From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Fri Aug 31 22:51:52 2012
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
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 CA184106566C
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:51:52 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from jeremy@stormy.smart-serv.net)
Received: from mx01.lax.us.smart-serv.net (unknown [IPv6:2001:470:f0f1:1::2])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D34318FC12
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:51:51 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from [192.168.0.112] (S0106000d87073d15.nb.shawcable.net
	[70.74.72.26])
	(using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
	(No client certificate requested)
	by mx01.lax.us.smart-serv.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 8756218D067;
	Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:51:50 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <50414003.9090400@stormy.smart-serv.net>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:51:47 -0700
From: Jeremy Johnston <jeremy@stormy.smart-serv.net>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64;
	rv:14.0) Gecko/20120721 Thunderbird/14.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Walt Elam <wrelam@gmail.com>
References: <CAConN+maBrGrHPC3ohxkaDztUQms6j=VOgpu0viCTDT+XKcy6A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAConN+maBrGrHPC3ohxkaDztUQms6j=VOgpu0viCTDT+XKcy6A@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Root password not working on console
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:51:52 -0000

On 08/31/2012 03:37 PM, Walt Elam wrote:
> 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

The only thing that comes to mind would be to check /etc/ttys and see if 
the console ttys are set to insecure, which would prevent root login.
> _______________________________________________
> 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"
>