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Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation?

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On 2024-05-11, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 11/05/2024 05:55, Borax Man wrote:
>> On Thu, 9 May 2024 12:59:57 +0100
>> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 09/05/2024 11:40, Borax Man wrote:
>>>> On 2024-05-08, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>>>> Yesterday, I installed the latest kernel in my mint MATE 20.3 desktop
>>>>> here. It advised me to reboot, so I selected the reboot option after
>>>>> closing all programs, and away we went. It rebooted fine and I got a
>>>>> login prompt, that looked oddly different. I think it had my full name
>>>>> instead of nothing above the login prompt.
>>>>>
>>>>> And no matter what I typed in as password, it wouldn't accept it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thinking I might have to repair something from a live installation disk,
>>>>> I decided that at least a hard reboot might be worth trying, and with a
>>>>> proper power off it rebooted as normal.
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyone have a clue as to what that might have been?
>>>>>
>>>>> I am the only user on the system. It's mine, all mine, and one else ever
>>>>> uses it.
>>>>>
>>>>>   
>>>>
>>>> We should first establish whether the problem is authentication, or
>>>> something else.
>>>>
>>>> Are we talking about a graphical login prompt, or the console, text
>>>> mode login prompt?  Do you get an error message?  What does it say?
>>>> How does it fail?
>>>>    
>>> It was  a normal GUI login screen except that instead of a normal input
>>> box, it had my full name over it, possibly as if I was not the default user.
>>>
>>> But I am the ONLY user!
>>>
>> 
>> I think Mint uses Light DM, which is the one I use.  I see that
>> behaviour myself, where it displays the username.  If you press up and
>> down, you can choose between the users.  I'm not sure how that would
>> act if there is only the one user, but maybe try the up and down
>> cursor keys to see if it selects or unselects something.
>> 
>>>> Try switching to a text based virtual console, pressing CTRL-ALT-F2
>>>> should do it.  Then try logging in with your username then password.
>>>> If that logs in, then at least your credentials still work.  Type
>>>> 'logout' then enter to logout of the text prompt and press CTRL-ALT-F7
>>>> to go back to the graphical prompt.
>>>>    
>>> Cant reproduce it. As I said it only happened when I rebooted rather
>>> than shut down the system
>>>
>>>> At the graphical prompt, is it asking specifically for your password,
>>>> or for a username?  Is there a way to change the username, or type it
>>>> in?
>>>>    
>>> As I said, it only prompted for the password.  And failed to accept it.
>>>
>>> This is a mint login screen:
>>>
>>> https://fostips.com/login-background-linux-mint-21/
>>>
>>> As you can see normally it has the default login name above the password
>>> entry on the left.
>>>
>>> In the odd case it had my FULL name ABOVE the whole box on the RIGHT.
>>> I am wondering if it had defaulted to an unknown user on soft restart
>>>
>>>
>>>> Let us know how you go.
>>>
>>> As I said, hard reset restored normal behaviour. It was only a curiosity
>>> as to why a soft restart might have been different....
>>>
>> 
>> I'm guessing by what you mean by "can't reproduce it", is that the
>> text based login worked.
>> 
>
> No. Powering the machine off, worked
>
> That is the curiousity.
>
> What information was retained across a soft reboot that was not retained 
> in a power off situation
>
> I have on many occasions had a machine hang after a soft reboot, and yet 
> behave perfectly normally once powered down and restarted. Fine, the 
> hardware would always be in a different state on soft restart, but this 
> is more like some software values neing preserved across a restart.
>
>
>
>
I think the difference is minor.  A hard reboot runs through POST again
but a soft reboot doesn't.  Soft reboots call a BIOS interrupt, hard
reboots cut power and restore it.

I've been using PC's quite a while, but I think I may have at least once
experienced something which required a hard reboot instead of a soft
reboot.  I may be wrong, but I know I haven't experienced Linux
oddities.

There could be something in RAM, in the config which was retained, but I
can't say what.

>> My initial thought was some temporary file, which saved state, but
>> that should have been cleared on reboot, regardless of whether soft or
>> hard.
>> 
> That's one I hadn't thought of. Mmm.
>
>> LightDM keeps logs, these can be helpful.  They should be located at
>> /var/log/lightdm
>> 
>> lightdm.log will list the results of authentication, and whether it
>> was successfull or not.  During failure, check this log (log in at
>> text console if necessary) and see what it says about the
>> authentication failure.
>> 
> I might try that if I have time.
>
> TBH I am only vaguely interested in what *might* have caused it, rather 
> than pinning it down exactly. Life is too short
>
>
>

Yeah, it could be hardware.  I'd look at the logs, they may make it
obvious WHAT failed, but why may not be quite as easy to determine.

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Thread

Not a request for help, but an explanation? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2024-05-08 11:22 +0100
  Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Borax Man <rotflol2@hotmail.com> - 2024-05-09 10:40 +0000
    Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2024-05-09 12:59 +0100
      Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Farley Flud <ff@linux.rocks> - 2024-05-09 21:27 +0000
        Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2024-05-10 09:11 +0200
          Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2024-05-10 12:24 +0200
        Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2024-05-10 17:14 +0100
      Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Borax Man <rotflol2@hotmail.com> - 2024-05-11 14:55 +1000
        Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2024-05-11 08:58 +0100
          Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Borax Man <rotflol2@hotmail.com> - 2024-05-11 08:54 +0000
      Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Borax Man <rotflol2@hotmail.com> - 2024-05-11 15:06 +1000
        Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2024-05-11 08:59 +0100
        Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2024-05-11 12:21 +0200
          Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2024-05-14 03:42 +0000
            Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2024-05-14 08:29 +0200
              Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2024-05-14 20:00 +0000
                Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2024-05-15 09:11 +0200
                Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2024-05-15 11:19 +0100
                Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2024-05-15 13:57 +0200
                Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2024-05-15 13:58 +0200
            Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2024-05-14 14:53 +0200
              Re: Not a request for help, but an explanation? Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2024-05-14 17:24 +0200

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