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Authentication failed after su-

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  Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-02-28 20:00 +0100
    Re: Authentication failed after su- "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com> - 2022-02-28 20:20 +0100
      Re: Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-02-28 21:20 +0100
        Re: Authentication failed after su- Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2022-02-28 22:30 +0100
          Re: Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-02-28 23:50 +0100
            Re: Authentication failed after su- Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2022-03-01 00:40 +0100
              Re: Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-03-01 06:20 +0100
                Re: Authentication failed after su- Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de> - 2022-03-01 10:30 +0100
                  Re: Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-03-01 12:10 +0100
                    Re: Authentication failed after su- David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-03-01 17:20 +0100
                      Re: Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-03-02 08:50 +0100
                  Re: Authentication failed after su- Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2022-03-01 17:20 +0100
          Re: Authentication failed after su- Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> - 2022-03-01 07:10 +0100

#245734 — Authentication failed after su-

According to https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse,

"Use the WPA passphrase to calculate the correct WPA PSK hash for your SSID by altering the following example"

the command to type is

su -l -c "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"

The output of the terminal is: Authentication failed

Any solution(s) please?

Best regards.

Stella

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#245735

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 07:54:39PM +0100, Stella Ashburne wrote:
> According to https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse,
> 
> "Use the WPA passphrase to calculate the correct WPA PSK hash for your SSID by altering the following example"
> 
> the command to type is
> 
> su -l -c "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
> 
> The output of the terminal is: Authentication failed
> 
> Any solution(s) please?
> 
> Best regards.
> 
> Stella
>

If you use sudo: prefix the above command with sudo

It may be that you need

su - -l -c "rest of the line"

su alone doesn't always get you root equivalent: the default changed a while
ago now so su - is needed.

All the very best, as ever,

Andy Cater 

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#245740

Dearie

Thanks for your offer of help; however.....

> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 at 3:10 AM
> From: "Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@einval.com>
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
>
>
> If you use sudo: prefix the above command with sudo
>
> It may be that you need
>
> su - -l -c "rest of the line"
>
> su alone doesn't always get you root equivalent: the default changed a while
> ago now so su - is needed.

Firstly, I tried the command:

sudo su - -l -c "rest of the line"

It didn't work

Next, I tried:

sudo su- -l -c "rest of the line"

It didn't work either

On the third try, I typed:

sudo -i

followed by "rest of the line" (I ignored -l -c because if I included them, the "rest of the line" wouldn't be executed. Besides I don't know what the arguments -l -c stand for.)

Alternatively, one could type:

sudo su


Best regards.

Stella

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#245745

Stella Ashburne wrote: 
> sudo su - -l -c "rest of the line"
> 
> It didn't work

Copy and paste the actual error; they contain real information
to help us figure out what is happening.

-dsr-

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#245749

Dearie

> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 at 5:09 AM
> From: "Dan Ritter" <dsr@randomstring.org>
> To: "Stella Ashburne" <rewefie@gmx.com>
> Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
>
> Stella Ashburne wrote:
> > sudo su - -l -c "rest of the line"
> >
> > It didn't work
>
> Copy and paste the actual error; they contain real information
> to help us figure out what is happening.
>

To avoid confusion, I shall use the original example provided by Debian Wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse) which is:

su -l -c "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"

In a terminal, I typed:

username@hostname:~$ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
Password:
su: Authentication failure

The output is Authentication failure

Best regards.

Stella

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#245756

Stella Ashburne wrote: 
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 at 5:09 AM
> > From: "Dan Ritter" <dsr@randomstring.org>
> > To: "Stella Ashburne" <rewefie@gmx.com>
> > Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> > Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
> >
> > Stella Ashburne wrote:
> > > sudo su - -l -c "rest of the line"
> > >
> > > It didn't work
> >
> > Copy and paste the actual error; they contain real information
> > to help us figure out what is happening.
> 
> In a terminal, I typed:
> 
> username@hostname:~$ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
> Password:
> su: Authentication failure

That means that you failed to give the root password.

-dsr-

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#245766

Dearie

> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 at 7:13 AM
> From: "Dan Ritter" <dsr@randomstring.org>
> To: "Stella Ashburne" <rewefie@gmx.com>
> Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
>
> >
> > In a terminal, I typed:
> >
> > username@hostname:~$ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
> > Password:
> > su: Authentication failure
>
> That means that you failed to give the root password.
>
I disabled the root password during the process of installing Debian 11.

What should I do to resolve the issue?

Best regards.

Stella

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#245774

Stella Ashburne <rewefie@gmx.com> wrote:
>> From: "Dan Ritter" <dsr@randomstring.org>

>>> In a terminal, I typed:
>>>
>>> username@hostname:~$ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
>>> Password:
>>> su: Authentication failure

>> That means that you failed to give the root password.

> I disabled the root password during the process of installing Debian 11.

> What should I do to resolve the issue?

Use sudo.

wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 | sudo tee /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Grüße,
S°

-- 
Sigmentation fault. Core dumped.

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#245777

Mein Schatzi

> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 at 5:28 PM
> From: "Sven Hartge" <sven@svenhartge.de>
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
>
>
> Use sudo.
>
> wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 | sudo tee /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
>
Thanks for your tip.

Could you surf to https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse, look under the sub-heading "WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK", paragraph 2 with the statement "Use the WPA passphrase to calculate the correct WPA PSK hash for your SSID by altering the following example:"

$ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"

The above command doesn't work in Debian 11. The output is:

su: Authentication failed.

