Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:44:00 -0400 From: "David S. Madole" <david@madole.net> To: 'Derekj Tourneo' <derekj@tourneo.com>, "'freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org'" <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: One method to recover a lost root password Message-ID: <387c4f3e.1c76814.28ed7ad1.29@madole.net>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> From Derekj Tourneo on Friday, March 16, 2007 4:46 PM > > How I recovered a lost root password in FreeBSD > > Luckily I did know one user name and it had no password. > cgadmin > > going to the repair mode with CDROM/DVD option off the > install menu, using the "live" CDROM filesystem gave me a > root prompt Fixit# > > now mounting the hard drive, in my case /dev/ad0s3a > > mount /dev/ad0s3a /mnt > ... > > now change permissions, but look at them first, make a note > so you can put them back to the correct setting later chmod > 777 /mnt/etc chmod 666 /mnt/etc/master.passwd > > reboot > > remove the CD and reboot the original system. > For some reason my older FreeBSD version 4.3 filesystem did > not like being mounted onto a FreeBSD 6.1 install CD Hence on > reboot it made me do a manual fsck Then another reboot > > Now login as a user, cgadmin in my case > get a prompt and run > > pwd_mkdb /etc/master.passwd You don't need to know another account nor do you need all those other steps. After you edit the /etc/master.passwd file by booting from the fixit CD simply: pwd_mkdb -d /mnt/etc master.passwd If pwd_mkdb is not on the fixit CD -- I don't remember if it is -- you can run it from your hard drive something like this, depending on what partition it's on: /mnt/usr/sbin/pwd_mkdb -d /mnt/etc master.passwd Then just reboot and log in as root. David
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?387c4f3e.1c76814.28ed7ad1.29>