Archived - Mac OS X 10.5: Unable to log in after an upgrade install
Products Affected
Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X Server 10.5
Symptoms
If you perform a Mac OS X 10.5 upgrade installation from a version of Mac OS X that was previously migrated from Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier, you may not be able to log in to your user account if the password contains eight or more characters. This article applies to Mac OS X version 10.5 installation discs; this issue should not occur with installation discs that contain Mac OS X version 10.5.1 or later.
Note: If, after installing Leopard, you are unable to log in to an account that has no password, see this article instead.
Resolution
If you can log in or are logged in
Download and install the Login & Keychain Update 1.0 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to avoid the issue later.
If you are unable to log in
you can use these steps instead:
- Restart in Single User mode (hold Command-S during startup). Note that single-user mode always uses the US English keyboard layout.
- At the prompt, type this followed by Return: mount -uw /
- Type this:
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
- Press Return
- Type this, then press Return: ls /Users
- Look at the listing and note the short name (username) of the affected user account.
- Type this:
dscl . -delete /Users/username AuthenticationAuthority
Note: Replace "username" with the affected user account's short name you noted above. - Press Return
- Type this, followed by Return: passwd username
Note: Replace "username" with the affected user account's short name you noted above. - At the "New password:" prompt, type the user's password, then Return. Note: It is recommended that the original user's password be used to match the keychain password.
- At the "Retype new password" prompt, type the same password, followed by Return.
- Type this, followed by Return: reboot
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