Ubuntu Server 18.04.1 LTS - no password prompt
I cannot log into my server.
I cannot SSH into the server; PuTTY fails with the message "Server unexpectedly closed network connection" if I am outside my own network, or "Software caused connection abort" if I am inside my network.
So I plugged a monitor and keyboard into it and got a login prompt. But when I enter my user name and press enter, I am not given a password prompt. It sits for a moment, then the screen goes black, and when I tap a key to wake it up I have a fresh login prompt.
I could reboot the server but I'm mildly leery of doing so. I recently cloned an existing installation of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS over to a new hard drive (changing to SSD), and it worked, so I also upgraded to 18.04.1. That went well also; but then shortly afterwards I had to reboot it and it died with the error "error: invalid arch independent ELF magic", indicating that something was screwed up with the MBR.
The hardware is old; it's not compatible with the amd64 instruction set, only i386, and they stopped making live CDs for i386. So in order to fix it I had to download a 16.04 live CD and correct the MBR issue (and also run a fsck which found and corrected errors on two partitions).
This sucker was rock solid for years before I put this SSD in it. I'm annoyed that a simple hard drive swap has caused me such grief.
Any suggestions? How do I log in when I can't get a password prompt?
server
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
add a comment |
I cannot log into my server.
I cannot SSH into the server; PuTTY fails with the message "Server unexpectedly closed network connection" if I am outside my own network, or "Software caused connection abort" if I am inside my network.
So I plugged a monitor and keyboard into it and got a login prompt. But when I enter my user name and press enter, I am not given a password prompt. It sits for a moment, then the screen goes black, and when I tap a key to wake it up I have a fresh login prompt.
I could reboot the server but I'm mildly leery of doing so. I recently cloned an existing installation of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS over to a new hard drive (changing to SSD), and it worked, so I also upgraded to 18.04.1. That went well also; but then shortly afterwards I had to reboot it and it died with the error "error: invalid arch independent ELF magic", indicating that something was screwed up with the MBR.
The hardware is old; it's not compatible with the amd64 instruction set, only i386, and they stopped making live CDs for i386. So in order to fix it I had to download a 16.04 live CD and correct the MBR issue (and also run a fsck which found and corrected errors on two partitions).
This sucker was rock solid for years before I put this SSD in it. I'm annoyed that a simple hard drive swap has caused me such grief.
Any suggestions? How do I log in when I can't get a password prompt?
server
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
1
Note: they still make installer images for i386, but just the Network installer type, not the Live installer type.
– thomasrutter
Jan 15 at 2:52
Correct. Which, sadly, didn't help in my case, since the live version is what I needed.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 3:15
I gave up and tried rebooting. It's definitely something with the hard drive -- it failed to unmount any of the file systems during power off, and I got a kernel panic when I tried booting again. ARGH. What is messing with the file system?
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 7:00
After failing to correct the issue -- a fsck found thousands upon thousands of errors in two of my partitions -- I gave up. Either the hard drive is a lemon, there's a hardware incompatibility between the SATA3 drive in a SATA2 port, or there's some weird bug in 18.04 LTS that affects my specific hardware. I have restored the old HD that still had 16.04 on it, and it's working fine now.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 16:53
add a comment |
I cannot log into my server.
I cannot SSH into the server; PuTTY fails with the message "Server unexpectedly closed network connection" if I am outside my own network, or "Software caused connection abort" if I am inside my network.
So I plugged a monitor and keyboard into it and got a login prompt. But when I enter my user name and press enter, I am not given a password prompt. It sits for a moment, then the screen goes black, and when I tap a key to wake it up I have a fresh login prompt.
I could reboot the server but I'm mildly leery of doing so. I recently cloned an existing installation of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS over to a new hard drive (changing to SSD), and it worked, so I also upgraded to 18.04.1. That went well also; but then shortly afterwards I had to reboot it and it died with the error "error: invalid arch independent ELF magic", indicating that something was screwed up with the MBR.
The hardware is old; it's not compatible with the amd64 instruction set, only i386, and they stopped making live CDs for i386. So in order to fix it I had to download a 16.04 live CD and correct the MBR issue (and also run a fsck which found and corrected errors on two partitions).
This sucker was rock solid for years before I put this SSD in it. I'm annoyed that a simple hard drive swap has caused me such grief.
Any suggestions? How do I log in when I can't get a password prompt?
server
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
I cannot log into my server.
I cannot SSH into the server; PuTTY fails with the message "Server unexpectedly closed network connection" if I am outside my own network, or "Software caused connection abort" if I am inside my network.
So I plugged a monitor and keyboard into it and got a login prompt. But when I enter my user name and press enter, I am not given a password prompt. It sits for a moment, then the screen goes black, and when I tap a key to wake it up I have a fresh login prompt.
I could reboot the server but I'm mildly leery of doing so. I recently cloned an existing installation of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS over to a new hard drive (changing to SSD), and it worked, so I also upgraded to 18.04.1. That went well also; but then shortly afterwards I had to reboot it and it died with the error "error: invalid arch independent ELF magic", indicating that something was screwed up with the MBR.
The hardware is old; it's not compatible with the amd64 instruction set, only i386, and they stopped making live CDs for i386. So in order to fix it I had to download a 16.04 live CD and correct the MBR issue (and also run a fsck which found and corrected errors on two partitions).
This sucker was rock solid for years before I put this SSD in it. I'm annoyed that a simple hard drive swap has caused me such grief.
Any suggestions? How do I log in when I can't get a password prompt?
server
server
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
asked Jan 15 at 1:52
Will MartinWill Martin
1214
1214
1
Note: they still make installer images for i386, but just the Network installer type, not the Live installer type.
– thomasrutter
Jan 15 at 2:52
Correct. Which, sadly, didn't help in my case, since the live version is what I needed.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 3:15
I gave up and tried rebooting. It's definitely something with the hard drive -- it failed to unmount any of the file systems during power off, and I got a kernel panic when I tried booting again. ARGH. What is messing with the file system?
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 7:00
After failing to correct the issue -- a fsck found thousands upon thousands of errors in two of my partitions -- I gave up. Either the hard drive is a lemon, there's a hardware incompatibility between the SATA3 drive in a SATA2 port, or there's some weird bug in 18.04 LTS that affects my specific hardware. I have restored the old HD that still had 16.04 on it, and it's working fine now.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 16:53
add a comment |
1
Note: they still make installer images for i386, but just the Network installer type, not the Live installer type.
– thomasrutter
Jan 15 at 2:52
Correct. Which, sadly, didn't help in my case, since the live version is what I needed.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 3:15
I gave up and tried rebooting. It's definitely something with the hard drive -- it failed to unmount any of the file systems during power off, and I got a kernel panic when I tried booting again. ARGH. What is messing with the file system?
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 7:00
After failing to correct the issue -- a fsck found thousands upon thousands of errors in two of my partitions -- I gave up. Either the hard drive is a lemon, there's a hardware incompatibility between the SATA3 drive in a SATA2 port, or there's some weird bug in 18.04 LTS that affects my specific hardware. I have restored the old HD that still had 16.04 on it, and it's working fine now.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 16:53
1
1
Note: they still make installer images for i386, but just the Network installer type, not the Live installer type.
– thomasrutter
Jan 15 at 2:52
Note: they still make installer images for i386, but just the Network installer type, not the Live installer type.
– thomasrutter
Jan 15 at 2:52
Correct. Which, sadly, didn't help in my case, since the live version is what I needed.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 3:15
Correct. Which, sadly, didn't help in my case, since the live version is what I needed.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 3:15
I gave up and tried rebooting. It's definitely something with the hard drive -- it failed to unmount any of the file systems during power off, and I got a kernel panic when I tried booting again. ARGH. What is messing with the file system?
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 7:00
I gave up and tried rebooting. It's definitely something with the hard drive -- it failed to unmount any of the file systems during power off, and I got a kernel panic when I tried booting again. ARGH. What is messing with the file system?
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 7:00
After failing to correct the issue -- a fsck found thousands upon thousands of errors in two of my partitions -- I gave up. Either the hard drive is a lemon, there's a hardware incompatibility between the SATA3 drive in a SATA2 port, or there's some weird bug in 18.04 LTS that affects my specific hardware. I have restored the old HD that still had 16.04 on it, and it's working fine now.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 16:53
After failing to correct the issue -- a fsck found thousands upon thousands of errors in two of my partitions -- I gave up. Either the hard drive is a lemon, there's a hardware incompatibility between the SATA3 drive in a SATA2 port, or there's some weird bug in 18.04 LTS that affects my specific hardware. I have restored the old HD that still had 16.04 on it, and it's working fine now.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 16:53
add a comment |
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1
Note: they still make installer images for i386, but just the Network installer type, not the Live installer type.
– thomasrutter
Jan 15 at 2:52
Correct. Which, sadly, didn't help in my case, since the live version is what I needed.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 3:15
I gave up and tried rebooting. It's definitely something with the hard drive -- it failed to unmount any of the file systems during power off, and I got a kernel panic when I tried booting again. ARGH. What is messing with the file system?
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 7:00
After failing to correct the issue -- a fsck found thousands upon thousands of errors in two of my partitions -- I gave up. Either the hard drive is a lemon, there's a hardware incompatibility between the SATA3 drive in a SATA2 port, or there's some weird bug in 18.04 LTS that affects my specific hardware. I have restored the old HD that still had 16.04 on it, and it's working fine now.
– Will Martin
Jan 15 at 16:53