**KEYCHAIN Password Dialog Box

[Rhobes]

Hello-
I have a 2002 iMac 80GB HD & 768MB Memory & just had a clean install of OS 10.3.8 with auto loggin & Fast user switching enabled by a Mac Service Center.

Now I get a very annoying "Unlock Keychain" Dialog box which constantly appears asking to enter my password-I continue to hit the cancel button on this, it will not accept any passwords. I have read the Safari help on this problem. I used Keychain First Aid & repaired the problem(didn't recognise login & system passwords)but still the same. I opened Keychain Access & was able to UNLOCK both system userers keychains but the login Keychain can't be unlocked(whether this would help I don't know), either way everything still the same.

I'm wondering if I need to delete the 2 system users keychains & create new ones(or not create new ones), try to change the passwords on the 2 users only(not to change password on login) to get rid of the dialog box which constantly pops up.

The Mac Service Tech told me he didn't know much about this area & that he would have to read all the Help etc on it also, he did say not to change the login keychain, not knowing what problems doing so could cause me.

Any thoughts on this? This has been a difficult to understand area and not sure what to do, I would simply like the Dialog Box not to appear- the way it used to be. I'm thinking if I change the password then I will still have to deal with the box & enter a new password each time-no change therefore.
TIA, Bob

 

[jim.]

If you load the program Keychain Access, you should get your user keychain. Does it say 'locked' in the title (I'm assuming it should, since you have to keep entering your pw). Under the Edit menu you should see an option saying "Change Settings for Keychain blah blah..." or something to that effect. Is the option to automatically lock the keychain selected? Maybe this is your problem. Just disable that, and it should work.

Otherwise, my only thought is that it could have something to do with the Keychain .plist file. I'm not very well versed in those, so I don't think I can help you much there.

Jim

 

[Rhobes]

If you load the program Keychain Access, you should get your user keychain. Does it say 'locked' in the title (I'm assuming it should, since you have to keep entering your pw). Under the Edit menu you should see an option saying "Change Settings for Keychain blah blah..." or something to that effect. Is the option to automatically lock the keychain selected? Maybe this is your problem. Just disable that, and it should work.

Otherwise, my only thought is that it could have something to do with the Keychain .plist file. I'm not very well versed in those, so I don't think I can help you much there.

Jim

The 2 system keychains in "Keychain Access" say unlocked, but the Login keychain says locked & I can't change this through the Edit-Change settings, it won't let me, it won't accept a password here, I have to hit cancel when it askes for a password here.

 

[jim.]

Ok, I must be mixing up your nomenclature for keychains. I was thinking that by login keychain you meant the global system keychain (which isn't too important right now unless you are sharing keys between users and apps), and that the "system userers keychains" were able to be unlocked but you have a problem with them re-locking or asking for a password constantly (Hence the pref and .plist suggestion that I gave).

Is this the problem? Or am I reversing what you are meaning?

If the keychain isn't set to lock itself again, it is possible that it is completely corrupted (I'm thinking this could be your login keychain's problem since it accepts no password). In this case you may have to make a new keychain unfortunately.

You can try to move your user keychain out of the ~/Library/Keychains/ directory to the desktop. Log out, then log back in. This should rebuild your keychain with the defaults. Now you can try to import the keychain on your desktop through Keychain Access. If the original keychain is corrupt, then you will have the same problems and will need to rebuild it. Otherwise your problem may be gone.

I'm still trying to figure out your terminology, because when I open my Keychain Access program, I see two keychains: My username and System, which is a global chain. This is running 10.3.8 also. I wonder if the Service Center did a bad install, or had badly configured media? Or maybe my OS is not normal.

Jim

 

[Rhobes]

Thanks for the comments Jim.

Well, I got it fixed. Rather than try to explain my problematic nomenclature here is what i did. After doing the Keychain 1st aid which after a few combination options from the Expert Options field it verified & repaired the login & 2 system keychains. The last thing I did was go to HD Users, select each individual user, then to Library, to Keychain, Opening keychain there was "login.keychain" which I dragged to the trash & restarted computer. This recreated "login.keychain" added Safari Forms Autofill to the keychain list for both users(this was a clean install & all that was there), unlocked the login keychain & locked the 2 system keychains (which are hidden in the dialog box when you open keychain access from Utilities & hit show keychains from the menue bar in that dialog box).

I also did a search on this forum for keychain, where i found someone with a mail problem who drug "login.keychain" to the trash & restarted to fix his problems.