User account is missing from /etc/shadow & /etc/passwd

[Chris Guiver]

This has been attempted a number of times, using various ISOs, after each time I'm unable to login on booting the newly installed xubuntu noble system.

install to
- hp dc7700 (c2d-e6230, 7gb, amd/ati rv610/radeon hd2400 pro/xt)

to re-create I

- boot current daily
- select manual partitioning
- re-use the '/' partition (80GB drive & single partition), NO FORMAT
- install (options here don't matter, eg. full install, select to add additional options usually, I have internet connected)
- username is "guiverc" and my password is "please" each time (I ignore warning about 'WEAK' password)

install completes, I then reboot

** expected outcome

System boots; DM asks me to login saying "Other" (I expected 'guiverc' and only to enter my password; but okay)..

On entry of my username "guiverc" & password "please" I expect to login

** actual outcome

I enter username "guiverc" and password "please" but I cannot login

I switch to text terminal, and "guiverc" & "password" aren't accepted there either.

** additional notes.

I've tried this with ENGLISH(US) and ENGLISH(AU) (aussie) and same result for both.

Machine is really old BIOS only box.

If I FORMAT instead of NO-FORMAT I don't have this problem though.. It appears to occur only when I don't format (and I don't want to format for this type of install!)

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/2058638

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

On booting the box back in LIVE mode, the home directory appears to be there (my data present, which is why I'd be using this type of install; my music & sample files are still there in my user directory)...

HOWEVER on viewing /etc/shadow & /etc/passwd I don't see any entry for 'guiverc' ???

To successfully login, I `apt install openssh-server vim` on the live system (running on dc7700), so I could `scp` copies of a 'guiverc' line for both SHADOW and PASSWD that had known contents in, and I was able to login...

ie. the problem appears to be NO SETUP of SHADOW/PASSWD for login..

I rebooted & was able to login this time :)

Alas, I now noticed my account wasn't in the sudoers file either...

guiverc@dc7700:~$ sudo /etc/passwd
[sudo] password for guiverc:
guiverc is not in the sudoers file.

Is there anything else?? Either way this is probably what has happened the 3 times I've tried this.

Anyway now that I login, excluding the inability to login & my not being in `sudoers`... all else appears correct.

The prior install included `audacious`, `figlet`, `fortune` & other selected apps, which appear to have been re-installed (what I wanted) correctly.. as far as I can tell anyway.

I wasn't able to view contents of `/var/log/installer/` etc & complete checks..

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

I'm suspecting subiquity might be a culpret here rather than the flutter frontend, so I'm bringing that in just to see if the team there (Dan in particular) might have an idea.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

I have zsync'd a Ubuntu Desktop ISO.. and attempted the same type of install there

- Ubuntu Desktop noble ISO

- booted ISO, (20240320.1 according to /var/log/installer/media-info)
- installer offered upgrade; so I accepted that.. closed & restarted install

- selected the same partition (partition layout created by full disk install of xubuntu noble week+ ago) for / WITHOUT FORMAT, clicked extra options where offered
- used 'guiverc' as username, and 'please' as password..

install completed & asked me to reboot... all good as with Xubuntu.

ON booting the new install... it appeared to go into OEM mode.

I was ASKED for a Username, am being asked to enter PASSWORD ....

THESE ARE DETAILS I GAVE THE INSTALLER.

** my opinion of what I'm seeing

I"m not familiar with OEM installs sorry; haven't QA-installed it in years, but this is acting like a Xubuntu type of install issue where the Ubuntu Desktop boot has just triggered an OEM type of setup thus the repeat of question...

Either way why have the installer ask me these questions if they're ignored on initial boot (if this is intentional behavior; which I very much doubt!!)

---
Either way I passed this install; install appears perfect & allowed me to login unlike Xubuntu... I just had to enter my username/password twice (once for ubuntu-desktop-installer, then again on first boot with blue-background on oem-type setup tool)

[Dan Bungert (dbungert)]

I did some testing Friday on this. While Ubiquity has a degree of support for this (I never saw it work on UEFI) others have pointed out to me that the Reinstall checkbox in Ubiquity was removed because it was flaky, and this is the vestiges of that.

To move this forward I have requested to the ubuntu-desktop-provision team that the format checkbox be enforced. I'm interested in adding preservation of /home and similar well-defined use cases in a future cycle.

[Chris Guiver (guiverc)]

Dan wrote

> (I never saw it work on UEFI)

guiverc@d7050-next:~/uwn/issues/831$ cat /var/log/installer/media-info
Xubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Minotaur" - Daily amd64 (20230829)

I'm on my primary box now (dell optiplex 7050) which uses Secure-uEFI boot, and this install was last made after a problem during the mantic cycle that caused 2 of my 5 screens to go dark (be it installed system or LIVE boots). When the live boots no longer had an issue, but it had remained on my installed system & I was unable to work out why; I just non-destructively re-installed the system as fix.

FYI: This system is a single-partition install (plus ESP), being installed using a testcase that didn't create a separate /home. Xubuntu used `ubiquity` when I re-installed using daily 2023-08-29, ie. fix my issue & a QA install.

Whilst I sometimes disable secure-boot (virtualbox is easier) the machine is still uEFI & I use it regularly there in QA too (mostly Xubuntu, with calamares).

Personally I'd prefer the boot as 'non-ideal' as the passwd/sudo issue can be easily resolved & just documentation suggesting FORMAT is used. The loss of this re-install feature (something I've always loved about Ubuntu, and regularly use) would be a large loss, esp. on a LTS release.

[Dennis Loose (dloose)]

Requested front-end changes are here:
https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-desktop-provision/pull/567
https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-desktop-provision/pull/580

They're already included in the current latest/stable (104).