Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 13:40:23 +0930 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Desmond Lee <desmond.lee@shaw.ca> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <questions@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: root unkown? Message-ID: <20020805041023.GM83171@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <CMEMLGKEKMLLFOICILNMAEFPCBAA.desmond.lee@shaw.ca> References: <20020805034634.GL83171@wantadilla.lemis.com> <CMEMLGKEKMLLFOICILNMAEFPCBAA.desmond.lee@shaw.ca>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sunday, 4 August 2002 at 21:06:14 -0700, Desmond Lee wrote: > On Sunday, August 04, 2002 8:47 PM, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: >> On Sunday, 4 August 2002 at 20:42:36 -0700, Desmond Lee wrote: >>> Hi there >>> >>> I can't log into my machine because i hosed the /etc/group and the >>> /etc/master.passwd files while doing an upgrade. >>> >>> Anywho, i'm looking at the freebsd faq , 10.14. I have forgotten the root >>> password! What do I do?, to try and change the root password. But when i >> do >>> 'passwd root' i get a message like 'passwd: Unkown user root". >> >> Right, that's what you do when you've lost the password. If you've >> lost the user, you'll have to restore it. You should be able to do it >> like this: >> >> 1. Boot into single user mode. >> 2. Mount the live file system CD-ROM. >> 3. Copy the files /etc/group and /etc/master.passwd to their correct >> place. >> 4. Run: >> >> # pwd_mkdb /etc/master.passwd >> >> This will give you a root user with no password. You should obviously >> fix that as soon as possible. If you don't have the live file system, >> they're on the installation ISO as well, but that's more work. > > What's the live file system? The second CD-ROM of the four CD set. > If i don't have it, can you tell me how i can get my hands on it? Order the set :-) Or find a workaround. > The old /etc/group and /etc/master.passwd are in the /var/backups/ > but when i copied them over to /etc/ and rebooted nothing happened? > Should i then execute pwd_mkdb, or am i just talking nonsense? No, that's probably what you're missing. Run the last step, that should be enough. > Um... i have a freebsd 4.4 installation cd that came with the book i > bought, but is that of any use? No, use the copy you have. It probably has the correct users and passwords in it. Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. If you don't, I may ignore the reply. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020805041023.GM83171>