[mdlug] [WLUG] SuSE root breakin help needed

[Jay Nugent]

Greetings all,

On Mon, 26 May 2008, Joe Landman wrote:

> Jay Nugent wrote:
> 
> >    Can't seem to get the hard drive mounted after trying all sorts of
> > permutations of fstab.  I don't know the exact partitioning of the hard
> > drive but *seem* to recall it was basically three partitions, /, /home,
> > and swap, and that it is a SATA drive.  But I can't recall whether it had
> 
> 	parted /dev/sda print
> 
> should tell you most of what you need to know.  Then once you see the 
> layout, you can create temporary mount points
> 
> 	mkdir /mnt/t1 /mnt/t2 /mnt/t3
> 
> and
> 
> 	mount  /dev/sda1 /mnt/t1


   Thanks Joe!  I was *so* relieved to see that LVM was not used.  And
this got me onto the hard drive where I was then able to vi the
/etc/passwd file and blank out the root password field.

   root::0:3::/:/bin/bash

   Rebooted, and at the login screen it refused to let me login to root 
with a *blank* password :(



   Then I received Peter Bart's suggestion:  "Try this method 
<http://en.opensuse.org/Recover_Root_Password>" which basically says to do 
this:

  --------------------------------------------------------------
    For 10.3, you need some more steps:

    Start the rescue system. Find the disk root partition, then, assuming 
    its hdxy (or probably sdxy):

    mount /dev/hdxy /mnt
    mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
    mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
    mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
    chroot /mnt

    you are root in the installed sytem, with all at hand: passwd, but 
    also YaST...
  ---------------------------------------------------------------


   This got me full access to the system :)   But when I do a 'passwd 
root' to set a root password it *says* it did it, but nothing ever happens
to the password field in /etc/passwd :(

   Now what could be causing this?????


   Dang it!  I just wanna set a password, boot and log in normally, get
the Postfix stuff fixed and tested, and get this pain in the butt box off
my bench so I can go back to working on some 10 GHz microwave gear (far
far more fun these days).

   Anyone know a way to generate the one-way password encryption?  Then I
can vi /etc/password and edit in the 13 character string???  Seems to me
there used to be a 'crypt' command or something similar...

   Thanks alot for your help guys :)

      --- Jay

             
In response to the issue about dumbing-down Amateur Radio, a fellow Ham 
said:    "Would you like fries with that emergency communication?"
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