Ubuntu
gnome-system-tools package

[Hardy] Can't unlock root account

Bug #180430 reported by The Devil Is A Squirrel
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GST
Invalid
Unknown
gnome-system-tools (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

It's not possible to unlock the root account and to change the password for that account using user-admin. user-admin looks like it worked but when re-opening user-admin, root account is still locked and nothing has been writen to /etc/shadow

Steps to reproduce this bug are :

1. Open users-admin
2. Select the root account and click on unlock
3. Click on "Properties" button and change the root password, save settings and close users-admin.
4. Open users-admin again.

Result : Nothing has been saved, root account is still locked and nothing has been written to /etc/shadow

This bug has been tested in Linux Ubuntu Hardy with gnome-system-tools 2.21.3-0ubuntu1

See original description
Revision history for this message
The Devil Is A Squirrel (justanotheradress) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Saivann Carignan (oxmosys) wrote :

I looked at this problem deeper and found that this bug only happens with Hardy.

The cause of this problem is that user-admin doesn't unlock the root account and doesn't save changes to /etc/shadow . Therefore, I change the package to gnome-system-tools and I set the status to confirmed, Importance to medium.

Changed in gdm:
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Saivann Carignan (oxmosys) wrote :

The Devil Is A Squirrel : I have found a workaround for that bug, can you confirm if you can login as root if you follow these steps? :

1. Open Users And Groups menu
2. Go to "Login Window Preferences" > Tab "Security" and check the "Allow local system administrator login" box.
3. Type this on a terminal to change your root password : sudo passwd root
4. Once you typed your new password, you can logout and try to login with root account with Gnome

Revision history for this message
The Devil Is A Squirrel (justanotheradress) wrote :

It worked perfectly. Thank you very much for your time and efforts!!

Revision history for this message
Saivann Carignan (oxmosys) wrote :

Great, thanks also for the time you took to improve that bug report. It will gives good result! I change the description of the bug report to speak about the real problem about user-admin with more details.

Revision history for this message
Saivann Carignan (oxmosys) wrote :

Set bug status to Triaged and link upstream bug http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507512

description: updated
description: updated
Changed in gnome-system-tools:
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gst:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
Saivann Carignan (oxmosys) wrote :

According to Carlos Ganacho, a Gnome developper, this bug is specific to ubuntu and ubuntu developpers are now working on it. Therefore, I set this bug as a duplicate of bug #181088 . Thanks to everybody who worked on this bug report.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gst:
status: New → Invalid
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