"Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

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starlet
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"Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by starlet » Mon May 01, 2023 5:29 pm

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?
Last edited by starlet on Mon May 01, 2023 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by sms » Mon May 01, 2023 8:15 pm

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.

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volkerhalle
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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by volkerhalle » Tue May 02, 2023 12:33 am

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.

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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by m_detommaso » Tue May 02, 2023 3:11 am

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
Last edited by m_detommaso on Tue May 02, 2023 6:13 am, edited 1 time in total.


tim.stegner
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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by tim.stegner » 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.

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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by cct » Tue May 02, 2023 8:58 am

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
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Chris


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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by starlet » Tue May 02, 2023 9:30 am

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.

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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by cct » Tue May 02, 2023 10:13 am

volkerhalle wrote:
Tue May 02, 2023 12:33 am

Please see the Boot Manager User Guide Chapter 7.7.2 about using Putty:

https://docs.vmssoftware.com/vsi-openvm ... 1/#d0e3468

Volker.
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
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Chris


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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by starlet » Tue May 02, 2023 11:09 am

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.


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Re: "Password may contain only A-Z, 0-9, $ and _ characters!" LOOP

Post by gdwnldsksc » Thu May 04, 2023 10:00 am

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.

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