I've an Ubuntu 8.04 linode instance running. It seems I installed/removed some PAM (Pluggable authentication modules) packages yesterday. The machine is not allowing me to log in anymore using any account.

It says "Module is unknown". I can't even log in using the LISP ajax shell.

I tried booting via the recovery mode (Finnix) shell and tried removing the pam packages names libpam-runtime and libpam-modules but it isn't allowing me to proceed. My last sane backup is 5 days old, I'll loose a good amount of work if i cannot recover this. Any pointers is appreciated.

thanks

Boot the kernel with the "init=/bin/bash" option. I think you can do this through the Linode panel.

Also, I'm pretty sure that you want libpam-runtime and libpam-modules to be left installed for a functional PAM install.

I booted in single user mode and managed to made it work. I had to remove(purge) the libpam packages and then reinstall them again.

This URL was helpful: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=801333

thanks