Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 SP2 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION Installation Manual page 946

In all cases that do not involve external network problems, the solution is to reboot the
system into single-user mode and repair the configuration before booting again into
operating mode and attempting to log in again. To boot into single-user mode:
1 Reboot the system. The boot screen appears, offering a prompt.
2 Enter 1 at the boot prompt to make the system boot into single-user mode.
3 Enter the username and password for root.
4 Make all the necessary changes.
5 Boot into the full multiuser and network mode by entering telinit 5 at the
51.4.2 Valid Username and Password Not
This is by far the most common problem users encounter, because there are many reasons
this can occur. Depending on whether you use local user management and authentication
or network authentication, login failures occur for different reasons.
Local user management can fail for the following reasons:
• The user might have entered the wrong password.
• The user's home directory containing the desktop configuration files is corrupted
or write protected.
• There might be problems with the X Window System authenticating this particular
user, especially if the user's home directory has been used with another Linux dis-
tribution prior to installing the current one.
To locate the reason for a local login failure, proceed as follows:
1 Check whether the user remembered his password correctly before you start de-
928 Installation and Administration
command line.
Accepted
bugging the whole authentication mechanism. If the user might not remember
his password correctly, use the YaST User Management module to change the
user's password.