Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2012 05:46:20 -0400 From: "Thomas Mueller" <mueller23@insightbb.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: "gs_stoller@juno.com" <gs_stoller@juno.com> Subject: Re: booting a CD-ROM Message-ID: <14.50.19145.CE6CA7F4@smtp01.insight.synacor.com> In-Reply-To: <20120403.044955.25054.0@webmail02.dca.untd.com>
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> I have an old FreeBSD system that I haven't used for a long time and I have forgotten the passwords. This machine has FreeBSD-4.3 and FreeBSD-4.7 > on it, and also MS' Windows98 . I tried getting onto that system by booting with a CD-ROM which started going and gave me the following messages: > boot from ATAPI CD-ROM > CD Loader 1.2 > Building the boot loader arguments > Relocating the loader and the BTX > The system then did not output for a liitle over 5 minutes and then typed: > Starting the > and after this I waited for over 5 minutes but the system did not type anything else. Then I tried booting that CD-ROM on another system where it booted > successfully and the program on it ( FreesBIE version 2) ran and I could communicate with it. I suspect a problem with the boot loader on the first system. > Where can I get a new boot loader for that system? Since I want to get a modern FreeBSD (version 9.1 or higher), I expect that will include a new > multi-system loader on it that I can use on the old system if I can load just that. How can I load just the boot loader? Also, what is the structure of the > password files (is this on the web with a per system-version note so if it has been changed over time, I can find those I need) on those systems, and how > can I find and clear out the password for root so I can get in and set its password and then the other passwords? > Thanks in advance for your help. You'll have to wait some months for FreeBSD >= 9.1. Current release is 9.0. I believe FreeBSD has a multisystem boot loader, BootEasy/boot0. You can also look to GRUB: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub I believe this is also included in FreeBSD ports collection. If you run Linux, you can install LILO, which is capable of booting FreeBSD. I believe the password files, /etc/master.passwd, are encrypted, so you can't get the password directly from that. You would run the command passwd as root. Tom
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