Re: Root password problem

[Woodchuck <marmot%pennswoods.net@localhost>]

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008, rzbz13%punkass.com@localhost wrote:

> I can no longer login to my root account. I have not
> forgotten my password, it just won't work. When I try
> to login I get the message -
> 
> Login incorrect or refused on this terminal.
> 
> Then the terminal gives this message-
> 
> login: Login timed out after 300 seconds
> 
> If I boot up with boot -s to single user mode and try to
> change the password with the command passwd, it goes through
> 
> Changing password for root.
> New Password:
> Retype New Password:
> The password file is busy, waiting...
> The password file is still busy, try again later.

This smells of a minor bug ... the file is not busy, it just
cannot be opened for writing.  The bug is in the error message,
it is correct for passwd to fail here.

> Unable to change auth token: error in service module
> 
> I enter the new password at both prompts then the rest comes up
> immediately. Later never seems to come. If I try to use vi to
> open /etc/master.passwd in single user mode I get

Use vipw for this, not vi.  vipw will take care of resynchronizing the
files involved.

> WARNING: TERM enviroment variable not set.

This is from vi.

Export an appropriate value for TERM.  "vt100" typically works.
(# export TERM=vt100)

This is often done in root's .whatever (.profile, .shrc, .login...
others depending on shell)

> ex/vi: Error: /var/tmp/vi.recover: Read-only file system
> ex/vi: Modifications not recoverable if the session fails
> ex/vi: Error: /etc/master.passwd: Read-only file system
> ex/vi: Error: Unable to create temporary file: Read-only file system

During boot, and in single user, / is mounted read-only.

Before invoking vipw  (I assume NetBSD has this vipw), remount
/ to be writeable.  (mount -u -w / )  If /var is on a separate
filesystem, it may need to be mounted; you may be seeing a shadow,
rump /var under the / filesystem.  I suspect this is not your
case, though.  Perhaps /var is mounted readonly, if so, that must
be changed.  I don't have a NetBSD system handy at the moment.

It sounds as if all your files are on one file system, namely "/".
Usually /var, /usr, /home are not mounted when in single user.
(Although you may mount them if you wish.)

It is possible that root logins are disallowed for the terminal
at which you are logging in.   In OpenBSD, this is controlled
by /etc/ttys.  See man 5 ttys or the NetBSD FAQ.  

Try again in single user, do "mount -u -w /" and try vipw
or passwd.  Somehow I think your passwd database is screwed
up, possibly by using vi on /etc/master.passwd instead of vipw.
A command, /usr/sbin/pwd_mkdb, synchronizes /etc/passwd and
/etc/master.passwd (OpenBSD, Net assumed the same -- check
before trusting), vipw calls this among other niceties.

Dave
-- 
        Are there no natural enemies to limit the increase of these
        creatures?              -- Sherlock Holmes