I have found a solution to authentication issue
I don't get why nobody (me in front of the row) didn't look at Talk page of the problematic plugin
practically now I have version 17 in "classical SME tradition"
short "How to" tested on SME 8b6 clean install
1. change the repo to have also sme7contribs
2. install smeserver-mediawiki
3. download latest wiki version you'll prefer
(
I have tested for 8,15,16,17 in 2 scenario
scenario 1
start at 1.6 standard upgrade to 1.7 and work without plugin alteration then upgraded to 1.8 and altered the plugin, then to 1.15,16,17
scenario 2
start with 1.6 and direct upgrade to 1.17
)
4. unpack over the installed one (/opt/mediawiki)
5. set ownership root:root for everithing in /opt/mediawiki and root:www for /opt/mediawiki/images
6. temporary change the mediawikiuser rights to database (for 1.7 you-ll need only create and alter structure but to other is more and more complex - I hope is not to dangerous to give all to structure - considering that you'll do it only to upgrade)
7. copy AdminSettings.sample AdminSettings.php and change the user as SME (mediawikiuser) without password
8. run the update from root of mediawiki
9. change back the user rigths to database to basic ones
10. go to /opt/mediawiki/extensions/PwAuthPlugin.php and change it according to the Talk page of the plugin
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_talk:PwAuthPlugin// $pass = ;
// for($i=0; $i<15;++$i) $pass .= chr(mt_rand(0,255));
// $user->setPassword($pass);
now everything seems to be ok
do you think this should have a note into our wiki to mediawiki contrib - for sme8 users?