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Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 02:07:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Shawn Ramsey <shawn@luke.cpl.net>
To: Doug Lo <jwlo@ms11.hinet.net>
cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: **URGENT** Upgrading 2.2.5-R problem,somebody help me,please.
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> Hi, FreeBSD gurus,
> 
> Today I upgrade 2.2.5-Release from 2.2.2-Release on my machine.
> The following procedures that I upgrade it:
> 1. Make and boot floppy disk.
> 2. Backup /etc directory.
> 3. Boot from floppy disk and select 'upgrade' option.
> 4. Mount my original filesystems and NOT newfs them.
> 5. Select distributions(just /BIN)
> 6. It copies lastest /etc directory all files to /etc/upgrade directory.
> 
> 7. Exit install menu and reboot.
> 
> When I reboot, the problem is I CAN'T use 'root' or any user from login,
> seems these
> passwords not right, and it appears login failed.
> I try to boot 'single user mode', I check my original /etc directory
> files are the same,
> because the the lastest file move to /etc/upgrade directory.
> So why I can't use 'root' or any user accounts that I've created.
> Would anyone know how to solve this "serious issue"(for me), PLEASE
> tell me.

Just a guess, but you may want to try rebuilding the user database :

/usr/sbin/pwd_mkdb /etc/master.passwd

You may need to mount your filesystem as read write : 

mount -o rw /dev/device-name