From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 19 13:34:01 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: 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 C027516A41F for ; Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:34:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nvidican@wmptl.com) Received: from wmptl.net (fw1.wmptl.com [216.8.159.129]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 38D7F43D45 for ; Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:34:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nvidican@wmptl.com) Received: from [10.0.0.104] (r3140ca.wmptl.net [10.0.0.104]) by wmptl.net (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k0JDXusU053077; Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:33:59 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from nvidican@wmptl.com) Message-ID: <43CF955C.5010209@wmptl.com> Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:34:20 -0500 From: Nathan Vidican User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6 (X11/20050716) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Bob @ Brisbane" References: <002f01c61a30$799e2ec0$0101a8c0@bob> In-Reply-To: <002f01c61a30$799e2ec0$0101a8c0@bob> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: 0.111 () RATWR10_MESSID X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.44 Cc: questions@freebsd.org 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 13:34:01 -0000 Bob @ Brisbane wrote: > 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? > > > Bob Willson > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > You could always bootup the 'fixit' image from the install cd, then mount your root partition, and vi /etc/group. That's what I'd do given your case; if you are unsure of how to mount the partition, bootup your machine, login as 'bill', type 'mount' and look at which partition is mounted to '/'. Then bootup the fixit image, and 'mount /dev/_your_root_slice /mnt', then simply 'vi /mnt/etc/group'. Should be fairly straight forward, email back to the list if you still have problems with it. -- Nathan Vidican nvidican@wmptl.com Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd. http://www.wmptl.com/