The root account is locked

Support
1

(However I didn’t do it)

Hello fellow Kaisens,

After taking a short break I come back to a black screen with just a moving cursor and nothing else. Nothing was installed, nor any updates were made.
After rebooting it gives me my standard grub options and a logon screen after I choose Kaisen GNU/Linux , with Linux 6.5.0-1kaisen-amd64

I have also 6.1.0 and 5.19.0 preinstalled on the machine but upon entering credentials at login screen the result is the same - just a black screen with a moving cursor and nothing else.

If I enter either of the recovery modes I get a more verbose process of loading the system which culminates in:
Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.
See sulogin(8) man page for more details.
Press Enter to continue.

So I do, because there is no prompt to enter anything else and it takes me back to the black screen. Other forums don’t seem much of help.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

2

Hello,

For security reasons, the root account locked on Kaisen.

To unlock it please follow :

Tutorial: Chroot into a Linux System with LVM and Optional Encryption

Prerequisites:

  • A Linux system installed on an LVM (Logical Volume Management) volume.
  • A live CD or USB with a Linux distribution to access the system in live mode.

Step 1: Boot from the Live CD/USB

Insert the live CD/USB and boot the computer from this media. Make sure to select the appropriate option to boot in live mode.

Step 2: Open a Terminal

Once in the live environment, open a terminal.

Step 3: Determine mount sources

Identify the volume group (VG) and logical volumes (LV) of your Linux installation using the following command:

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lsblk

You shoukd have something similar :

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sda                      8:0    0 476.9G  0 disk  
├─sda1                   8:1    0   121M  0 part  /boot/efi
├─sda2                   8:2    0   488M  0 part  /boot
└─sda3                   8:3    0 476.3G  0 part  
  └─sda3_crypt         254:0    0 476.3G  0 crypt 
    ├─nikilab--vg-root 254:1    0  37.3G  0 lvm   /snap
    │                                             /
    └─nikilab--vg-home 254:2    0   439G  0 lvm   /home

Step 4: Mount the Root File System

Mount the logical volume corresponding to your root file system in the /mnt directory. Replace VG_NAME and LV_NAME with the appropriate names. Do note forget your other partitions lile /boot and EFI

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sudo mount /dev/VG_NAME/LV_NAME /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi

Step 5: Mount System Directories

Mount the necessary special filesystems in the /mnt directory. Execute the following commands:

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sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount --bind /sys/firmware/efi/efivars /mnt/sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Step 6 (Optional): Decrypt the LVM

If your LVM is encrypted, use the following command to decrypt . Replace LV_NAME with the name of the logical volume to be encrypted.

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sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/VG_NAME/LV_NAME cryptroot

Step 8: Chroot into the Installed System

Chroot into the installed system with the mounted system directories:

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sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Step 9: Unlock root

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passwd -u root

Step 10: Exit the Chroot

Once finished, exit the chroot and unmount the mounted filesystems:

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exit
sudo umount -R /mnt
3

Thank you for your reply, Niki. Unfortunately the not much has changed: logon screen, then black background with cursor and nothing else. Am I doing this right?

kaisen@kaisenlinux ~ $ pwd
/home/kaisen
kaisen@kaisenlinux ~ $ cd /
kaisen@kaisenlinux / $ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdb: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WD Blue SA510 M.
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1492befc

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 104447 102400 50M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 104448 408513614 408409167 194.7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb3 408514560 409599999 1085440 530M 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sdb4 409602046 1953523711 1543921666 736.2G 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 409602048 472100863 62498816 29.8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 * 472102912 785575935 313473024 149.5G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 785577984 1953523711 1167945728 556.9G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sda: 7.32 GiB, 7864320000 bytes, 15360000 sectors
Disk model: DataTraveler 2.0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb1db55e9

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 64 11396699 11396636 5.4G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 11396700 11398491 1792 896K 1 FAT12

