Can't change root password -- silently failing to change
My root password appears to be stuck as blank, and I can't figure out how to change it.
I'm not getting any error messages, however. Either using NetInfo Manager or "passwd root" at a command line, I can enter a new password, verifying the old password as blank (not the word "blank" but a completely empty string), and my Mac acts just like the change has taken place.
But when I go to log in as root with the new password, the new password doesn't work. The real annoyance is that, after having enabled root login, I want to log into the GUI as root, but it that context, the blank password doesn't work either.
Any ideas anyone? I've tried blanking out the "passwd" entry for root via NetInfo Manager, and then completely deleting the password item, to now avail.
I'm running OS 10.3.6, BTW, in case that matters to anyone.
I'm not getting any error messages, however. Either using NetInfo Manager or "passwd root" at a command line, I can enter a new password, verifying the old password as blank (not the word "blank" but a completely empty string), and my Mac acts just like the change has taken place.
But when I go to log in as root with the new password, the new password doesn't work. The real annoyance is that, after having enabled root login, I want to log into the GUI as root, but it that context, the blank password doesn't work either.
Any ideas anyone? I've tried blanking out the "passwd" entry for root via NetInfo Manager, and then completely deleting the password item, to now avail.
I'm running OS 10.3.6, BTW, in case that matters to anyone.
Comments
The Reset Password utility on my Pather Installation CD did the trick. Whew!
Dobby.
Originally posted by dobby
After you delete the pwd entry from netinfo use Terminal and su - to root. Now passwd root and you can entery the new password (this is what the passwd reset utility does).
That's exactly what I tried to do, but it didn't work. I didn't get any error messages. Everything seemed to go smoothly. The new password I tried to set simply didn't "take".
Only when I booted from my Panther CD and used the installer's password reset utility was I able to fix the problem.
Is there perhaps more to deleting the password entry using NetInfo than I realized? Is it that I possibly didn't delete enough password info? Besides "passwd", I see, for instance "_writers_passwd" as one of the properties for /users/root. Although I don't see it here now, I've seen other properties like "_shadow_passwd" too. Did I need to delete all such properties in addition to the "password" property to fix the problem?
At first, I hadn't intended to muck around with any of those properties at all. I simply expected the "Security/Change Root Password" menu item to be all that I needed. It clearly wasn't.