Arch Linux

Reploid

Member

From: Cold Country up North

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 110

Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

While following this guide: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … bit_system
.. I receive the following error message.

[reploid@archcomputer-inside_32arch ~]$ su
Password: 
su: incorrect password
[reploid@archcomputer-inside_32arch ~]$ sudo su
Password: 
sudo: pam_authenticate: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info
[reploid@archcomputer-inside_32arch ~]$

Is that it? Do I have to reinstall arch now, and do the whole install and tinkering procedure over again? (3rd time).

hacosta

Member

From: Mexico

Registered: 2006-10-22

Posts: 423

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

or you can just boot a live cd, chroot to your arch install and run passwd

Reploid

Member

From: Cold Country up North

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 110

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

How?

From the install cd?

Instead of typing /arch/setup/ , I can type chroot / and then passwd root??

When I attempt to do this from my linux mint partition, I only get error messages:

reploid@reploid-laptop:~$ sudo chroot /media/sda6
[sudo] password for reploid:
chroot: cannot run command `/bin/bash': Exec format error
reploid@reploid-laptop:~$

deathadder

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-04-18

Posts: 8

Website

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

Before you chroot the partition you need to mount it, so from the install CD instead of typing /arch/setup try the following, assuming your root partition is sda1.

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
chroot /mnt/ /bin/bash
passwd (enter new root password)
exit
umount /mnt/
reboot

Last edited by deathadder (2008-05-10 22:48:46)

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lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

Weren't you trying to "su" from inside the chroot? That might be the problem.

Leave the chroot by running "exit" or pressing ctrl-d.

Reploid

Member

From: Cold Country up North

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 110

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

Thanks a lot, will try.

Meanwhile, could anybody tell me why it doesn't work from Mint? I have the borne again shell installed, so why do I only get this output:

reploid@reploid-laptop:~$ sudo chroot /mnt/ /bin/bash
chroot: cannot run command `/bin/bash': Exec format error

Reploid

Member

From: Cold Country up North

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 110

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

Weren't you trying to "su" from inside the chroot? That might be the problem.

Leave the chroot by running "exit" or pressing ctrl-d.

Thanks for the idea! I looked at man chroot to find out if I had to type exit, but the man pages didn't say. I guess I needed to install another helpfile from somewhere.

But closing the terminal and opening up a new one should work just as well, right?

Reploid

Member

From: Cold Country up North

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 110

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

I tried deathadders suggestion.

Upon starting up the live cd and chrooting, passwd only returns this.

"Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info"

This doesn't look too good, does it?

Last edited by Reploid (2008-05-10 23:15:07)

aRcHaTe

Member

Registered: 2006-10-24

Posts: 646

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

u could use john the ripper to crack /etc/shadow for decrypt the password..or u could use the cd minimal install from arch..just do as deathadder is saying and u should be fine

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Its a sick world we live in....

GGLucas

Member

Registered: 2008-03-13

Posts: 113

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

You could copy over the files that hold the password from an installation where you know the passwords of, or even just take the encrypted password from an existing installation that you know the password of and paste it into the files on your install, there's no need to reinstall ?

Last edited by GGLucas (2008-05-11 00:10:54)

carlocci

Member

From: Padova - Italy

Registered: 2008-02-12

Posts: 368

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

IF he really forgot his root password, can't he simply append init=/bin/bash at boot?

MoonSwan

Member

From: Great White North

Registered: 2008-01-23

Posts: 881

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

If you're using grub, on the kernel line in its menu.lst file, there may or may not exist a line like this:

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdd5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

On that kernel line, right after the ...vmlinuz26, put the number "1" there (no quotes).  Reboot, and it should drop you to a very limited shell, as root, then just do "passwd", give yourself a new one, then do "telinit 5" or "init 5" (replace "5" with "3" if you prefer a terminal instead of a GUI to come up).

Remove the "1" from that line in grubs menu.lst and get on with your life.

aRcHaTe

Member

Registered: 2006-10-24

Posts: 646

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

You could copy over the files that hold the password from an installation where you know the passwords of, or even just take the encrypted password from an existing installation that you know the password of and paste it into the files on your install, there's no need to reinstall ?

hummm guess that could work...

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Its a sick world we live in....

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

chroot it god damn it !

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

Reploid

Member

From: Cold Country up North

Registered: 2008-03-27

Posts: 110

Re: Oh F*ck. PASSWORD CHANGED?

Thanks for the input, guys, but I didn't make it. I kept getting this error message "pam_authenticate: Authentication service cannot retrieve authentication info" even after trying the GRUB thing, so I just reinstalled Arch.