boot from the CD. and at the prompt. type "rescue" without the prompts...
it will then boot the CD install kernel and stuff and when finished you can
type:
chroot /mnt
and you will have access to your files stuff..
then change your passwords etc...
rgds
Franki...
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Ma Anguo
Sent: Thursday, 3 October 2002 11:41 AM
To: Mandrake Newbie ml
Subject: [newbie] single user boot: i still cannot change root password
I upgraded the security level of my mandrake 8.2 box from the lowest to the
intermediate (3) level.
Now I don't have access to any user, including root, because my passwords
are all expired. I couldn't su to root and couldn't shutdown the box
(ctr+alt+del didn't respond). I was stuck with the graphical login and had
to press the reset button :-( , messing the filesystem...
I googled the internet to find out how to boot as a single user and change
the root password. Here is what I did.
lilo> linux runlevel 1
or
lilo> linux single
didn't help. The file system is messed (du to hard reset) and I am faced
with the alternative of either supplying the root password (which I don't
have) for maintenance or press ctr+D to do a normal start, which brings me
back to the stallemate above...
(btw, is there any difference between:
linux runlevel 1 ,
linux init 1 and
linux single ?)
I then tried:
lilo> linux init=/bin/sh rw
which gave me an init prompt.
I typed su and without asking for a password, I got the root prompt:
[root@(none) / ]#
I located the passwd command in the filesystem and tried it:
# ./passwd root
./passwd: permission denied.
I have the same result at the init or root prompt.
I then tried to modify the /etc/passwd file to erase the root pass (as I
read I could do when I googled the web).
vi didn't work but I found a vim-minimum in the filesystem and used it to vi
/etc/passwd but the file was read only and any attempt to write it failed.
Another note that might be important: the /usr filesystem was not mounted
and I didn't mount it because the filesystem got corrupted and trying to
mount it would have brought plenty of error messages and I wouldn't have
known what to do).
So: I lost my root password (not that I forgot it but it unexpectedly got
expired!)
I could login and su to root as a single user but still could do anything
about it!
Beside getting me back my user and root password, I'd like to know if it is
possible to switch back to a lower security level... I cannot manage my box
at a higher level
Thanks,
Anguo
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