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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Computer Not Logging In; Instead of Login Window, Turns to Console
xairhil - May 25, 2005 - 7:23 pm
Okay. so i've royally screwed something up here. first, i guess, i should tell you what i've got:
-ibook, G4
-osx.3 (updated to current vers. as of
5/21/05)
-60GB HD
-superdrive.
i include the last two parts in the description because um. the stuff in my HD is fairly important (at least 2 GB of important docs, a lot more music apps and film work) and, just to illustrate how much i suck, i must admit that i have never backed any of it up. and its prettymuch full. on the up side, i have several DVD-Rs i was planning to use this summer after I'd organized my files more...
my concern, however, is not my HD. the problem goes like this:
-i created a new user account for my family to use, so that my documents and settigns were protected, and i enabled fast-user-switching. I was fiddling around with the family account so that their dock would be set up the way they wanted, their desktop, etc. before i made those priveledges unavailable to them, and i was trying out fast-user-switching because i wanted to know what that was like, and when i went to the "login screen" option at the bottom of the pull-down menu (i think that's where it was), it went to a blue background.... and nothing else. it didnt load the login window at all.
so i restarted and got my stuff back up and running and finished fooling around with the family stuff, and decided to make it so that the computer would not automatically log me in, since if i had the laptop off, and my family were to turn it on, they'd get my settings and my documents and all that crap right in their face because the computer would be logged in as me. i also kindof doubt that they'd know how to change the user to themselves or find their own files. anyway. i restarted again, and much much much to my dismay, not a whole heck of a lot happened. This is not to say that i logged in fine and nothing changed; this is to say that *not much happened*.
it showed the grey apple background with the circular loading animation underneath, then it went to the blue background, then to mac osx starting, and it started, but instead of going into familiar territory, it went to the console. I restarted, and it did the same, and i restarted and it did the same, and maybe my computer is getting tired of this, because now it stays in that blue background with a circular loading animation that keeps going on.. and on... and on... eventually if i press a few keys (i dont know which ones, it just kindof works), it'll go into the console again.
i don't know the console (bash?) program much at all. i mean, i took VB back in the day, but thats not really the same at all... i dont know what to type to do anything important. what i figure might work is to change the system prefs back to the way they were before i screwed this up-- i.e., automatically logging me in. is there any way that could be done from the console? and if not, is there any way i could burn DVDs of my stuff from the console? I wouldnt even know where to start on either of these; i dont know how to locate or open files or run apps while in console, and i dont know if its even possible... but i could really use some advice.
i'm set up as the computer admin; my guess is that i should not have made it optional for an admin to login... but its not like i'm the root or anything, so i dont know why its not loading the login window at all. anyway. PLEASE help. i need to write a major paper over the summer, and my only chance to do it is basically the month of june; i highly doubt my sister would allow me to continue using her computer like this, much less use it even more.
PLEASE HELP.
--liz
p.s.: thank you veryverymuch for making it this far thru the letter... i understand that this is a very long description, but i wanted to be as specific as i possibly could.
-ibook, G4
-osx.3 (updated to current vers. as of
5/21/05)
-60GB HD
-superdrive.
i include the last two parts in the description because um. the stuff in my HD is fairly important (at least 2 GB of important docs, a lot more music apps and film work) and, just to illustrate how much i suck, i must admit that i have never backed any of it up. and its prettymuch full. on the up side, i have several DVD-Rs i was planning to use this summer after I'd organized my files more...
my concern, however, is not my HD. the problem goes like this:
-i created a new user account for my family to use, so that my documents and settigns were protected, and i enabled fast-user-switching. I was fiddling around with the family account so that their dock would be set up the way they wanted, their desktop, etc. before i made those priveledges unavailable to them, and i was trying out fast-user-switching because i wanted to know what that was like, and when i went to the "login screen" option at the bottom of the pull-down menu (i think that's where it was), it went to a blue background.... and nothing else. it didnt load the login window at all.
so i restarted and got my stuff back up and running and finished fooling around with the family stuff, and decided to make it so that the computer would not automatically log me in, since if i had the laptop off, and my family were to turn it on, they'd get my settings and my documents and all that crap right in their face because the computer would be logged in as me. i also kindof doubt that they'd know how to change the user to themselves or find their own files. anyway. i restarted again, and much much much to my dismay, not a whole heck of a lot happened. This is not to say that i logged in fine and nothing changed; this is to say that *not much happened*.
