Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On Tuesday 05 January 2010 08:15:12 Hosea Phiri wrote: I have a client who lost root password for his machine running FC 11. I made an attempt to recover password by booting in single mode. I am familiar with editing the GRUB boot menu and appending linux single to make the server boot in sigle mode. My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. As far as I see from your description, this is proper behavior. In single user mode the services do not start and you are dropped into a root shell immediately. Nothing wrong with that. And AFAIK, this has been like that for some time now. Just do a passwd to set up the new root password, and reboot the machine in regular multiuser mode. Or are there some problems with this? HTH, :-) Marko -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
Hosea Phiri wrote: My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. Any I dea? Keeping a key pressed at the GRUB execution instant. Or, booting from a rescue CD/DVD. -- Roberto Ragusamail at robertoragusa.it -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 00:15 -0800, Hosea Phiri wrote: I have a client who lost root password for his machine running FC 11. I made an attempt to recover password by booting in single mode. I am familiar with editing the GRUB boot menu and appending linux single to make the server boot in sigle mode. My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. Any I dea? I am told this has just started after loss of this password. Looking forward to your useful tips. If the machine has a CDROM drive, you could use a rescue disk. jon -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
Adding to what Marko wrote, since it sounds from the original post like the system may be configured to ask for a password in single user mode. If that's the case you'll need to boot from the Fedora install disc and choose the rescue mode, or if not available use any Linux rescue/recovery disk and mount the root partition manually. Once that's done, *carefully* edit the file /etc/shadow on the system's boot disk and delete the long string of gibberish between root: and the next :, the next time you boot in single user mode it will drop you directly to the root prompt without a login and you can then use password to enter a new password. If it comes to this and you have the HDD's /etc actually mounted on /etc, then if at all possible use the command vipw -s to edit the file as this will set the necessary locks to prevent any file corruption etc. -- Andy The only person to have all his work done by Friday was Robinson Crusoe -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 00:15 -0800, Hosea Phiri wrote: I have a client who lost root password for his machine running FC 11. I made an attempt to recover password by booting in single mode. I am familiar with editing the GRUB boot menu and appending linux single to make the server boot in sigle mode. My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. That is normal. And if you don't want unauthorised people to be able to do the same thing, you need to take some steps to make it difficult: Set the BIOS so it will only boot from the hard drive, ignoring floppies, CD-ROMs, and drives plugged into USB ports. Password protect the BIOS so nobody can change the above options. Password protect the GRUB menu, so you cannot change boot options without typing in a password. All you can do is pick from the preset entries for which kernel to boot from. With those steps someone has to crack your password, or remove the hard drive from the computer. That's not something that they could easily do without getting noticed. As well as being a measure of protection against malicious abuse, it's also good protection against stupid uses of computers by authorised people. -- [...@localhost ~]$ uname -r 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686 Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists. -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
Hi Marko, Possibly my explanation was not clear enough. What I meant was that I know how to do it using single user mode by editing grub entry. But on this specific machine, I cannot use the approach because I am not getting grub menu. However coming to problem itself, let me say that it is partly resolved. I have managed to recover the password using installation DVD in rescue mode. What is remaining is that when the machine is booting it stops for a while then goes straight to login dialogue box without grub menu and services startup list (in x-windows) Hosea From: Marko Vojinovic vvma...@gmail.com To: fedora-list@redhat.com Cc: Hosea Phiri phiri_ho...@yahoo.com Sent: Tue, January 5, 2010 12:32:05 PM Subject: Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen On Tuesday 05 January 2010 08:15:12 Hosea Phiri wrote: I have a client who lost root password for his machine running FC 11. I made an attempt to recover password by booting in single mode. I am familiar with editing the GRUB boot menu and appending linux single to make the server boot in sigle mode. My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. As far as I see from your description, this is proper behavior. In single user mode the services do not start and you are dropped into a root shell immediately. Nothing wrong with that. And AFAIK, this has been like that for some time now. Just do a passwd to set up the new root password, and reboot the machine in regular multiuser mode. Or are there some problems with this? HTH, :-) Marko -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