Disk /dev/loop0: 4.94 GiB, 5299118080 bytes, 10349840 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
kaisen@kaisenlinux / $ sudo mount /dev/sdb6 /mnt
kaisen@kaisenlinux / $ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 4.9G 1 loop /usr/lib/live/mount/rootfs/filesystem.squashfs
/run/live/rootfs/filesystem.squashfs
sda 8:0 1 7.3G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 1 5.4G 0 part /usr/lib/live/mount/medium
│ /run/live/medium
└─sda2 8:2 1 896K 0 part
sdb 8:16 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 50M 0 part
├─sdb2 8:18 0 194.7G 0 part
├─sdb3 8:19 0 530M 0 part
├─sdb4 8:20 0 1K 0 part
├─sdb5 8:21 0 29.8G 0 part
├─sdb6 8:22 0 149.5G 0 part /mnt
└─sdb7 8:23 0 556.9G 0 part
kaisen@kaisenlinux / $ sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash
root@kaisenlinux / # passwd -u root
passwd: password changed.
root@kaisenlinux / # exit
exit
kaisen@kaisenlinux / $ sudo umount -R /mnt
kaisen@kaisenlinux / $ sudo reboot

Thank you again.

4

Sorry, I may have missed a step. This is the new one.

kaisen@kaisenlinux ~ $ sudo su
root@kaisenlinux /home/kaisen # pwd
/home/kaisen
root@kaisenlinux /home/kaisen # cd /
root@kaisenlinux / # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WD Blue SA510 M.
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1492befc

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 104447 102400 50M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 104448 408513614 408409167 194.7G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 408514560 409599999 1085440 530M 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda4 409602046 1953523711 1543921666 736.2G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 409602048 472100863 62498816 29.8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 * 472102912 785575935 313473024 149.5G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 785577984 1953523711 1167945728 556.9G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 7.32 GiB, 7864320000 bytes, 15360000 sectors
Disk model: DataTraveler 2.0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb1db55e9

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 64 11396699 11396636 5.4G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 11396700 11398491 1792 896K 1 FAT12

Disk /dev/loop0: 4.94 GiB, 5299118080 bytes, 10349840 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
root@kaisenlinux / # mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
root@kaisenlinux / # ls /mnt
bin dev home initrd.img.old lib32 lost+found mnt proc run snap sys usr vmlinuz
boot etc initrd.img lib lib64 media opt root sbin srv tmp var vmlinuz.old
root@kaisenlinux / # mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
root@kaisenlinux / # mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
root@kaisenlinux / # mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
root@kaisenlinux / # mount --bind /sys/firmware/efi/efivars /mnt/sys/firmware/efi/efivars
root@kaisenlinux / # cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda6 cryptroot
Device /dev/sda6 is not a valid LUKS device.
root@kaisenlinux / # chroot /mnt /bin/bash
root@kaisenlinux / # passwd -u root
passwd: password changed.
root@kaisenlinux / # exit
exit
root@kaisenlinux / # umount -R /mnt
root@kaisenlinux / # ls /mnt
root@kaisenlinux / #

But regardless, result is the same: blank black desktop with a cursor and nothing else.

What am I missing? All of the system is on the sda6, no encryption. Any chance to roll back?

Thank you for your support.

5

Good afternoon.

This is getting absurd. I don’t remember what I did in November to solve this, but the issue remains. I looked in other sources and people have recommended to correct /etc/fstab from live environment. Namely, remove removable devices. What this did - was removing Graphical Environment, and the only thing left was CLI. And the same message again: root account is locked.

I haven’t encrypted my drive and I don’t know what LVM has to do with it. Can you please help?

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 206847 204800 100M EFI System
/dev/sda2 206848 239615 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3 239616 562114224 561874609 267.9G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4 562114560 563199999 1085440 530M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda5 563200000 567273471 4073472 1.9G BIOS boot
/dev/sda6 567273472 976873471 409600000 195.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda7 976873472 1953523711 976650240 465.7G Microsoft basic data

The root FS is on /dev/sda6.

Thank you.

Rei.

6

Hello,

I think you are in the emergency mode.

Can you restore a snapshot?