MESSAGE
| DATE | 2014-08-04 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] I was really really dumb
|
On Sun, Aug 03, 2014 at 09:50:55PM -0400, Contrarian wrote:
>
>
>
> I let someone look at my laptop for a "free diagnostic"
>
> for some minor issue
>
>
>
> yes, he had the root password.
>
>
> The next time I booted up my user password would not work.
>
> the system simply would not accept it. (for some reason it usually
>
> doesn't "take" ther first time)
>
>
> Not on the desktop or for a shell.
>
>
> I logged in as root. changed the user password.
>
>
> When I came to shut down the *root* password was not accepted.
>
>
>
> Ruben looked at it last Monday.
>
> after a colloquy along the lines of or
>
>
> R: This is Linux not $OTHER_OS, things don't "just happen"
> what did you DO?
>
>
> J: I didn't do anything but change the user password.
> I don't think I've ever done anything as root other than
> shut down (and change some file permissions once or twice)
>
> [repeat]
>
> Then I recollected my folly.
>
>
> He fixed it, many thanks. this was not the usual workaround
> for a forgotten root password.
>
>
> I don't have the details; ask him if you want to know.
>
> Never again.
>
>
>
>
For whatever it is worth, I tried to boot the system from a opensuse
resue "live" cd and changed the /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd files for
the root user to a null password. This did not work for some reason. I
was stumped and still stumped as to why this wouldn't work.
Then I mounted the actual filesystem to the root using chroot and tried to run the
passwd command. That failed because of a lack of acces to /dev/urand
So I mounted with unity all the system and proc directories and THEN
chrooted the file system and ran passwd. That did work.
Ruben
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