From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Sep 5 19:54:57 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail.networkone.net (mail.networkone.net [209.144.112.75]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 80FE014CBA for ; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 19:54:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from reader@newsguy.com) Received: (qmail 22393 invoked from network); 6 Sep 1999 02:54:48 -0000 Received: from pm3-2-34.la.networkone.net (HELO satellite.local.lan) (reader@209.144.126.98) by mail.networkone.net with SMTP; 6 Sep 1999 02:54:48 -0000 Received: (from reader@localhost) by satellite.local.lan (8.9.3/8.9.1) id TAA00726; Sun, 5 Sep 1999 19:54:38 -0700 To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Bizarre situation From: Harry Putnam Date: 05 Sep 1999 19:54:37 -0700 Message-ID: Lines: 38 User-Agent: Gnus/5.070096 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.96) Emacs/20.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I've managed to create somethihg of a bizarre situation with a newly installed fbsd distribution (3.2 REALEASE) . A boxed set bought for 50 bucks at compUSA. I edited the /etc/master.passwds file by hand using "vipw" command, to fix a users passwd. Noticing that root had the csh shell listed, I changed it to zsh (having installed that shell) since I am not familiar with csh. Later, on reboot, I found that "zsh" is not recognized as a legit shell so cannot get logged in as root. Cannot su to root, from a user account either. I just get a message "/bin/zsh: No such file or directory" So am effectively locked out of root status. Making it impossible to correct the edited file. Using the full manual that came with the boxed set, I find several ways to boot in a rescue type environment. None of them will work for me. One way is supposed to be from the CD with the live file system. On trying that approach I find the CD is for Alph architecture instead of intel. The boot install CD is intel. I'm still wondering why I have a mixed set. As it happens the fixit.flp file is of no use to me either since this particular machine has a broken floppy drive. Seems there would be a way to get into root status to fix the shell problem, but I'm not finding it. Is there some way to get there using the boot/install CD? I went far enough to create a holographic shell but there are not enough commands available to repair the file. Can the Installed system commands be accessed in some way from the boot/install CD? Or is there a parameter I can insert at boot prompt that will allow a run level 1 boot as in linux. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message