Arch linux can't login

Question

My problem is that I can't login. If I try to loggin with correct username and password it doesn't do anything. I have error message on boot failed to create static device Nodes in /dev . This happened after sudo pacman -Sy xterm and restart of the system. My kernel version is 4.1.6-1-ARCH

This is not my image but by this I mean loggin session..

“can't login” isn’t a problem report usable for experts. — Incnis Mrsi, Sep 19 '15 at 09:38
Has your OS a ready-to-use emergency/recovery mode? Even if it hasn’t, playing with kernel boot parameters in the bootloader, one can say the kernel to run at the s (single user mode) runlevel, or even without a genuine init (init=/bin/bash). Then examine the root file system for damage. — Incnis Mrsi, Sep 19 '15 at 10:08
It seems you have something really, really wrong with your shared libraries. What did you do prior to this happening? — Chris Down, Sep 19 '15 at 11:33

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 21 '15 at 12:57

Libncurses was recently updated from /usr/lib32/libncursesw.so.5 to /usr/lib32/libncursesw.so.6. There would have been a matching bash update, but you don't have it.

In fact, I just found this in my own pacman.log:

[2015-09-19 23:45] [ALPM] upgraded ncurses (5.9-7 -> 6.0-3)
[2015-09-19 23:45] [ALPM] upgraded readline (6.3.008-1 -> 6.3.008-3)
[2015-09-19 23:45] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] /usr/bin/bash: error while loading shared libraries: libncursesw.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
[2015-09-19 23:45] [ALPM] upgraded bash (4.3.042-1 -> 4.3.042-3)

This is why you should update everything or nothing.

You should get a LiveCD, mount the drive, and do the updates like this:

pacman --root=/path/to/mounted/root -Suy

I have fixed it :) but thanks :) . – magic-sudo Sep 21 '15 at 19:25 — magic-sudo, Sep 21 '15 at 19:25

score -1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

-1

I had this exact same issue after doing a full system upgrade.

Installing the updates with pacman --root=/mnt -Syu as described by "ams" did not resolve the problem for me; instead I had to symlink the library, i.e.

cd /usr/lib
ln -s libncursesw.so.6 libncursesw.so.5

However, after doing this, I can't run gnome-terminal (I have this issue: gnome-terminal stopped working). That's probably not related to the ncurses issue, though.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Community

1

answered Nov 14 '15 at 10:27

Keiji

391

1

Linking the two together is unlikely to work properly because the two libraries have different binary interfaces. – Thomas Dickey Nov 14 '15 at 12:11
1

If you need nurses 5, use the AUR version – StrongBad Nov 14 '15 at 15:50
Ignore what I previously wrote about xterm input being messed up. I had recompiled xterm ages ago with some... let's just say experimental modifications, left it in /usr/local/bin, and forgot about it. Upon moving that binary elsewhere, xterm is absolutely fine. – Keiji Nov 14 '15 at 20:38
and do a pacman -Syu after that. – Shanthakumar Dec 07 '15 at 17:28

Arch linux can't login

2 Answers2