3b2/400

Dennis S. Breckenridge root at nebulus.UUCP
Wed Mar 28 03:53:09 AEST 1990


In article <10509 at leadsv.UUCP> hashemi at leadsv.UUCP (Rahmat O. Hashemi) writes:
> Howdy Net.folk. I have a problem, which requires some experties(which I don't
> have).
> 
> and power has been cycled to the system. Now the big problem: I HAVE FORGOTTEN
> THE PASSWORDS I HAD ASSIGNED TO THE SYSADMIN AND ROOT... :-( . THe big question
> is, HOW DO I GET BACK ON THIS SYSTEM(No Floppy Key was made at the time).
> 
> Any advise is greatly appreciated.

If you have changed the hardware password (mcp) you have to disconnect the
lythium battery inside the machine. This will force a NVRAM sanity failure
and reset whatever the password was back to "mcp". Find disk number one of
the Unix(tm) set and boot the machine. When you see the message "DIAGNOSTICS
PASSED" reach around the back of the computer and press the reset button. Some
machines had a real push button, but most of them have a little hole with a 
recessed switch. Use a paper clip or small screwdriver. Type in the "mcp"
password and you should get a menu of what to boot, etc. If not check the 
parity on your terminal. To verify it is correct (I beleive its 7bit none)
press the return key. You should get the message "System Failure blah blah..."
for each time you press the return key. 
Boot from the floppy (its obvious from the menu's). When the installation
menu comes up type in "magic mode". If all is well you will get the message
POOF!. Now type in "shell" and presto chango you have a super user shell. 
run fsck on the hard disk (/dev/rdsk/c1d0s?) I cannot remember what root
and user slices are. I think c1d0s0 is root and c1d1s2 is usr. Mount the
root partition "mount /dev/dsk/c1d0s0 /mnt" Make sure the /mnt directory
is there first. Here is the rest of the goodies in command format.

# cp /mnt/passwd /mnt/opasswd			# save a copy of the passwd
# cat > /mnt/passwd				# create a new password file
root::0:1::/:					# This is STDIN 
<ctl-d>						# close the passwd file
# cat /mnt/opasswd >> /mnt/passwd		# append the old passwd file
# cd /						# get off the drive
# umount /mnt					# umount it!
# reboot the machine

This will add an additional root entry to the password file. Login searches
sequentially so it finds the first root entry and no password. Presto. Then
vi the password file and remove the duplicate entry. This time set the 
password and WRITE IT DOWN or file it more carefully. I hope this helps.

-- 
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Dennis S. Breckenridge  (604) 277-7413   dennis at nebulus.uucp           VE7TCP
               EMACS: Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping!
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