Greetings!
When using Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get a tty1 screen, my login/password comes up invalid.
I had this problem several releases ago and fixed it but I can’t remember how.
I’m currently running Linux Mint 19.1.
Any ideas?
Thank you!
Jim
I don’t know if these suggestions here will help at all. https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=264982 - If I run into such problems I usually just do the repair option which works most of the time. I have seen this problem with Ubuntu mentioned (not that I use it as I use Mint 19.1 now) so it might be worth checking on their forum to see if there is answer you can use, taking that Mint has a Ubuntu base.
Thanks Ellan.
I didn’t see what I needed there. I’ve done the usual Google searches but couldn’t find where to set/reset the login and password for tty mode.
(I don’t even want to use tty mode. My PC hung and was relatively unresponsive so I did the CNTL-ALT-F1 to get to a terminal where I could reboot or run a kill. I got to tty mode and couldn’t login.)
Thanks for looking at it!
Jim
ps. I found this https://www.wikihow.com/Change-the-Root-Password-in-Linux which describes using ‘passwd’ in the terminal for setting the UNIX password but it still didn’t work.
Just seen this - it might help. It was written for Ubuntu, but as I said earlier Mint in based on that and so it should work https://www.ostechnix.com/how-to-fix-broken-ubuntu-os-without-reinstalling-it/
Those instructions have you go to a tty (terminal) and login to issue commands. My problem is that I can’t login. Actually, after rebooting my system seems fine and I don’t want to restore anything. The fix I once used to be able to login to a tty is so far back (as far as releases) that I don’t want to restore.
Thanks for looking!
Jim
Do you have different keyboard languages or layouts? If so, try toggling through those. I have three and had login problems that were solved by doing that.
Just English. That language is hard enough for me.
Thanks Cliff.
I have no problem with my password using a ‘regular’ terminal. It’s just the tty terminal logins.
Actually Cliff, your suggestion helped find my problem! I tried switching to tty and, at the login prompt, I keyed my password (which contains numbers) instead of my user-id. I did this so that I could see my password displayed. I always use the numberpad on my keyboard (with the Num-Lock on). The numbers showed up as ‘funny characters’ - like control characters - instead of numbers. When I use the ‘regular’ numbers on the keyboard, the numbers show up correctly and I was able to login!
I then tried switching to tty and, even though the Num-Lock was on (and lit up), I turned it off and on again. Now I was able to login using the numberpad! Weird! I guess switching to tty mode doesn’t recognize the current state of the Num-Lock and then mis-interprets the numbers as things like 'PgUp", arrow keys or whatever.
(Don’t know that it’s an actual ‘solved’ problem but, as long as I remember what to do, it works. Guess I’ll mark it solved since there is a work around.)
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR HELP! Jim
That’s an ancient bug persistent between distributions. If you have Numlock enabled on desktop and switch to console only, you have to press Numlock 3 times, to activate it properly again to be used in console only. I already anticipated this issue and wrote the first reply explaining that before I had to leave the computer and now I notice that I forgot to press the reply button. Well.
Thanks Akito!
I was sure that the last time it came up I had found a real fix but…
Now the problem will only be getting my ancient brain to remember the ‘3 times’ the next time it happens.
Jim