Re: upgrading an old system

[Brett Lymn <blymn%internode.on.net@localhost>]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 07:25:52PM +0100, Steve Blinkhorn wrote:
> I have progresses as far as having oinstalled the binary sets and
> running postinstall.   However I hit a problem when I set a password
> for root, namely while I could login as another user (in group wheel)
> I get an authentication error when I try to su, and I can't get back
> to a condition where there is no superuser passwd.   So I daren't for
> the moment swith the box off.
> 

Try a vipw and remove the password entry, this is the string between the
':' just after the username, viz:

root:fsrtew$srewza:0:0::0:0:Charlie &:.....

to
root::0:0::0:0:Charlie &:.....

> I remember that therre were various gotchas when PAM was introduced in
> release 3.0.   Is there a step I may have missed out?
> 

There shouldn't be unless you are using a su from an unexpected place,
try /usr/bin/su just to make sure.

> Also, would someone please remind me  where the boot-time
> configuration lives (boot device, root device, swap device etc.)?
> It's been a long day, and I don't get to do this sort of thing very
> often.
> 

I usually bury that in the kernel config, perhaps boot.cfg can help but
I am not sure about that.

-- 
Brett Lymn