Before sending to the list, I tried this approach. I pressed shift continuously but failed. I know it works on Fedora, but I can't understand why it failed on FC 11. However, thanks for the tip. From: Roberto Ragusa m...@robertoragusa.it To: Community assistance, encouragement, and advice for using Fedora. fedora-list@redhat.com Sent: Tue, January 5, 2010 12:56:42 PM Subject: Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen Hosea Phiri wrote: My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. Any I dea? Keeping a key pressed at the GRUB execution instant. Or, booting from a rescue CD/DVD. -- Roberto Ragusamail at robertoragusa.it -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On Tuesday 05 January 2010 12:01:10 Hosea Phiri wrote: Possibly my explanation was not clear enough. What I meant was that I know how to do it using single user mode by editing grub entry. But on this specific machine, I cannot use the approach because I am not getting grub menu. Ah, well, for that you probably need to adjust the timeout parameter in /boot/grub/grub.conf, and maybe hiddenmenu and such. Of course, you need to have root permissions to do that, so in that case the simplest solution is to use the rescue CD/DVD to fix the grub.conf and get the grub menu back. Best, :-) Marko -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On Tuesday 05 January 2010 11:18:53 Tim wrote: On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 00:15 -0800, Hosea Phiri wrote: I have a client who lost root password for his machine running FC 11. I made an attempt to recover password by booting in single mode. I am familiar with editing the GRUB boot menu and appending linux single to make the server boot in sigle mode. My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. That is normal. And if you don't want unauthorised people to be able to do the same thing, you need to take some steps to make it difficult: Set the BIOS so it will only boot from the hard drive, ignoring floppies, CD-ROMs, and drives plugged into USB ports. Password protect the BIOS so nobody can change the above options. Password protect the GRUB menu, so you cannot change boot options without typing in a password. And weld the box shut, chain it to the floor, and put two policemen in the room 24/7. ;-) With those steps someone has to crack your password, or remove the hard drive from the computer. Or reset the CMOS. Disconnecting the power and CMOS battery typically resets all bios passwords. Also, on modern motherboards there is usually a jumper provided for this purpose. After bios gets accessible, a rescue CD is enough to give full access. If an intruder has physical access to the hardware, nothing can stop him from compromising the machine, in principle. Data (or hard drive) encryption is the only measure which provides sane amount of security for data, if done properly. ;-) Except if you live in USA, where it is illegal to use strong encryption algorithms (or so I hear)... Best, :-) Marko -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On 01/05/2010 02:15 AM, Hosea Phiri wrote: All, I have a client who lost root password for his machine running FC 11. I made an attempt to recover password by booting in single mode. I am familiar with editing the GRUB boot menu and appending linux single to make the server boot in sigle mode. My surprise, the machines boots differently. I noticed one major thing that looked different from other versions of Fedora I have used before. It does not bring up the Grub menu. It does not even show the services startup. It goes straight into login prompt bypassing all other stages which I guess run from background. Any I dea? I am told this has just started after loss of this password. Looking forward to your useful tips. Hosea Please do not post in html - read the list guidelines. You may find that: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Reset_Forgotten_Root_Password will help with your problem. Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup! signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
Re: Recover Root Password on FC 11 and Missing GRUB Screen
On 01/05/2010 05:15 AM, Andy Blanchard wrote: Adding to what Marko wrote, since it sounds from the original post like the system may be configured to ask for a password in single user mode. If that's the case you'll need to boot from the Fedora install disc and choose the rescue mode, or if not available use any Linux rescue/recovery disk and mount the root partition manually. Once that's done, *carefully* edit the file /etc/shadow on the system's boot disk and delete the long string of gibberish between root: and the next :, the next time you boot in single user mode it will drop you directly to the root prompt without a login and you can then use password to enter a new password. If it comes to this and you have the HDD's /etc actually mounted on /etc, then if at all possible use the command vipw -s to edit the file as this will set the necessary locks to prevent any file corruption etc. A better why is to chroot /mnt/sysimage and use passwd to change roots password. Then enter exit twice to safely reboot the system. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Reset_Forgotten_Root_Password Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup! signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines
