"Invalid password, please try again"!

mark4asp

Today I installed Solus on a PC. I created the password, as instructed. But also set the option to access the PC without a password. Later I had to shut it down. On restart, not only did Solus ignore my request to ignore the password - it still demanded a password - but when I entered the password - it told me "Invalid password, please try again".

This is diabolical. Can anyone explain what could possibly have gone wrong?

Apart from reinstalling what can I do. Is there an option to repair, which simply overwrites my bad user?

BuzzPCSOS

mark4asp Done stuff like this in the past. The most common things to go wrong.

Check caps lock status.
Set the wrong keyboard type.
For laptops check numlock status.
Forgot which cat's name the password was.
Forgot that you used a 4 instead of an A etc.
Generally you only work out what when wrong when you are half way through a reinstall.
Good luck, I hope you get lucky.
Edit. Never had any problems with auto login but it is easy to mess a setting up if you do too many tweaks without a restart. Also a good practice to make sure you have run a full update and a restart before you start tweaking.

Jumpy

mark4asp You can create a new password in single user mode. No need to reinstall anything. This is something worth learning even if you already reinstalled. This method will work also with other GNU / Linux such as Mint.

mark4asp

Your reply was not useful.

More useful would be instructions on how to reinstall it by quickly overwriting the existing install - such that it should only need to overwrite user information - not download and install everything again.

BuzzPCSOS

mark4asp I am sorry you did not find my post useful. In my experience with lots of PCs and other people's PCs password problems tend to boil down to those sort of mistakes. I hoped it might refresh a memory of where you might have gone wrong.
Reinstalling over the top of an existing install with a different password is not something that you can do for some very obvious security reasons.
In all honesty Solus has been one of the noticeably easier distos for me to install. The stock choices are a great start and mostly I leave them where they stand after I have set keyboard to UK and my location as the same. As I remember there is a facility to make sure your keys match the actual letter inputted, but it has been a while.
If password problems are an issue why not use a single letter which cannot be confused with another keyboard symbol due to language setup. This can always be changed from the terminal once everything is working properly. I run Dell myself and have never needed to select anything other than the generic UK keyboard.
The Souls forum is a a very friendly place where politeness will get things done far more efficiently than ranting and raging. You are for the most part chatting with other users who are happy to try and help solve your problems but we do so without any payment or obligation to fix your stuff. Complaining about the way things should be here is unlikely to change anything. Most folks here have managed to get a system up and running despite any shortcomings with the installer.

mark4asp

2nd attempt at an install failed too, for a different reason. I:

changed to a 105-key Dell UK Windows keyboard
I reset the BIOS to defaults.
Booted to the BIOS, and selected the USB boot device
Solus booted to a desktop screen with an 'Install System' icon, which I clicked. Leading to the Solus Installer.
The first thing I do is select:
"British English (UK)", [Next]
Region: Europe; Zone: London, [Next]
3a, Keyboard Model: Generic 105-key PC,
3b, English UK
3c, English (UK, extended, Windows), [Next]
Partitions: Replace a partition, [Next]

Notes:

Since I began with a UK, 105-key, Windows keyboard, the intallation should have detected the keyboard to set the default language to British English (UK), not Americal English (USA).
In the Partitions screen, the last option, Manual partioning, was not visible to me because the Window hid it (despite me having a bid monitor, so no need to hide anything). Some people may be confused at this point.
In the Partitions screen, the installation froze there. Tabbing through the list of selected buttions did NOT select the Next button.

I cannot select [Next] with either Alt+N, nor by clicking the mouse over it, since it seems the button is inactive. No error messages show, yet I cannot proceed. I urge the developers to fix this state. I you require action by a user tell them - do not leave a user frozen, with inactive buttons when a user is required to do, or select something but you can't be bothered to tell them what to do to go forward.

They system will not let me proceed, and I'll guess it is because it wll not allow me to replace the selected partions with the same ones. But I should not have to guess what I can and cannot do during an istall. I should be told by the installer.

Staudey

mark4asp If you want to put that into a bug report that would be great: https://github.com/getsolus/packages/issues/new/choose

Note that Solus now uses the calamares installer (https://calamares.io/), so some issues might not be Solus-specific and the upstream project will be interested in them.

mark4asp

Why a button is inactive, as the [Next] button was during the installation in the Partitions stage of the Wizrard, a dev should set the button appearance to indicate it is inactive by greying out the button.

mark4asp

Otherwise, if devs are too lazy, you should be using a reactive interface pattern set so that the appearance of the UI, reactively mimics the state of the model in the code behind. As reactive MVVM was bleeding edge 5 years ago before I retired, why isn't it everyday by now?

Axios

Chastising for everything You find wrong in your mind is not the way to go about it.
1st and only post on subject!

mark4asp

The password issue is not relevant. Since I cannot figure out what Solus thinks it is; so I can't login anyhow, nor recover to try again. So I must re-install. If I use a simple password ( all lower-case, no digits, nor special characters ), it should be OK next time. But 2nd time around, I get stuck mid-way through the installation. I get the installer will not let me overwrite the existing Solus install with a new one in the same place, using the same identical partitions. I'm guessing this because I get not error, nor status dialog back from the installer telling me why it will not let me move to the next stage in the Wizard.

I really like the look and feel of Solus, but TBH, I'm better off picking a better tested version of Linux instead.

Thanks for your replies anyhow. It's a thankless task you have putting up with users, such as myself, who expect perfection for free!

BuzzPCSOS

mark4asp Unless you have files that must be recovered you are advised to completely wipe the hard drive including the partition info.
This ensures that any boot viruses or previous grub installs do not get in the way of the installation. This should be done from the disc manipulation tools in the live environment before you start the install.
Solus is a great distro whatever version you choose and many here have have stopped distro hopping to stay with Souls.
A quick review of the forum will show that there are great things happening in the near future. Maybe you should call back again when the 4.6 iso is released and see if your issues have been resolved.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

elfprince

mark4asp Did you explore the Solus Help site regarding installation? Is Solus the only OS on your pc? If so, can you just erase entire disk when installing again?

DrunkenAlcoholic

I came across this issue about invalid password after trying to change the shell to fish, it seems /etc/shells file which your meant to add /usr/bin/fish to it, causes the next login to fail. the fix for that is to remove the /etc/shells file. you can add to the bootloader "rw init=/bin/bash" to gain access with root without credentials