am presented with the exact same login screen as with the default login. On the login screen, I have two icons in the lower right corner of the screen: Session type and Menu. The only option that has any effect in either of these two items is in the Menu>Shutdown Alt+S.

I would like to be able to try the grep commands that @anomie suggested in the above post but I can't or, more accurately, don't know how to get to a shell prompt to try them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

jaaj
 
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jaaj said:
I would like to be able to try the grep commands that @anomie suggested in the above post but I can't or, more accurately, don't know how to get to a shell prompt to try them.
Click to expand...

You should be able to press Ctrl-Alt-F1 while the login screen is displayed to get to a virtual console with a shell prompt.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
trh411 said:
You should be able to press Ctrl-Alt-F1 while the login screen is displayed to get to a virtual console with a shell prompt.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. Ctrl-Alt-F1 worked perfectly.

I will try the grep commands that I mentioned in my original post and post back with the results.

Cheers
jaaj
 
DutchDaemon said:
Your question may not be addressed sufficiently here. FreeBSD does not come with an automatic KDE login. Disclaimer: PC-BSD DesktopBSD FreeNAS NAS4Free m0N0WALL pfSense ArchBSD kFreeBSD JabirOS topics.
Click to expand...

So, would you suggest looking for an answer to this issue in the PC-BSD forums instead?

I am not necessarily interested in KDE. It is a great window manager but a little heavy for the computer that I installed it on. I am certainly willing to go with a much lighter option.

Thanks.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.
jaaj
 
PC-BSD has rolled the desktop/window manager of your choice into its installation procedure, and any error stemming from it can only be addressed by the developers or other users of PC-BSD. So, yes, the PC-BSD forums would be the first place to ask. FreeBSD users will typically not know how this specific integration is achieved, because 'we' consider (and run) all desktop/window managers as third-party add-ons.
 
Thank you @DutchDaemon, for that explanation. It was very helpful and enlightening.

I am still trying to get my head around how BSD; Unix/Linux is put together. I understand that the OS is comprised of different modules/parts (for lack of a better definition) starting with the Kernel and building from there.

I have read through some of the documentation --man, there is a lot of it too. It's one thing to read the documentation. It's another thing entirely, to understand it. As I am a visual learner, I don't do well reading text without being able to see what I'm reading in a practical application.

Your explanation actually helped me to do just that.

I will address this error with the PC-BSD forum and go from there.

Thank you again for your help.

Regards,
jaaj
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Greetings.
This is a follow up on this thread.

It seems that I have managed to find and fix the problem.;) Or so it would seem.

After being able to get to a shell prompt, and assuming that somehow the user's that I created at install either didn't get created or perhaps were somehow dissabled after creation?

So, after restarting the computer and being presented with the error screen once again, I used Ctrl+Alt+F1 to get to a virtual console.

When given the option to log in I typed 'root' and hit [enter].

This took me to a root prompt (pcbsd#).

At the pcbsd# prompt I entered
Code: 
adduser
and created a new user; keeping the defaults for the most part.

Then I rebooted the machine again and used this newly created user. I am now able to log in and use my new installation. Yay! :e

Thank you all again for your help.

jaaj

PS - I ask for your patience and forgiveness if the formatting is not correct. I am trying to get it right, and as much as I admire it, I am not familiar enough yet with this level of professionalism in the forums.

Practice makes perfect though, right?
 
jaaj said:
Greetings forum.
I downloaded and burned to CD, PC-BSD 1.5.1 (2 CD's) and just finished installing it. The install seemed to go without issue.
Click to expand...

PC-BSD 1.5.1? As in the one from 2008 based on FreeBSD 6? PC-BSD is at 9.2 now following the FreeBSD version numbers and you aren't going to get much support from either community using such an ancient version.
 
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