Prompt for username and password before starting on Fedora 17

[mykelalvis]

I just did a fresh network install of F17 onto an eeePC netbook 1000HE. Grub2 is dual booting it with Windows XP.


When the netbook boots to Grub2, I select Fedora (or Windows) and I'm prompted for a username and a password. The only credentials that allow me to proceed are the root creds for the Fedora installation.

I have 2 other F17 installations that do not behave this way. Any thoughts on what's going on?

[DBelton]

At what point does it ask for a password?

At the grub2 menu (when you select a OS) or is it later in the boot process?

If it is at the grub2 menu, then you have specified it someplace to require a password.

If it is later in the boot process, then you probably checked the box on install to encrypt the filesystem.

From what you stated above, it appears you have specified a grub2 password. Look in your /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file for a few things...

Do you have any line like these?

     set superusers="root"
     password_pbkdf2 root grub.pbkdf2.sha512.10000.biglongstring
     password user1 insecure

And do any of your menuentry have a parameter on them like these?

     menuentry "May be run by any user" --unrestricted {
     menuentry "Superusers only" --users "" {
     menuentry "May be run by user1 or a superuser" --users user1 {

If you see any of those, then you password protected grub2.

You can remove the items from your /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file (or just specify the --unrestricted parameter on all the menuentry lines for your OS's) and allow it to boot without requiring a password.

[mykelalvis]

OK. I do have some of these entries.

I have a password_pbkdf2 entry, although none of the --users or --unrestricted on any of my menuentry configs

I did choose to have a boot loader password, but historically that's been required to edit entries, not boot the system. Is that no longer the case?

[DBelton]

ok, on your menuentry lines, you can add the --unrestricted parameter to any of them you wish to have any user boot.

And yes, I just answered this same thing for another person with this same problem. I believe that they did change the way it works.

[mykelalvis]

Awesome! Thanks for your help!