SUMMARY -- UNABLE TO LOGIN

From: Kimberly G. Madison <starkgm_at_RIGEL.SYSCON.COM>
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 1995 09:22:44 EDT

My original post was:

Subject: Unable to Login.
To: "alpha-osf-managers" <alpha-osf-managers_at_ornl.gov>

Hello Alpha - OSF - Managers:
I have a problem of logging in. The system seems to come up fine. Going
through all the boot up steps without any error, that i can see. When it
goes to the screen that should bring up the login prompt i get the following
message instead:

"! Cannot obtain database information on this terminal."

I have checked trying to log into another terminal and it gives the say error.
Any help would be appreciated!
I have logged a call to Digital, but haven't gotten a callback. I will
summarize any help i get.

Thanks,

kim

These are the responses I got followed by what I did to fix my problem:
************************************************************
Subj: Re: Unable to Login.

Kim,

If this is UNIX V3.2, then you probably have a corrupt ttys file located in
/etc/auth/system. See if you have a .new or .proto copy in that directory and
replace it. If not, perhaps you have one on tape that you can restore.

If this is UNIX V3.0, we have patches that probably apply to this issue.

Thanks,
janet --- DIGITAL
*************************************************************
Hi!

Under OSF v3.0 and earlier we'd often get this error. It indicates that it
can't find entries in the terminal database file /etc/auth/system/ttys
For some reason, this file would get badly corrupted or truncated more or
less spontaneously. Since upgrading to 3.2a, it has only been corrupted once
after an apparently unrelated kernel panic.

The fix: enter single-user mode and either copy an old version of this file
onto /etc/auth/system/ttys (eg .new..ttys in the same directory, if you have
one left over from an OS upgrade), or reconstruct it by hand (details are
given in the ttys manpage).

We never did discover why it becomes corrupted or truncated; if you find out,
please forward an explanation to me :)

-- Sam Yates

***************************************************************

By logon screen, are you running a xdm or only on the console? It sounds
like the Digital UNIX equivalent of /etc/ttys has a mangled entry for
the /dev/console device...
Kenji

*************************************************************

Subject: Re: Cannot obtain Database information on this terminal

Kim, Maybe the following will help. - Paul

---
From: szabo_p_at_maths.su.oz.au (Paul Szabo)
Path: maths.su.oz.au!szabo_p
Newsgroups: comp.unix.osf.osf1
Subject: Re: /etc/securettys X access for root?
Expires: 
References: <uazrwp.31.000EE30F_at_unicorn.nott.ac.uk>
Sender: szabo_p_at_maths.su.oz.au (Paul Szabo)
Reply-To: szabo_p_at_maths.su.oz.au (Paul Szabo)
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Mathematics, University of Sydney
Keywords: devassign securettys
In article <uazrwp.31.000EE30F_at_unicorn.nott.ac.uk> uazrwp_at_unicorn.nott.ac.uk
(Bob Parkinson) writes:
> I can use xdm to get an x session set up as a normal user. I am trying to get 
> access as root.
> I have tried adding the marked lines into /etc/securettys4 but it does not 
> seem to be enough.
> 123.456.789.123:0       <--- ADDED
Maybe you need to add
host:0
host.sub.domain:0
instead of the IP address?
Are you at BASE or ENHANCED (C2) security level? At C2 security I had a
similar problem. Following advice from the DEC support people:
Add lines like the following to /etc/auth/system/ttys :
host\:0:t_devname=host\:0:t_xdisplay:t_login_timeout#0:chkent:
Add lines like the following to /etc/auth/system/devassign :
host\:0:v_devs=host\:0,host.sub.domain\:0,123.456.789.123\:0:v_type=xdisplay:chkent:
Add lines like the following to /etc/securettys :
host.sub.domain:0
host:0
Hope this helps.
Paul Szabo - System Manager   //        School of Mathematics and Statistics
szabo_p_at_maths.su.oz.au        //   University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
*************************************************************
Hi Kim,
The problem you talk about looks like you may have ENHANCED security ON.
The following is a possible fix, which is mail I sent to someone else with
the same symptons. It is straight forward to apply.
-------> Transcript <---------------------------------------------------------
The display NCD gives about some database error is one cause of X-terminals
not been able to login when the Alpha station is using ENHANCED security. If
you use BASE security it should not be a problem.
If you switched to ENHANCED security the following additions to system files
should fix the problem.
In ENHANCED you will need to make a entry in:
/etc/auth/system/ttys
&
/etc/auth/system/devassign.
to get the system to accept X-Terminal connections.
The fix would be:
Say your X_Terminal is in '/etc/hosts' as "ncdxterm"
1) in '/etc/auth/system/ttys' add a line for the Display, similar to:
 ncdxterm\:0:t_devname=\:t_xdisplay:t_login_timeout#0:chkent:
2) Try also a line in '/etc/auth/system/devassign' similar to:
 ncdxterm\:0:v_devs=ncdxterm:0:v_type=xdisplay:chkent:
3) in '/etc/securettys' add a line for the display if you want to log in as root
 ie: just add ncdxterm:0 to the list
Reagrds Joe
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                             |
|              Joe Spanicek                                                   |
|     /\/\     Scientist                                                      |
|    / / /\    Operations Efficiency Project                                  |
|   / / /  \                                                                  |
|  / / / /\ \  BHP Research - Port Kembla Labs                                |
|  \ \/ / / /  P.O Box 202, Port Kembla, NSW Australia 2505                   |
|   \  / / /   Fax: +61 (42) 523120 (reception at BHP Research)               |
|    \/\/\/    Tel: +61 (42) 523333 (reception at BHP Research)               |
|              Direct Fax: +61 (42) 756524           (Current location)       |
|              Direct Tel: +61 (42) 756111 Ext: 4502 (Current location)       |
|              Email: joe_at_resptk.bhp.com.au                                   |
|                                                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
************************************************************
The problem turned out to be a corrupt ttys file.  The following is what I had to do:
1. Boot the computer to single user mode
2. cd /etc/auth/system
3. ttys is the corrupted file
4. do ls -al and look for any ttys.bak or ttys.sav if none existed you can use .new..ttys or
.proto..ttys.  It is a good idea to make a  copy of the ttys file in case this ever happens.
As for why it happened I am still not sure.  Digital advised that is was a problem in 3.0,  and there
is a patch for it.  It was fixed in 3.2, but still occurred sometimes when there were more than
1,000 users.  I am running 3.2 with only a few users so I am not sure what caused the file to
become corrupted.  Digital advised that they are still working on how the file fixing the bug, it has
something to do with how the file is saved, and hoped to have it fixed entirely by the next release.
I would like to thank all those who responded to my post,both the ones I listed
and all others. Also Digital for there phone support
which was great!
Thanks,
kim  

Received on Wed Aug 09 1995 - 15:39:50 NZST