[wplug] Login incorrect before entering password

[Benjamin Slavin]

Good morning, folks.

I've run into a bit of a problem.

I run Gentoo Linux, and happened to have accidentally unmerged
(uninstalled) gcc. I had two versions installed, and forgot to list the
version which I wanted to remove, so it got rid of both.

I was able to use a live CD with gcc on it to recompile gcc on the Gentoo
box, but am now faced with a problem:

Upon booting, things appear to go normally. However, when kdm tries to
launch, it will bring up a graphical screen then cycle between that and
text-mode, perpetually trying to start kdm. I figured that it was a
problem with the X config files, so I used the live CD to disable the call
to kdm in the RC scripts. (More precisely, used rc-update to remove it)

Now when the system boots, again, things appear normal. However, when the
login prompt appears, and I type in a username (including root), and am
immediately told that the login is invalid.

I booted to the live CD and chrooted into the Gentoo install. I was able
to drop myself down to a regular user's account and then use su (inside
the chroot) to regain root access. Obviously, this involved the prompting
for and accepting of the root password before elevating privledges.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Would rather not have to reinstall
and recompile the system.

  --Ben