Re: been up that long_root is jello

[Kent West]

robert marley wrote:

my post/plea is the result of having struggled to set up a Debian
2.4.18 box + now finding i cannot gain admin access using what i
believe to be a correct root PW.
the story goes:
Six weeks ago i set this box up, its a dual boot + dual HDD Win95B
(OSR2) and Debian 2.4 kernel with wmaker and some gnome reliant apps
but no gnome gui loaded. Basicly i have been 'away' from using root for
weeks, i now want to change some settings/permissions.
 

The root pw was setup deliberately simple (similar to user pw) until i
was familiar with "how it all worked". today i find the 6keystroke PW i issue
will not give me root. there are only so many combinations, i have
spent quite some time exhausting them all.
In the battle to get the box setup i read often on how to reset root
pw, so my thougts turn to getting into /etc passwd or /shadow and
simply changing the XXXX.
 

I know about booting from the install CD. 
at boot: i issue RESCUE 
boot halts at "Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 01:00 .
 

I know about booting from the install CD. 
at boot: i issue RET 
boot goes through to "rescue floppy "GUI. 
Instead of _continue_ (which starts a new install) i use Alt+F2 
console appears with # prompt i can
move around the virtual disk set up by the boot but i cannot 'see' my
tree on the HDDs.
 

Try starting the installation facility, and mount all your partitions, 
then shell out to Alt-F2; I believe you'll find your stuff under 
/target. So maybe you can "chroot /target" and then reset the password. 
Haven't tried it; don't know what the results will be.

I know about issueing init at lilo <linux init=/bin/sh rw> 
the resultant prompt (#) will not accept any commands issued and when 
<mount /mnt /dev/hd* > is issued the error/s returned are
"file/directory not found".
 

No commands? Even "ls" and "cat"?
It's "mount /dev/hda2 /mnt", not "mount /mnt /dev/hda2".
IRC Gurus suggest this is because i am in "Ramdisk mode" <shrug>
 

initrd?

I know about starting in single user mode. 
this boots straight to the xdm gui which requires a UID/pw to login.
 

Umm, it shouldn't. "linux S"?

I have "tomsrtbt tools". booting with this floppy gets me a virtual
console but i am yet to figure *how* to use it. i cannot chroot to my
tree for example, or mount my partitions/directorys. 
the FAQ for this tool is absolutely ph [EMAIL PROTECTED] hopeless!
http://www.toms.net/rb/

I have RIP rescue tool. so far i have only tried to unpack this, it
failed to find the syslink.com file sitting in its own directory! so i
gave up on that :-(
http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/
I have a "guaranteed boot disk" from an 'IRC Guru', it wont copy to a
floppy ("insufficent space")
 

Are you using cp? You'll probably have to use dd.

I have tried copying ../etc/passwd to another directory accessible
from windows. (as a normal user) i get  "permission denied" (understandable as
i had not got around to setting up permissions for users and i doubt i
would have enabled that ability anyway)
You get "permission denied" when trying to copy it, or open it, or save 
it? More details, please.

I know what to do with ../etc/passwd or ../etc/shadow when i get
access to it. getting access is my problem.
 

Have you got a Knoppix CD? If so, boot off it and then you should be 
able to get to your /etc/passwd file.

I post all of the above not to say ,, "i have tried this and it dosent
work" but in the hope that seeing what i haqve tried some may see an
error in the method or an alternative method (variation),, or be able to
say "this part of your system is ph^%&#ed !
for what you can
do...thank you.
RM

 

 





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