Laravel 4.2 auth: attempt fails - php

Question

Authentication always fails (always prints bad - see the last code block below). I've tried dozens of solutions across StackOverflow.
Can anyone help me figure out what the problem is?
my user model
use Illuminate\Auth\UserTrait;
use Illuminate\Auth\UserInterface;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableTrait;
use Illuminate\Auth\Reminders\RemindableInterface;
class User extends Eloquent implements UserInterface, RemindableInterface {
use UserTrait, RemindableTrait;
/**
* The database table used by the model.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $table = 'usersnew';
/**
* The attributes excluded from the model's JSON form.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $hidden = array('password', 'remember_token');
my auth.php
return array(
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Default Authentication Driver
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| This option controls the authentication driver that will be utilized.
| This driver manages the retrieval and authentication of the users
| attempting to get access to protected areas of your application.
|
| Supported: "database", "eloquent"
|
*/
'driver' => 'eloquent',
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Authentication Model
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| When using the "Eloquent" authentication driver, we need to know which
| Eloquent model should be used to retrieve your users. Of course, it
| is often just the "User" model but you may use whatever you like.
|
*/
'model' => 'User',
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Authentication Table
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| When using the "Database" authentication driver, we need to know which
| table should be used to retrieve your users. We have chosen a basic
| default value but you may easily change it to any table you like.
|
*/
'table' => 'users',
/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Password Reminder Settings
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here you may set the settings for password reminders, including a view
| that should be used as your password reminder e-mail. You will also
| be able to set the name of the table that holds the reset tokens.
|
| The "expire" time is the number of minutes that the reminder should be
| considered valid. This security feature keeps tokens short-lived so
| they have less time to be guessed. You may change this as needed.
|
*/
'reminder' => array(
'email' => 'emails.auth.reminder',
'table' => 'password_reminders',
'expire' => 60,
),
The function I'm trying to run:
$input = Input::all();
$attempt = Auth::attempt( array('email' => $input['email'], 'password' => $input['password']) );
if($attempt) {
echo 123;
} else {
echo 'bad';
}

Answer 1

I want to thank Saint Genius and joe_archer
apparently if I don't use hashed passwords auth isn't working...
Thank you so much guys!