it showed the grey apple background with the circular loading animation underneath, then it went to the blue background, then to mac osx starting, and it started, but instead of going into familiar territory, it went to the console. I restarted, and it did the same, and i restarted and it did the same, and maybe my computer is getting tired of this, because now it stays in that blue background with a circular loading animation that keeps going on.. and on... and on... eventually if i press a few keys (i dont know which ones, it just kindof works), it'll go into the console again.
i don't know the console (bash?) program much at all. i mean, i took VB back in the day, but thats not really the same at all... i dont know what to type to do anything important. what i figure might work is to change the system prefs back to the way they were before i screwed this up-- i.e., automatically logging me in. is there any way that could be done from the console? and if not, is there any way i could burn DVDs of my stuff from the console? I wouldnt even know where to start on either of these; i dont know how to locate or open files or run apps while in console, and i dont know if its even possible... but i could really use some advice.
i'm set up as the computer admin; my guess is that i should not have made it optional for an admin to login... but its not like i'm the root or anything, so i dont know why its not loading the login window at all. anyway. PLEASE help. i need to write a major paper over the summer, and my only chance to do it is basically the month of june; i highly doubt my sister would allow me to continue using her computer like this, much less use it even more.
PLEASE HELP.
--liz
p.s.: thank you veryverymuch for making it this far thru the letter... i understand that this is a very long description, but i wanted to be as specific as i possibly could.
tubajensen - May 26, 2005 - 9:10 am
Liz,
what happens if you - during "the blue background with a circular loading animation" - type exit and press the return button on your keyboard?
--------
Allan
what happens if you - during "the blue background with a circular loading animation" - type exit and press the return button on your keyboard?
--------
Allan
xairhil - May 27, 2005 - 4:12 am
nothing other than it goes into the consoe... whic by console i mean a screen with a black background headed on the first line with "Darwin/BSD (mycomputername.local) (console)" and on the next line with "login:" which when i type in my user name and, next, password, logs into the console. when i type exit after having logged into the console, it logs out and goes back to the blue screen with the circle spinny-thing. then it goes back to the console. i get the feeling whatever im going to do will have to be within the console; i have no idea if my computer even *can* bring up the login window.
tubajensen - May 27, 2005 - 5:47 am
Liz,
there is some information here on the subject (starting aqua from console):
http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/348
If you scroll down to the 3rd time the words "starting aqua from command line" appear you see the commands necessary to start aqua. I tried experimenting with it but it didn't work on my machine.
Burning DVD/CDs from console is possible using the command hdiutil. You would have to read the man pages though (type "man hdiutil" without the quotes in console). In general you could do something like this (taken from the man pages):
hdiutil burn myImage.dmg
This burns the image to available optical media and verifies the burn. You would have to prepare myImage.dmg first. This is also explained in the manual. The man pages for hdiutil are quite big, so it's a lot of reading.
--------
Allan
there is some information here on the subject (starting aqua from console):
http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/h/348
If you scroll down to the 3rd time the words "starting aqua from command line" appear you see the commands necessary to start aqua. I tried experimenting with it but it didn't work on my machine.
Burning DVD/CDs from console is possible using the command hdiutil. You would have to read the man pages though (type "man hdiutil" without the quotes in console). In general you could do something like this (taken from the man pages):
hdiutil burn myImage.dmg
This burns the image to available optical media and verifies the burn. You would have to prepare myImage.dmg first. This is also explained in the manual. The man pages for hdiutil are quite big, so it's a lot of reading.
--------
Allan
tubajensen - May 27, 2005 - 5:07 pm
Just a thought. Have you tried starting from your system CD and repairing permissions with Disk Utility?
--------
Allan
--------
Allan
xairhil - May 27, 2005 - 9:46 pm
nope. i cant. i mindlessly put the damn thing in storage.
the above site didnt work for me either, unfortunately. i might want to just burn the dvds... i dont know.
*hands up in the air*
the above site didnt work for me either, unfortunately. i might want to just burn the dvds... i dont know.
*hands up in the air*
tubajensen - May 28, 2005 - 4:38 am
Starting from the system CD as mentioned seems easier to me then working in console. Can't you borrow a CD from someone or take iBook to a store and let somebody check it?
If you want, I can re-open your question and give the other techs the possibility to look at it.
--------
Allan
If you want, I can re-open your question and give the other techs the possibility to look at it.
--------
Allan
xairhil - May 31, 2005 - 1:51 am
i went to a store, they suggested i call apple. so i'm doing that tomorrow, i'll tell you how it goes. if it goes poorly, then yes, i'd be really grateful if you could reopen the question.
*knocks wood*
*knocks wood*
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