From owner-freebsd-questions  Wed Jun  7  8:46:12 2000
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mail2.wmptl.com (mail2.wmptl.com [216.221.73.131])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D414637B5B3
	for <questions@freebsd.org>; Wed,  7 Jun 2000 08:46:08 -0700 (PDT)
	(envelope-from webmaster@wmptl.com)
Received: from wmptl.com ([10.0.0.168])
	by mail2.wmptl.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA65649;
	Wed, 7 Jun 2000 11:55:31 -0400 (EDT)
	(envelope-from webmaster@wmptl.com)
Message-ID: <393E6E0B.24295722@wmptl.com>
Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2000 11:45:15 -0400
From: Nathan Vidican <webmaster@wmptl.com>
Reply-To: webmaster@wmptl.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win95; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Chris Picton <Chris.Picton@usko.com>
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Hacking the root password
References: <393E5F09.263BF8B3@usko.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

Chris Picton wrote:
> 
> Hi
> 
> I have just taken over the administration of some unix systems.  There
> is a machine, running as a secondary name server on FreeBSD for which no
> record of the root password has been stored, so I can't log in to the
> box.  If it was a linux machine, I would boot off a floppy with
> init=/bin/bash and manually change the root password.  However, I have
> never used FreeBSD before.  How would I go about getting/changing the
> root password for this machine.
> 
> Regards
> 
> --
> Chris Picton
> Usko Communications Systems Developer
> Chris.Picton@usko.com
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

halt the system during boot, and boot single-user mode, then mount the
root partition, and vipw; reset the root passwd, (or simply 'passwd
root'). An example below:

halt bootup, (press -s)
-> boot: -s  [enter]
-> /bin/sh [return] 
-> mount /
-> vipw
-> (or alternately) passwd root
-> reboot

That should do it for you, (you don't need a floppy).

Nathan Vidican
webmaster@wmptl.com
Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd.
http://www.wmptl.com/


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message