Recover Root Password

[mutidjo]

Hi,
I am new with solaris. We had purchased a sun ultra 5workstation last year, preinstalled with Solaris 8. I had set a password during installation, but looks like teh password is not working since I cannot log into the machine.

is there any way to reset the password, other than the cd-rom? (Don't have the cd-rom/media kit, since everything is on the hard ddrive). Can I reset the password using OS files on the HD?

Much thanks.

 

[mikeclark]

You will need to boot from a CDROM to edit the /etc/passwd file to remove the password on the root user. There is no easy way around that.
Can you download an image of Solaris from SUN and burn another CDROM ?

 

[xkjdhdg]

Make the Cd as mikeclark told you. When you start the installing do an update not a new install it will reset the password. You can not change and root files without the root password.

 

[mutidjo]

Thanks for your help. i guess I have to go out and get a cd-rom burner.

 

[dkuhlio]

It might be cheaper to buy the media. Sometimes you can find something on ebay, or borrow someone elses.

Also, if you have a support contract with Sun, they will ship you the media...

 

[jephilc]

You don't need to do an install at all, just get a CD
and do a boot -s cdrom from the ok prompt.
When you get to the prompt, you can mount your existing
root filesystem into a temporary location and remove the
current root password. For example, if your root is
c0t0d0s0, then
mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a
Now edit /a/etc/shadow
save
umount /a
sync
reboot like normal
There will not be a root password if you removed it, so
just set a new one.

HTH
John Philcox
Mobile Ventures Limited UK

http://www.mobile-ventures.net