From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 29 14:08:30 2004 Return-Path: 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 CAD8816A4CE for ; Thu, 29 Jul 2004 14:08:30 +0000 (GMT) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 627BB43D6A for ; Thu, 29 Jul 2004 14:08:30 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id i6TE8Qx05391; Thu, 29 Jul 2004 10:08:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200407291408.i6TE8Qx05391@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: sneakycat@lycos.co.uk (John Rackham ) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 10:08:25 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <1091095356019219@lycos-europe.com> from "John Rackham " at Jul 29, 2004 10:02:36 AM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: password X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 14:08:30 -0000 > > hello ive got a problem login to freebsd. i had a copy of freebsd > given me and when i installed it it asks me for > a login name and password. is there a way of findin out the login > name and password? Well, if you are right in the middle of the installation process, then it is asking you to make up a password. During the installation it asks for a password for root. You should normally create one you can remember, but that is hard to guess. If you are past that stage and you did not create a password for root during installation, then probably you can log in using 'root' for the id and without any password (eg just hit return/enter without typing any password). If that works, then change the root password right away since root has complete control over the whole system. You wouldn't want to leave that sitting around for the cat to wander over the keys at a bad time (or an attacker to try out). If that doesn't work, then a password was probably created during the install, but you don't remember it. In that case, and if you have access to the console, you need to do a boot to single user and then change the root password and also maybe create a working account for yourself. How to do these things are well covered in the FreeBSD handbook which is available online on the FreeBSD website. ////jerry