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"Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Mon May 01, 2023 5:29 pm
by starlet
I'm installing X86E921OE.ISO in VirtualBox version 7.0.8 (Windows 10), and everything runs OK until the installation
bit where I get asked this, nothing is accepted:
Password for SYSTEM account:
Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!
Password for SYSTEM account:
Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!
...
No matter what I type (in Putty), it won't accept any combos of uppercase letters, lengths (8-31), etc.
If the length is outside the 8-31 range, it will say so, but it rejects everything else... I've created
dozens of SYSTEM passwords during VMS installations in my life...
Anybody else see this?
My disk, VMSx86.VMDK is 6GB only. I've seen others use .VDI format. Does this matter?
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Mon May 01, 2023 8:15 pm
by sms
Code: Select all
> No matter what I type (in Putty), [...]
I know nothing, but I'd blame PuTTY.
> Anybody else see this?
Not I, but I'm using an xterm on a Mac with VMware. It seems to me
that I've seen multiple postings and guides on how to configure PuTTY to
work with this stuff. I'd expect a forum search for "PuTTY" (and/or
"VirtualBox") to find many things.
> My disk, [...]
Doesn't sound disk-related to me.
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 12:33 am
by volkerhalle
starlet wrote: ↑Mon May 01, 2023 5:29 pm
Password for SYSTEM account:
Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!
...
No matter what I type (in Putty), it won't accept any combos of uppercase letters, lengths (8-31), etc.
Please see the Boot Manager User Guide Chapter 7.7.2 about using Putty:
https://docs.vmssoftware.com/vsi-openvm ... 1/#d0e3468
If Putty is configured to send <cr><lf> if you type <CR>, the <LF> will go into the typeahead buffer and will be read on the next read. You could try typing <CTRL>-U to clear the typeahead buffer before typing in the password. This may help.
Volker.
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 3:11 am
by m_detommaso
I already answered a similar question time ago; take a look at :
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8602#p18076
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8602#p18132
Follow the instructions I provided, and make sure that your putty connection type is equal "RAW".
/Maurizio
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 8:29 am
by tim.stegner
Once you have your terminal set up correctly, you should know that minimum password length is now 15 chars.
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 8:58 am
by cct
tim.stegner wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2023 8:29 am
Once you have your terminal set up correctly, you should know that minimum password length is now 15 chars.
Interesting. As my setup is only on mu home network, I entered an 8 character password, which it accepted, asking if I was OK with a weak password - or something similar -I confirmed and all well
Chris
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 9:30 am
by starlet
Thanks to everybody, and a total of about 12-16 hours wasted on this, I managed
to get Putty to send text to the installation procedure (which is about 2-3 decades
old, and should be more robust in detecting unwanted input, no?).
After all, the procedure (running in Putty) accepted text like 1, 2, ^, ?, INITIALIZE,
X86VMS (disk label), so why is the password string such a problem, other than it's
not echoed?
The last place I suspected was the (very reliable) Putty.
Yes, the fix is documented in many places, as many people have been burned,
but the error message should be more explicit, like "Illegal, possibly control characters,
detected in your input". This could be a hint...
As physical consoles get replaced by various tools, let's make the installation more
robust and friendly. If the password passes the length and legality test, tell the user
to look into the comms settings if an error occurs.
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 10:13 am
by cct
A bit disturbed that VSI give the wrong URL for getting PuTTY - the correct URL is
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
A Simon says in his FAQs,
putty.org is run by an opportunist who uses it to advertise their own commercial SSH implementation to people looking for our free one. We don't own that site, we can't control it, and we don't advise anyone to use it in preference to our own site
Chris
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Tue May 02, 2023 11:09 am
by starlet
tim.stegner wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2023 8:29 am
Once you have your terminal set up correctly, you should know that minimum password length is now 15 chars.
It accepted 9 in my case, no warnings.
Added in 4 minutes 31 seconds:
volkerhalle wrote: ↑Tue May 02, 2023 12:33 am
If Putty is configured to send <cr><lf> if you type <CR>, the <LF> will go into the typeahead buffer and will be read on the next read. You could try typing <CTRL>-U to clear the typeahead buffer before typing in the password. This may help.
Volker.
Thanks, I'll try to remember this.
Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP
Posted: Thu May 04, 2023 10:00 am
by gdwnldsksc
Interesting with the 15 character length, as the installation/setup/initial configuration is happy to accept a 9 character password initially for SYSTEM.
15 char length first hit me a few months ago with password expiration.