From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Apr 18 15:17:29 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from smtp1.mx.pitdc1.stargate.net (smtp1.mx.pitdc1.stargate.net [206.210.69.141]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3997737B416 for ; Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:17:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 11934 invoked from network); 18 Apr 2002 22:17:11 -0000 Received: from dap-209-166-133-26.nfas.greensburg-tnt-2.sns234.pa.stargate.net (HELO wastegate.net) (209.166.133.26) by smtp1.mx.pitdc1.stargate.net with SMTP; 18 Apr 2002 22:17:11 -0000 Received: from MOTHER (dhcp-20.wg.local [192.168.1.20]) by wastegate.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F72248449; Thu, 18 Apr 2002 18:20:28 -0400 (EDT) From: "Doug Reynolds" To: "Annelise Anderson" , "Jesse Rock" Cc: "freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG" Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 18:15:03 -0400 Reply-To: "Doug Reynolds" X-Mailer: PMMail 2000 Professional (2.20.2472) For Windows 2000 (5.1.2600) In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: emergency password problem Message-Id: <20020418222028.9F72248449@wastegate.net> Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thu, 18 Apr 2002 00:22:16 -0700 (PDT), Annelise Anderson wrote: >On Wed, 17 Apr 2002, Jesse Rock wrote: > >> >> Please alert me if there is a more appropriate list for >> this question. >> >> I have a friend who called me up tonight in a panic with >> a problem that I do not have a solution for. >> Apperantly while in the process of changing passwords for >> both his primary user and root he was called away and when >> he returned to his dismay he no longer remembered the new >> password. >> >> Too complicate matters he has set an option that requires >> the root password in order to single user the machine as well. > >To quote Ted Mittelstaedt, "FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide," >"never set the console to insecure. If you do and you lose >the root password, you will have to reinstall FreeBSD." > >But....you could pop another drive in there, put even a minimal >FreeBSD installation on it, and then mount the partitions on >the existing drives, and fix /etc/master.passwd. The problem is >getting a password database; one way to do it would be to edit it, >(the version on the old installation), deleting the root password entry; >(but not the root account); copy it to the new /etc (after having backed >up the master.passwd on the new installation), and use vipw on the new >installation to get the password database rebuilt (with all the same >users but no password for root), copy all the relevant files over the >ones on the old installation....and reboot the old installation. > >Think about those steps--I haven't actualy done this. I _think_ that could be possible by using the fixit floppy too couldn't it? --- doug reynolds | the maverick | mav@wastegate.net PGP Public Key Fingerprint: 7FEC 10AA 056B F8DE AC1E 6965 FBBE 9601 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message