How to get login prompt in Knoppix-style install?

[thors_hammer123]

I have Knoppix 3.3 installed on my computer. I chose the Knoppix-style installation, I would have prefered the Debian-style installation but for some reason the installer would hang.
Now I have several annoyances that I have to deal with, and would really love to fix them if possible :-)
1) No login prompt: The system logins as knoppix user by default. I looked into the KDE Login Manager, but no dice.
2) Automatic hardware detection: This is nice for a LiveCD, but gets really annoying after a while if your distro is installed on your HD and nothing is changing from one bootup to the next. I would like at the least to have all my hard drives mounted and set to read-write (instead of read-only) a boot.

Any suggestions?

TIA!

[thors_hammer123]

BTW, reinstalling is not an option, I have too much stuff in this computer to start from scratch.

Thanks!

[Jakykong]

I'm not a knoppix master myself(actually im a newb), but what if you backed up your data then reinstalled? Knoppix i know has CD-burning stuff in it(i used it once, dont remember how exactly tho), you can burn a CD with your data then reinstall. If your logged in as knoppix, you cant write to the /usr directory so you cant install programs until you fix it anyway...

Just a thaught :wink:

[shah]

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12324&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=auto+login&start=10

The url for kdm-np is dead. Create your own:


#
# /etc/pam.d/kdm - specify the PAM behaviour of kdm
#

# The standard Unix authentication modules, used with
# NIS (man nsswitch) as well as normal /etc/passwd and
# /etc/shadow entries.
# Remove include common-auth line for no password logins
#@include common-auth
@include common-account
@include common-password
@include common-session

auth required pam_nologin.so
auth required pam_env.so
session required pam_limits.so

auth required pam_permit.so


:D :D

[thors_hammer123]

Hello shah,

Thank you much for the instructions you posted, I followed them and did get the login prompt. However, it made my system unstable and I had to roll the changes back. Two questions if you don't mind:
1) When you say delete S*xsession, do you mean that from all the rcX.d directories or just rc5? Knoppix only has 2 files in all of these directories: K10xsession and S90knoppix-halt. K10xsession is in various of these directories.
2) What is that extra script you posted in your message about kdm-np? I am not sure I understand its purpose.

Thanks!

[shah]

1) Delete S*Xsession on all rcX.d. Command: update-rc.d -f xsession remove

2) KDM by default cannot run in passwordless condition. When you install knoppix using knoppix style, you did not create any password...thus kdm will not be able to let you log in. kdm-np is used to fix this problem (it's not a script but a config file). You should create a password for user and root after login.

3) If Kdm can't work, you could try GDM

:D :D :D

[thors_hammer123]

Thank you much shah.
Yesterday I did a dist-upgrade (which puts a bunch of links in the rcX directories) and moved the knoppix files to a different directory.
It almost worked, I did get the KDE Login prompt, and was able to login fine. Two problems:
1) My ethernet cards were not configured (I suppose I have to hunt down some info on how to set them up manually, but it was hard without an Internet connection :-) )
2) Even though the X session displayed the login prompt, all the other 4 terminals are logged in, and worse as root!
Would you know how do I get the regular login (non-GUI) to display on the non-X terminals instead of having them automatically log in the root user?

Thanks!

[shah]

1) To configure ethernet card you need to run network card configuration utility (under knoppix menu). Select not to use DHCP and answer the Q.
To check if your ethernet card is installed, run this command:
lspci -v
see what type of your card.
lsmod
see if the module of your card is loaded

2) This happen because you don't have a user. Create a user and it's password using command : adduser

To log in to command line upon boot you need to edit file /etc/inittab
# /etc/inittab: init(8) configuration.
# $Id: inittab,v 1.9 2001/05/31 10:37:50 knopper Exp $

# The default runlevel.
id:5:initdefault:

Change the id:5:initdefault: to id:3:initdefault:

You also can log in to command line from KDM. There is a button there which you can choose which Desktop you want to log to, choose console log in.

:D :D

[kostabg]

HI thors_hammer123

I have same problem as you had.

I have knoppix-like installation. I followed the instructions of shah but nothing happened.
I have same kdm as described shah.

Could you describe what exactly you did in order to get login prompt at booting and getting login prompt when su and sudo.

Thank you in advance.

neural

[CrashedAgain]

I have Knoppix 3.3 installed on my computer. I chose the Knoppix-style installation, I would have prefered the Debian-style installation but for some reason the installer would hang.
Now I have several annoyances that I have to deal with, and would really love to fix them if possible :-)
1) No login prompt: The system logins as knoppix user by default. I looked into the KDE Login Manager, but no dice.
2) Automatic hardware detection: This is nice for a LiveCD, but gets really annoying after a while if your distro is installed on your HD and nothing is changing from one bootup to the next. I would like at the least to have all my hard drives mounted and set to read-write (instead of read-only) a boot.

Any suggestions?

TIA!
To mount your drive rw automatically, edit /etc/fstab change 'noauto' to auto & add umask=000 which will allow read/write for all users:
/dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6 vfat auto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0
Note this is for a vfat drive , yours may be different.
Since you have a knoppix type install you will then have to edit /etc/lilo.conf adding 'nofstab' to the 'append=' line to prevent knoppix from overwriting it with each boot. Don't forget to rerun lilo to implement the changes.
You could also add another boot option with knoppix 2 in the append line to boot up in terminal mode.
You can edit /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig to bypass some of the autodetection if you want but do it at your own risk! The startup sequence is the three files in /etc/rcS.d:knoppix-autoconfig, knoppix-hd-config, mountall.sh. Edit as much as you dare. I usually fiddle until I've broken it then regret the last move.

[thors_hammer123]

Thank you all for the replies.
I have not had the time to try the latest suggestions, but will do so shortly and report the results.
Neural: What I did to get a KDM login prompt was actually very dumb. I did a dist-upgrade, and you'll notice that this adds a whole bunch of links to your rc folders for different daemons that will get started at bootup. For us using Knoppix, this is very annoying because we have to now go and delete these links leaving only the original Knoppix ones. I did the reverse: I backed up my Knoppix links and left the ones installed by dist-upgrade (including the kdm one) This left me after bootup at a KDE login prompt and I was able to login into my desktop. However, since the hardware autodetection did not run, my ethernet cards were not configured. The other problem was that the other 4 terminals were still logged in automatically and as root: so much for increasing the security of my system with a login prompt! But in any event, as far as getting a working system, I think that if I fiddle with it enough, setting up my hardware manually, I should be able to have a working system that drops me at a login prompt and all the hardware setup. I am still stumped on how to get the other terminals not to login as root though. I tried what shah suggested with the initlevel, but that did not work: Instead, I was unable to go into KDE at all, so I still don't have a solution for this.