Login problem - CAPITAL LETTERS

[ConnieK]

All,

I have an rp8420 server (11i) that someone locked the root account on. I am the local SA and serially connected to the rear of the server at the "Local Console" port. When I open my terminal session, what I see is:

LOGIN:
/PASSWORD:

Each time I try to type "root" at the LOGIN: it comes back in CAPITAL LETTERS. And of course, the it says LOGIN INCORRECT. I tried it from my laptop (started a new terminal emulator seesion) and I saw the same thing.

Does anyone know how to correct this so I can log in? I really don't want to reset this partition from the MP, but I will if I have to.

Connie

[Ranjith_5]

Hi,

can you try logging through your lan console using a putty session. rp8420 has got a lan console. I also used to get the same problem but once after disconnecting the problem used to get resolved.

Regards,
Syam

[Bill Hassell · Accepted solution]

Classic Unix behavior. It's the very reason I recommend removing the CAPS LOCK key from every keyboard smashing it to pieces! Back in the good old days (before PCs, even before terminals), the Unix console was usually a teletypewriter (note: Teletype is a registered trademark...nevermind) and the really old ones had only UPPERCASE letters in the machine. The ASR 33 and 35 models were introduced about the time Unix was being created and to accomodate the UPPERCASE-ONLY consoles, the login command would observe that all the letters for the username were uppercase and call stty to set olcuc (map lowercase to uppercase on output: man stty)

The reason is that typing all login characters implies UUPERCASE only so everything is translated to UPPERCASE from now on. You can see this by simply typing the command:

$ stty olcuc
$ LS /
ETC MNT1 NET STAND VAR BIN HOME MNT2 OPT TCB...

and to get back to normal:

$ STTY -OLCUC
$ ls
$ etc mnt1 net stand var...

Anyways, it's a great trivia bit for your next geek party. Anyways, the login will stay in UPPERCASE until login times out. Then you can login normally (without the CAPS LOCK key on).

NOTE TO EVERYONE: download a copy key of TradeKeys (as an alternative to smashing that darn CAPS LOCK key). TradeKeys' best feature is the ability to disable CAPS LOCK. Get a copy from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,19645,00.asp

For terminals, just bend a paper clip, hook it under the key top, and rip if off.

[curt larson_1]

i think this is one of those (way) backward compatibility functionalities. teletypes used to on use only capital letters, so if you type in a login name using all caps the getty is set to assume everything that comes in and out is supposed to be capitalized.

so what you need to do is get the console getty back to normal, which is really hard to do without being logged in.

And, of course, check to make sure caps lock is off on your terminal, so it doesn't occur again

[curt larson_1]

one thing you could try is this translation:
if you type an uppercase character it inputs a lowercase letter, A inputs a, B inputs b, etc.

input \a to input A, \b to input B, etc.

if your able to get logged in, follow bill's suggestions for modifing your getty using stty

[curt larson_1]

which means using that translation to login as root with a password of AbCd you would type in:

ROOT
\aB\cD

[Ranjith_5]

Bill,

Your answer is really impressing. I learnt something new today..

$stty olcuc

Thanks a lot.

Syam

[Alex Lavrov.]

As usual, if you see Mr. Hassell's response, there is nothing to add on the subject :-)

Thanx.

(zero points please).

[Raj D.]

I used to hit many times Contr+d ,whenever CAPS used come, with the combination of capslock key . And somehow sometime suddenly it disappears , and could able to login somehow with the lowercase.

But today comes to know about a good thing.
Good work Bill.

Cheers,
Raj.

[ConnieK]

To all, here's the outcome of this issue: First of all, I have NO idea what caused the inital problem. Before I issued this question I had attempted numerous variations of keystrokes (^C, ^D, ^\, etc.) and nothing worked.

Syam - I cannot log in as root using a putty session. On this server, root is ONLY allowed a direct login at the console and since the account was locked - and no one was logged in - the only way to unlock the root account was to log in at the console.

Curt - Good advice, but as I've stated, the root account was locked.

Raj - I can try your solution with multiple ^d's is this occurs again.

Bill - You always give the most thorough and easy to understand solutions to "weird" antiquated problems. It's amazing to me that you have that much knowledge retained. You are a true treasure to this forum.

Thanks to all - points coming.

Rsolution was resetting the server from the MP - unfortunately, I had no other choice.

[TwoProc]

When you login (as mentioned before) your cap-lock key is on.

The simple way to rid yourself of the annoyance after you've already logged in and those escaped upper case things are all over the screen:

stty -lcase

[Trentacapilli Nicola]

I have an rp8420 server and i resolved the problem... :-)

Enter in MP select CO and enter in the locked partition....

When you see LOGIN: just press ctrl+d and repeat until you see the console reset and return to normal mode writing login:

now entering as root unlock the account ....

Bye

Nik.

[ConnieK]

Nicola had the answer. If you hit the Cntrl D often enough at the console keyboard , eventually it will release the lock. It worked for me!