[K12OSN] Loosing access to master password

[Shawn Austin]

If you still have the first install disk of K12ltsp, just pop it in the
drive and boot the machine. 
When the installer window comes up, after the kernel boot, just jump
over to virtual terminal 1 then:
cd /tmp
mkdir hd
mount /dev/hda# /tmp/hd
(put the number of your partition that / is on, probably hda2, if it is
an IDE drive)

chroot /tmp/hd /bin/bash

you will now be sitting at a root prompt for your machine.  just do a
passwd root and you will be good to go.



On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 13:44 -0400, Calvin Park wrote:
> As a note on what Josiah said there are several smaller distros that do
> the same job as Knoppix. Tom's Root Boot for instance (www.toms.net)
> fits on a 3.25inch floppy. Or the Trinity Rescue Disk
> (http://trinityhome.org/trk/), though I haven't actually used the TRK to
> change root passwords before. Tom's works quite well for it and a quick
> search on google will give you plenty of how to's, though Josiah already
> provided a pretty comprehensive one.
> 
> -Calvin
> 
> On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 09:23, Josiah Ritchie wrote:
> > You can use any linux boot CD. Knoppix is popular. This sets up an
> > entirely separate filesystem. Then you mount your drives under that file
> > system where you do have root permission and edit the file that would be
> > /etc/shadow with your new root password.  The line you want to change is
> > going to look a little like this: 
> > 
> > root:$1$wPzR0h/8$ZnBFKP-dX0cG1r4.Ky/nc1:12125:0::::: 
> > 
> > It's a colon delimited file. The fields are defined in documentation
> > across the web. The hash (i.e. $1$wPzR0h/8$ZnBFKP-dX0cG1r4.Ky/nc1) is
> > what you want to change. (I changed mine a bit here so this isn't an
> > exact copy of my hash).
> > 
> > The easiest thing to do might be to change your root password (passwd)
> > on the CD booted system and copy the hash from your local /etc/shadow to
> > your LTSP /etc/shadow and you should be good to go. Reboot into the LTSP
> > system and try to login as root.
> > 
> > You might be able to put the root password in cleartext, but I think
> > that requires messing with another file to indicate that you have
> > cleartext passwords and I think it would be more difficult, plus you'd
> > have to change back.
> > 
> > This should only require a 1/2 hour of downtime. If you need more
> > detailed instructions I'd be glad to provide, but figured you wanted it
> > quick rather then detailed.
> > 
> > JSR/
> > 
> > 
> > On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 09:03, Alan A Hodson wrote:
> > > Hi gang
> > > 
> > > The unthinkable happened. Somehow I lost the root password to a new 
> > > system, and I am facing the daunting task of having to reinstall 
> > > everything... No files need to be saved, BUT, the question arises, 
> > > what if the system is hacked and your root password changed? What 
> > > security options are there? - I am thinking a boot disk with root 
> > > login with no pwd or some such emergency app, something like the 
> > > Install OSX CD in Macs, where one of the choices is change passwords 
> > > (being linux based, one of our gurus ought to be able to reverse 
> > > engineer the process...)
> > > Cheers
> > > Alan Hodson
> > > El Paso ISD, TX
> > > -=o=-
> > > 
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
> > 
> > 
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> -- 
> Calvin Park
> Assistant for Linux Systems
> Computer Services Department
> Davis College: A Practical college of Bible and Ministry
> 
> web: www.davisny.edu
> email: csitech at davisny.edu
> phone: 607.729.1581 ext 404
> 
> 
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