Can’t login, even through tty3, after update

Some package update has completely bricked my system. I ran an update, rebooted as usual, and then found that the login terminal would no longer accept my password (yes I’m typing it correctly). Oh no worries, I’ll just ctrl+alt+F3 and try logging in there. Nope, no dice. I’m completely locked out of my computer after a standard upgrade. What gives? Did someone in HQ forget a semicolon? What can I possibly do to get my computer back? And don’t suggest a fresh install of endeavor.

Things I’ve done already:

Rebooted (several times now)
Full shut down and power off
Full shut down and power off and unplug everything

I’m open to suggestions, I can’t do work until this is fixed.

What login shell do you use?

Uh, zsh unless that’s not what you’re talking about

Double-check that /bin/zsh and /usr/bin/zsh are added in /etc/shells. If you recently merged pacnew files, it may have been overwritten accidentally.

If you haven’t changed your shell for root and you know the password, you can probably log in as root from the TTY to edit /etc/shells. Otherwise you may need to do it from the live environment.

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So that’s the problem, I can’t log in as admin in the tty shells

If you can’t log in with any user you won’t be able to edit the file, you’ll have to instead boot the live ISO with your USB, mount the disk, and make the edit from there. I don’t think you need to chroot in this case, just mounting the disk and editing the file should be enough.

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Okay, that should be doable, I’ll try that and see if I can get it to work, thanks!

Hey just wanted to let you know this was exactly what was wrong and the steps you gave fixed it. Thank you so much!

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