[ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
I see loads and loads of posts on the MS forums of the type I am the sole user and administrator and my account is corrupted how do I access my data? with various answers being given, including the setting up of an Administrator account which is never used except for emergency access and elevation purposes. Does Ubuntu ever suffer with corrupted User accounts (I have to say I've never seen any posts anywhere about this) and if so, what's the fix? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 14:47, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: I see loads and loads of posts on the MS forums of the type I am the sole user and administrator and my account is corrupted how do I access my data? with various answers being given, including the setting up of an Administrator account which is never used except for emergency access and elevation purposes. Does Ubuntu ever suffer with corrupted User accounts (I have to say I've never seen any posts anywhere about this) and if so, what's the fix? In short, I would say yes. By corrupted, stuff like the dot files in home (hidden config files) could be deleted or similar, which would constitute to a corrupted user account. But, you are never really the sole user. You can use the root fallback terminal to either recover the user data, or repair/replace the missing files. I am no expert, but this is how I have it in my head. -- Regards, Kris Douglas. T. 0845 004 2066 | M. 07728574285 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 02:47:35PM +, Gordon Burgess-Parker wrote: I see loads and loads of posts on the MS forums of the type I am the sole user and administrator and my account is corrupted how do I access my data? with various answers being given, including the setting up of an Administrator account which is never used except for emergency access and elevation purposes. Does Ubuntu ever suffer with corrupted User accounts (I have to say I've never seen any posts anywhere about this) and if so, what's the fix? Essentially not, because Ubuntu more-or-less comes out of the box configured with an admin account which is disabled from normal login and only used when needed (the root account). A normal user doesn't have privileges to wreck the whole system. That's not to say malware with user-level access can't do damage to the stuff which is actually valuable on the average home user's machine though: data (photos, documents etc) -- Josh Holland j...@joshh.co.uk -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 14:47, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: I see loads and loads of posts on the MS forums of the type I am the sole user and administrator and my account is corrupted how do I access my data? with various answers being given, including the setting up of an Administrator account which is never used except for emergency access and elevation purposes. Does Ubuntu ever suffer with corrupted User accounts (I have to say I've never seen any posts anywhere about this) and if so, what's the fix? The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and Linux are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in such a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also a lot easier to recover them. s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20/12/10 15:08, Simon Greenwood wrote: The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and Linux are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in such a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also a lot easier to recover them. s/ Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. Are there any Howtos as to how a (relative) newbie can recover from these sorts of damage? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 15:17, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: On 20/12/10 15:08, Simon Greenwood wrote: The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and Linux are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in such a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also a lot easier to recover them. s/ Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. Are there any Howtos as to how a (relative) newbie can recover from these sorts of damage? If it was a common problem I'm sure there would be :) To be honest the answer is just to make backups, and that's something you should do regardless of the OS you use. Then just restore any damaged files from backups. I don't know about anyone else on this list, but I've never seen such corruption as we're discussing. Sure it can happen in theory, e.g. I could open the system file up in my text editor (if I have root access) and write some gibberish there. Otherwise I'm not sure how it would happen - poorly coded software running as root could do it, but I've never encountered such software that would write to e.g. /etc/passwd. Regards, Matthew -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 15:17, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: On 20/12/10 15:08, Simon Greenwood wrote: The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and Linux are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in such a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also a lot easier to recover them. s/ Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. Are there any Howtos as to how a (relative) newbie can recover from these sorts of damage? Broadly, make sure you have an up to date backup of /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow as well as your home directory. s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 15:26, Matthew Wild mwi...@gmail.com wrote: I don't know about anyone else on this list, but I've never seen such corruption as we're discussing. Sure it can happen in theory, e.g. I could open the system file up in my text editor (if I have root access) and write some gibberish there. Otherwise I'm not sure how it would happen - poorly coded software running as root could do it, but I've never encountered such software that would write to e.g. /etc/passwd. I would have to agree, I was speaking absolutely in theory, the reason I know little about this is that I simply have never had it happen to me. So long as you back up your documents and other customised things to a DVD or USB drive then you should be perfectly safe. -- Regards, Kris Douglas. T. 0845 004 2066 | M. 07728574285 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 15:26, Matthew Wild mwi...@gmail.com wrote: On 20 December 2010 15:17, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: On 20/12/10 15:08, Simon Greenwood wrote: The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and Linux are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in such a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also a lot easier to recover them. s/ Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. Are there any Howtos as to how a (relative) newbie can recover from these sorts of damage? If it was a common problem I'm sure there would be :) To be honest the answer is just to make backups, and that's something you should do regardless of the OS you use. Then just restore any damaged files from backups. I don't know about anyone else on this list, but I've never seen such corruption as we're discussing. Sure it can happen in theory, e.g. I could open the system file up in my text editor (if I have root access) and write some gibberish there. Otherwise I'm not sure how it would happen - poorly coded software running as root could do it, but I've never encountered such software that would write to e.g. /etc/passwd. Right enough, but it's not impossible, just highly unlikely... s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 15:27, Simon Greenwood sfgreenw...@gmail.com wrote: On 20 December 2010 15:17, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: On 20/12/10 15:08, Simon Greenwood wrote: The issue with Windows is that there is a database at the core of the authentication mechanism, and this database can get damaged. Unix and Linux are essentially based on flat files which can be edited with the correct permissions. It is possible to damage /etc/passwd and/or /etc/shadow in such a way as to cause authentication failure, and also to corrupt your user space in such a way as to damage user configuration files, but it's also a lot easier to recover them. s/ Ah. That makes things a bit clearer. Are there any Howtos as to how a (relative) newbie can recover from these sorts of damage? Broadly, make sure you have an up to date backup of /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow as well as your home directory. To do this, I would use cp /etc/shadow /home/username/shadow.bak cp /etc/passwd /home/username/passwd.bak then archive home tar -pczf home.tar.gz /home/myusername then move our files onto a USB device cp /home/home.tar.gz /media/usb drive name I'm sure there are better tutorials out there, but It's something to look at. -- Regards, Kris Douglas. T. 0845 004 2066 | M. 07728574285 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 15:34, Kris Douglas krisdoug...@gmail.com wrote: To do this, I would use cp /etc/shadow /home/username/shadow.bak cp /etc/passwd /home/username/passwd.bak then archive home tar -pczf home.tar.gz /home/myusername then move our files onto a USB device cp /home/home.tar.gz /media/usb drive name I'm sure there are better tutorials out there, but It's something to look at. or:- $ sudo apt-get install backup-manager -- Philip Stubbs -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Corrupted User Accounts?
On 20 December 2010 16:04, Philip Stubbs phi...@stuphi.co.uk wrote: On 20 December 2010 15:34, Kris Douglas krisdoug...@gmail.com wrote: To do this, I would use cp /etc/shadow /home/username/shadow.bak cp /etc/passwd /home/username/passwd.bak then archive home tar -pczf home.tar.gz /home/myusername then move our files onto a USB device cp /home/home.tar.gz /media/usb drive name I'm sure there are better tutorials out there, but It's something to look at. or:- $ sudo apt-get install backup-manager Ok, I recommend the above over my recommendation definitely :) *installs* -- Regards, Kris Douglas. T. 0845 004 2066 | M. 07728574285 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
