From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 31 22:37:50 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD01E1065692 for ; Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:37:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wrelam@gmail.com) Received: from mail-iy0-f182.google.com (mail-iy0-f182.google.com [209.85.210.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 74FA38FC0A for ; Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:37:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ialo14 with SMTP id o14so7206731ial.13 for ; Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:37:44 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=OyVBeG6Hz4OO7TW+AOZbkGF08LhIRBSBY7/sGJHi8FI=; b=WK3sMftnXDyWHcSP/veJOyB0bL8PZTfXkM22mNiyyTlr3iMe0/6sbQAEApccO5Mi7c kyd+0lYMDlBCAgeHG9nhh7iGhHtaLP/XuCk5VzmhVZfXmNcOY/Kz1ZvPhQyqqYxjz3L0 fWymKrJYCGbmHaieKDCm1LuqxUQMguNwB3pchnK8ClNf55xMX+74zL68UDJm2jeV4kEi aSs+q7ixHsvDn0tBQxke6Mg6bNkRSAKkFYBHCHaWxkxT9/myrSzHDNr/Pui0t1Sgd9Zk eQKB1UrdQwVi9dtje1rN7btkIACeYDQWRmBwnt3ANEtGQ2osR1jx+HlmEiw1I48cAGNv kxbA== MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.50.213.6 with SMTP id no6mr4509367igc.30.1346452664107; Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:37:44 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.43.57.147 with HTTP; Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:37:43 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:37:43 -0400 Message-ID: From: Walt Elam To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: Root password not working on console 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: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:37:50 -0000 I recently *accidentally* removed myself from the wheel group, so I was no longer able to use su to root. To fix it, I hooked up a monitor and keyboard to my FreeBSD 8.2 box so I could login as root, but it kept rejecting my password. I restarted the machine in single-user mode, did the following: mount -u / mount -a passwd exit So it booted back in to multi-user mode. Once again, I tried to login as root, but got the same "Login incorrect" message. Puzzled, I repeated the previous steps using the password "pass" this time. However, I went ahead and added my user account to the wheel group while in single-user mode. Once in multi-user mode again, I still got "Login incorrect" (specifically, pam_acct_mgmt(): authentication error) when logging in as root. I SSH'd to the machine as my regular user, typed su, and entered "pass" which worked just fine. So, I have absolutely no clue why I am unable to login to my machine, on the console, as root with "pass", but it works when using su from a regular user account. I tried searching around but almost all of the hits are about resetting the root password in single-user mode. Does any one know what I'm doing incorrectly? Thanks for any help in advance, -Walt