Login language change

**Dale** · 11-05-2004, 01:57 PM

After several days of tweaking Knoppix 3.6 on a mini itx mb I can not login any longer. Everything I know of is set for english. However, I installed the latest updated version of Bastille and on reboot the login prompt is in, I believe, Czech. (Definitely NOT german... the word for password is "haslo" I believe.

I suspect the keyboard is remapped as well as my name and password no longer works. Nor does root. I've checked the lilo.conf file and the language there is "us". I thought it was supposed to be "en" for english but maybe not. The *sysconfig file is setup with lang=en, appropriate ISO style, etc.

Also, both my user and root passwords are rather secure, ie. both use special character such as ! &^#@ etc. I even tried using the ascii control codes for those special characters but no joy.

So, what file actually controls the boot login prompt language or alternately, can I blow off some combination of passwd files to get a default, no passwd, boot?

**CrashedAgain** · 11-05-2004, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by Dale

After several days of tweaking Knoppix 3.6 on a mini itx mb I can not login any longer. Everything I know of is set for english. However, I installed the latest updated version of Bastille and on reboot the login prompt is in, I believe, Czech. (Definitely NOT german... the word for password is "haslo" I believe.

I suspect the keyboard is remapped as well as my name and password no longer works. Nor does root. I've checked the lilo.conf file and the language there is "us". I thought it was supposed to be "en" for english but maybe not. The *sysconfig file is setup with lang=en, appropriate ISO style, etc.

Also, both my user and root passwords are rather secure, ie. both use special character such as ! &^#@ etc. I even tried using the ascii control codes for those special characters but no joy.

So, what file actually controls the boot login prompt language or alternately, can I blow off some combination of passwd files to get a default, no passwd, boot?

There is language settings in /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig but I think this script is not used if you have a Debian type hd install. The files in /etc/rcS.d are the ones which are used for startup.

You could try to boot from CD with 'knoppix lang=us root=/dev/hda5 noinitrd ro' which is supposed to boot into the HD from CD, it might then start in en. Or perhaps you can start CD & chroot into your hdaX install then change the root passwd to blank or some really simple two letter word which should be typeable on any keyboard.

Apt-get install localepurge should remove alternate language support & prevent future occurances, not sure how to disable alternate keyboards.

**Dale** · 11-05-2004, 05:50 PM

Thanks for the info, I am just now learning what chroot actually does and you are correct, I should be able to clear things up as soon as I get home. Thanks alot .... great user name 'crashedagain'

**marhleet** · 03-07-2005, 07:32 AM

I had mine set to auto-login, so you don't notice this problem....
mine says (typing, rough)

Uzivatelske jmeno
Heslo
Pnhlasit Vycistit Nabidka

what's that about ?
I'll try the above and see what gives.... (US vs US-En)