Linux pbuttword lost 2268

On Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:46:11 +0100, Robert Hull staggered into the Black Sun and said:

This may confuse cweiler1. Starting with init=-bin-bash will get you a root prompt, but it bypbuttes all the normal startup sequences that get run. You'll probably have to "mount -o remount,rw" to be able to write to as well.

When this sort of thing happened to me a long time ago, I did this:

0. disconnect machine from network 1. boot from Tom's RootBoot (this was before LiveCDs were common) 2. mountdev-hda5mnt-somewhere (replace with appropriate device for your ) 3. vimnt-somewhere-etc-shadow , then find the line that looks like

root:$14%qCgF6Nrtj1nnnThisIsntReal:13216:0:::::

...delete everything between first and second :s, giving

root::13216:0:::::

This means root now has no pbuttword at all! Dangerous, but hey, you followed step 0. Note that you don't *have* to use vi; any text editor will work.

4. save file and exit 5. umountmnt-somewhere , remove rescue system, reboot normally 6. log in as root, just hit Return at the pbuttwd: prompt, then use pbuttwd to change root's pbuttword to something you can remember. 7. reconnect machine to network

...there are many ways to solve this problem, though. TMTOWTDI, eh? HTH anyway,

-- Matt GThere is no Darkness in Eternity-But only Light too dim for us to see Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong ----------------------------- penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL