From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Aug 9 00:02:11 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2C4A316A4DD for ; Wed, 9 Aug 2006 00:02:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ross.penner@gmail.com) Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com (nf-out-0910.google.com [64.233.182.187]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 69CCB43D45 for ; Wed, 9 Aug 2006 00:02:09 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ross.penner@gmail.com) Received: by nf-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id g2so458953nfe for ; Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:01:47 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; b=mWAr7Wf5jm0iphvUMTZyJ1mCNDM11iYv3YjUKPKaA/qWG2oMTvn/A9Q2gJz9TtFbwLySqzemvRygpdTbGawzL3FhuMofrYZMktkpYMg1N4wu4UQLjWRkYYkVkyQsdcKDSyi7bvARa+KsqWXbMFBLrsvJucPA8O+/Dr6lCTDrLCY= Received: by 10.82.120.14 with SMTP id s14mr28188buc; Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:01:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.16.6 with HTTP; Tue, 8 Aug 2006 17:01:47 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 17:01:47 -0700 From: "Ross Penner" To: "Pete Slagle" , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <44D90E48.6070904@voidcaptain.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <44D8F107.1020409@voidcaptain.com> <44D90E48.6070904@voidcaptain.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Subject: Re: Changing root's shell X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 00:02:11 -0000 On 8/8/06, Pete Slagle wrote: > > Ross Penner wrote: > > > how do you drop to single user mode? I just know how to get there at > > boot time. > > > > Thanks. > > > > On 8/8/06, *Pete Slagle* < freebsd-questions@voidcaptain.com > > > wrote: > > > > ross wrote: > > > > > so it seems changed root login's shell to /usr/bin/bash which > doesn't > > > exist. now I can't login to root at all. Oh yes, sudo isn't > > installed. How > > > would you grand masters of FreeBSD fix my embarrasing mistake. > > > > Dunno if any grand masters are about, but maybe I can help with this > > > one. > > > > - drop to single user mode: `shutdown now` > > - when prompted for a shell, type /bin/sh > > - `vipw /etc/passwd` and (carefully) change root's shell to > /bin/sh > > - type `exit` at the shell prompt to return from single user mode > > Normally you just do what I said, `shutdown now` as root, but I guess > you can't do that in your situation. (Silly me.) So just reboot into > single user mode instead, and follow the rest of the steps. > > Good luck, > Pete > > interestingly, by hitting the power button on the front, it went through the shutdown process without root permissions. I followed your steps but the problem remains. The /etc/passwd file is edited but I still can't logon as root. When I changed the shell initially, I used chpass. I also tried changeing the /etc/master.passwd file to no avail.