Solaris2.5.1 Does not accept root password
My question was:
I have a Sparc5 running Solaris 2.5.1 as a server. Yesterday, the
power glitch caused this system went down.
I rebooted the system but It would not accept the root or any user
password at login prompt.
Perhaps, the /etc/passwd and (or) /etc/shadow files have corrupted !
Do you have any idea how this happened ?
By reading the manuals I found the solution to fix this problem.
What I don't understand was HOW or WHY this happened.
Special thanks to the following people who gave me their opinions and
suggestions:
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Jen Fischer Wrote:
this is a well known bug. Have a look at the attached patch README, the patch
will solve your problem.
Kind Regards - Jens Fischer
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Jonathan Loh Wrote:
> I rebooted the system but It would not accept the root or any user
> password at login prompt.
Boot off a cdrom this is in the FAQ.
> Perhaps, the /etc/passwd and (or) /etc/shadow files have corrupted !
Look at /etc/opasswd and /etc/oshadow see if they are corrupt.
If they are not copy them over.
> Do you have any idea how this happened ?
Try the messages file.
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Dan Mercer Wrote:
I manage a bunch of Sparc 20s and 5s for the university I attend
and we've had numerous different problems with corruption of /etc/passwd
and shadow. After one power outage, our Netra had filled passwd and shadow
with garbage. We also have had mass user creation scripts that are
perfectly harmless result in both these files dissapearing altogether.
There are a number of bug reports of similar problems on Sunsolve. Look in
/etc for oshadow and opasswd, which should be copies of the original made
before the files were updated. I eventually wrote a script that runs every
hour on the hour and copies these and a few other important /etc files to
another filesystem.
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Russ Poffenberger Wrote:
This is a known bug. Patch 103640 addresses this.
Russ Poffenberger Engineering Specialist
Schlumberger Technologies ATE DOMAIN:poffen@San-Jose.ate.slb.com
1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276
San Jose, Ca. 95110 Voice: (408)437-5254 FAX: (408)437-5246
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Chris Cariffe Wrote:
possibly one was open during the crash
-chris
do you know how to get back in?
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Dan Hubbard Wrote:
Could be number of things, probably writing to the file when the crash
occured though. Do you have them backed up (I hope). Try a fsck to see if
it will revive them.
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Bismark Espinoza Wrote:
Portions of the disk may have been erased.
Boot from CD and edit the passwd and shadow files.
Kind Regards,
James Tran
