From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 19 03:40:13 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 411F216A41F for ; Thu, 19 Jan 2006 03:40:13 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from matt@gsicomp.on.ca) Received: from skippyii.compar.com (www.compar.com [216.208.38.130]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1B6A743D5D for ; Thu, 19 Jan 2006 03:40:09 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from matt@gsicomp.on.ca) Received: from hermes (CPE00062566c7bb-CM0011e6ede298.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com [70.28.254.189]) by skippyii.compar.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k0J3gi2n068537; Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:42:49 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from matt@gsicomp.on.ca) Message-ID: <004601c61caa$2fedf5e0$1200a8c0@gsicomp.on.ca> From: "Matt Emmerton" To: "Bob @ Brisbane" , References: <002f01c61a30$799e2ec0$0101a8c0@bob> Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:41:04 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1506 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1506 Cc: Subject: Re: I belong to too many groups 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: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 03:40:13 -0000 > It took me so long to get onto this list that in the end I just gave and > reinstalled over the top of the old one. It all works now, but I would still > be interested in a way around the problem if one exists. The original > problem is described below > > I recently installed FreeBSD 6 RELEASE onto a hard drive and added two other > users, bob and bill. > > Whilst I was doing this I decided to make root and bob members of ALL the > groups in the system. > > I now find that I am unable to log in as either root or bob nor can I su > from bob. > I have tried booting to safe mode but it will still not allow me to do > anything > The messages that I get from the system are: > > login: ROOT LOGIN (root) ON ttyv0 > login: initgroups(root,0) : Invalid argument > login: setusercontext() failed - exiting > > I can still log in as bill and this will allow me to see the system files > but bill doesn't have the authority to change anything. > I tried to su to root but bill is not in the wheel group. > If I want to run a graphical environment (and I do) then I need to start > this up as root. > Is there any way to get past this problem or will I need to reinstall? Boot in single-user mode (type "boot -s" at the boot prompt). Then you will be "root" and can fix up your /etc/group files. -- Matt Emmerton