Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2002 18:45:28 -0700 From: Darren Pilgrim <dmp@pantherdragon.org> To: Desmond Lee <desmond.lee@shaw.ca> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: can no longer log into the machine :( Message-ID: <3D4DD8B8.2A8A6768@pantherdragon.org> References: <CMEMLGKEKMLLFOICILNMGEFCCBAA.desmond.lee@shaw.ca>
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Desmond Lee wrote: > > Hi there > > I had free bsd 4.4 and was trying to update to 4.6. So, i'm following the > instructions of my freebsd book, and got past the 'make kernel > KERNCONF=MYKERN' command. Then rebooted the machine and then typed 'cd > /usr/src'. Then i tried to execute 'make installworld', but it couldn't > execute and said something was wrong with smmsp and to look in the UPDATING > file. > > So i looked into the UPDATING file and looked for smmsp. It gave some > suggestions indicating that i have to execute 'megemaster -p'. So that's > what i did and i didn't really understand what was going on, but i tried to > merge in differences from different files. > > I then rebooted, and now i can't log into my machine under root or any other > user. What actions did you take on the for /etc/master.passwd and /etc/group? Did you tell mergemaster to install the new versions or auto-merge the two versions? If you did, (and there is no nice way of putting this), you've hosed /etc/master.passwd and/or /etc/group. If pwd_mkdb (vipw included) hasn't been run yet, and the daily periodic passwd backup script hasn't been run since you did the merge, you should have a backup copy of your original master.passwd in /var/backups. If you don't have a backup copy in /var/backups, you may still be able to rebuild using /etc/passwd and /etc/spwd.db. Always run `mergemaster -p` before buildworld. If mergemaster says there are differences in etc/master.passwd and/or etc/group, then you need to HAND-EDIT these files. ALWAYS hand-edit these files. If you do hand-edit, make sure you updating the CVS tags in those files. If master.passwd gets changed, you need to propagate those changes to the other password files by saying `pwd_mkdb -p /etc/master.passwd`. This is the perfect example of why backing up /etc before you even do buildworld is important. It takes just a few seconds and a single command: `tar -cf /root/etc_backup.tar -C /etc .` To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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