[ILUG] root problem

[Eric Rahn Nolen]

I was a bit vague there.  If you boot from the LILO: prompt with:

linux single

there will not be any prompt for a password.  It will boot up into single
user mode and give you the bash# prompt from which you can change the 
passwd entry for root, etc.  If you /sbin/init 1 (or telinit 1) you will
not be prompted for the password because will already be root or be
denied.  If you do a sulogin you do have to go through the password query 
whether you have root or no.   

Eric
 

"Be patient.  Evolution isn't finished with us yet."
        --Soloman Short


On Thu, 24 Jun 1999, Dave Rynne wrote:

> ) 
> ) Interesting . . . the default setup does should not have any prompt for a
> ) root password for single user mode. 
> 
> Emmm... actually it does.
> 
> ) I am interested in seeing your
> ) /etc/rc.d/init.d/single, /etc/inittab and /etc/rc.d/rc files.  
> 
> >From an RH 6.0 box (although this has been default behavior since
> 5.1 or 5.2 IIRC):
> 
> Last lines of /etc/rc.d/init.d/single
> # Now go to the single user level.
> echo "Telling INIT to go to single user mode."
> exec init -t1 S
> 
> from the init man page...
>       "Runlevel S or s bring the system to single user  mode  and
>        do  not  require  an  /etc/initttab  file.  In single user
>        mode, /sbin/sulogin is invoked on /dev/console."
> 
> And lastly from the sulogin man page...
>       "sulogin  is  invoked  by init(8) when the system goes into
>        single user mode (this is done through an entry  in  init-
>        tab(5)).  Init  also  tries  to execute sulogin when it is
>        passed the -b flag from the bootmonitor (eg, LILO).
> 
>        The user is prompted
> 
>             Give root password for system maintenance
>             (or type Control-D for normal startup):"
> 
> 
> ) In the case
> ) you describe the alternative would be to use the init=/bin/bash hack or to
> ) use a boot floppy to mount the filesystem and change the /etc/passwd
> ) entry.
> ) 
> ) Eric
> ) 
> 
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
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