In addition to yours, What are the valid commands? (I shall provide feedback to the people in charge of Debian Wiki's website.)

Best regards.

Stella

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#245794

On Tue 01 Mar 2022 at 11:59:47 (+0100), Stella Ashburne wrote:
> > From: "Sven Hartge" <sven@svenhartge.de>
> >
> > Use sudo.
> >
> > wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 | sudo tee /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
> >
> Thanks for your tip.
> 
> Could you surf to https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse, look under the sub-heading "WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK", paragraph 2 with the statement "Use the WPA passphrase to calculate the correct WPA PSK hash for your SSID by altering the following example:"
> 
> $ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
> 
> The above command doesn't work in Debian 11. The output is:
> 
> su: Authentication failed.
> 
> In addition to yours, What are the valid commands? (I shall provide feedback to the people in charge of Debian Wiki's website.)

Substantively, they're all valid, but only under the circumstances of
the person who wrote them to the wiki. The same is true on this list.

So here, for example:

  $ su -l -c "foo … "

will be fine for anyone knowing their root password.

There's a case to be made that any wiki using the su construction should
be converted to:

  $ sudo foo …

or, here specifically, because of the redirection:

  $ foo … | sudo …

because that meshes in with Debian's current mechanism of root-password-less
installation. Then again, perhaps:

  # foo …

would be preferable, because it makes no assumptions¹, leaving users to
choose the appropriate mechanism for obtaining root on /their/ system.

As for the "people in charge of Debian Wiki's website", that's us, folks.

BTW, in general, I would not advise cutting and pasting anything from
a wiki (or debian-user, or random web pages) without checking what it
actually does. That usually means looking at man pages /and/
interpreting what you find there.

Just to illustrate, take the tip above, which I would expect to work
for you, judging from the rest of your posts. Now I'll try it:

  $ wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 | sudo tee /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
  Sorry, auser is not allowed to execute '/usr/bin/tee /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' as root on laptop.corp.
  $ 

whereas:

  $ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
  Password:     ← I typed the root password here
  $ 

Perfect, and:

  $ cat /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf 
  network={
          ssid="JupiterRising"
          #psk="1234567890"
          psk=562a4993e8a8847d0fcd690a728951c184a831913649a3fd5f54181d41e0ab1c
  }
  $ 

(which, fortunately, is a file this system neither requires nor uses).
You don't need to guess that I have set a root password.

¹ beyond knowing that a # prompt means that you are now typing as root.
  Much of this thread, and its companion, seems to consist of footnote
  on footnote. Were they to qualify each statement with the particular
  circumstances they work under, wiki pages would begin to resemble
  legal documents.

Cheers,
David.

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#245800

Dearie

> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2022 at 12:16 AM
> From: "David Wright" <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
>

Please allow me to snip off large chunks of your tips in my reply.
 
> Substantively, they're all valid, but only under the circumstances of
> the person who wrote them to the wiki. The same is true on this list.
> 
.......
> 
> ¹ beyond knowing that a # prompt means that you are now typing as root.
>   Much of this thread, and its companion, seems to consist of footnote
>   on footnote. Were they to qualify each statement with the particular
>   circumstances they work under, wiki pages would begin to resemble
>   legal documents.
> 
Thank you, David, for taking the time to explain stuff to me. I really appreciate it.

Best regards.

Stella

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#245793

On Tue, 1 Mar 2022 10:28:32 +0100
Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de> wrote:

> > What should I do to resolve the issue?  
> 
> Use sudo.
> 
> wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 | sudo tee
> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

That will work. Another way to do it is to provide a password for root.
Something like:

sudo -i # become root

passwd # set the new password.

Some thoughts:

* There's more than one way to do it. This is an unofficial motto of
  Perl, but it applies to much of computing.

* Because of the thought above, often you can't just blindly copy
  command line sequences from a book or web page. You must examine them,
  understand what they do, and adapt them to your situation.

* Life is a learning experience.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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#245768

Dearie

> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2022 at 5:47 AM
> From: "Bob McGowan" <bob@bnlmcgowan.net>
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: Authentication failed after su-
>
> On 2/28/22 13:09, Dan Ritter wrote:
> > sudo su - -l -c "rest of the line"
> 
> Some comments on this, without knowing just how it failed:
> 
> 1.  There is no reason I can see to using both 'sudo' and 'su' 
> together.  By default, they both let you run a command as the root user.
> 
Thanks for the clarification.

> 2.  Using both '-' and '-l' with su is redundant, they do almost (per 
> the man page) the same thing.  The man page suggests '-l' is better due 
> to reduced side effects.
> 
I wonder what "side effects" they may be.

> 3.  The -c option provides a means to tell su to run a specific 
> command.  So the string 'rest of the line' generates an error stating 
> 'command not found' if run as is.  You need to supply this part of the 
> line so processing can be duplicated and evaluated.
> 
Thanks once again.

> If I insert an 'echo' before the word 'rest', there is no error.
> 
Noted.

> Hence, the actual error is needed, as well as the actual command being run.
> 
The actual command is actually lifted from Debian Wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse). It is:

su -l -c "wpa_passphrase myssid my_very_secret_passphrase > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"

In a terminal, I typed:

username@hostname:~$ su -l -c "wpa_passphrase JupiterRising 1234567890 > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf"
Password: 
su: Authentication failure
username@hostname:~$

The error message is Authentication failure.

Please note that I have chosen not to create a root password during the process of installing Debian 11.

Best regards.

Stella

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