Help, I am Locked from my system

[Kaiser_Sose]

Look at the last post I made

http://www.linuxjunior.org/cgi-bin/Y...26&start=0

[Kaiser_Sose]

I insrted RH 7.2 CD 1 and entered rescue mode but I dont know what to edit or fix so I can log back on as before

Before I used to just pick KDE or GNOME, enter root, and roots password

Do you know what I have to edit

I looked in the /etc/passwd file and it said root........./bin/bash (at the end)

I rebooted and I get the same

[tolstoy]

I insrted RH 7.2 CD 1 and entered rescue mode but I dont know what to edit or fix so I can log back on as before

Before I used to just pick KDE or GNOME, enter root, and roots password

Do you know what I have to edit

I looked in the /etc/passwd file and it said root........./bin/bash (at the end)

I rebooted and I get the same

Make sure all they syntax is correct in the line, not just that it says /bin/bash, but that all the colons are in their right places, that you're home dir exists, etc. If your password is still posted where you put it earlier, just download it, stick it on a floppy and copy it back to /etc while in repair mode. Just make sure not to edit on your windows box as it will definately bugger it to hell.

[Coral_Sea]

Have you tried using your emergency boot diskette?

[tolstoy]

Have you tried using your emergency boot diskette?

I think he can get the system booted ok, just not log on as root. Most likely his /etc/passwd messed up since he was editing it manually sometime during the day.

[Kaiser_Sose]

Ok, I think I found the problem but I need help

I re did the linux rescue and this is what it said when it started.

RESCUE
Your sytem has been mounted under
/mnt/sysimage

Press enter to get to the shell. If you would like to make your system the root environment run the command

chroot /mnt/sysimage

The sytem will reboot automatically exit the shell

OK *SKIP

I pressed ok and it went to a command "sh-2.05#"

From here I went to *

cd /etc
ls
pico passwd
and this is what passwd said

root::0:0:root:/:/bin/bash

As I said before I was editing this file on a windows machine on my LAN when I was trying to setup proftpd. *I luckily had this passwd file on my windows machine and this is what it said

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin
adm:x:3:4:adm:/var/adm:/sbin/nologin
lp:x:4:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/sbin/nologin
sync:x:5:0:sync:/sbin:/bin/sync
shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/sbin:/sbin/shutdown
halt:x:7:0:halt:/sbin:/sbin/halt
mail:x:8:12:mail:/var/spool/mail:/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:13:news:/var/spool/news:
uucp:x:10:14:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/sbin/nologin
operator:x:11:0:operator:/root:/sbin/nologin
games:x:12:100:games:/usr/games:/sbin/nologin
gopher:x:13:30:gopher:/var/gopher:/sbin/nologin
ftp:x:14:50:FTP User:/var/ftp:/bin/false
nobody:x:99:99:Nobody:/:/sbin/nologin
mailnull:x:47:47::/var/spool/mqueue:/dev/null
rpm:x:37:37::/var/lib/rpm:/bin/bash
xfs:x:43:43:X Font Server:/etc/X11/fs:/bin/false
ntp:x:38:38::/etc/ntp:/sbin/nologin
rpc:x:32:32:Portmapper RPC user:/:/bin/false
gdm:x:42:42::/var/gdm:/sbin/nologin
rpcuser:x:29:29:RPC Service User:/var/lib/nfs:/sbin/nologin
nfsnobody:x:65534:65534:Anonymous NFS User:/var/lib/nfs:/sbin/nologin
nscd:x:28:28:NSCD Daemon:/:/bin/false
ident:x:98:98:pident user:/:/sbin/nologin
radvd:x:75:75:radvd user:/:/bin/false
apache:x:48:48:Apache:/var/www:/bin/false
squid:x:23:23::/var/spool/squid:/dev/null
pcap:x:77:77::/var/arpwatch:/bin/nologin
mysqlusr:x:500:500::/home/mysqlusr:/bin/bash
marc:x:501:501::/var/ftp/marc:/bin/false  <-- this was the ftp user that I added with bin/flase

As you can see the 'root" is missing an 'x" so I went to pico and edited the file within rescue. *i have never done this before so I am not sure if I am doing it right

Anyways I told it to save the buffer over the curent /etc/passwd file with the "x" there

I rebooted and again it said CANNOT START YOUR SHELL, IT COULD BE THAT THE SYSTEM ADMIN ...........
It lloks like the password is ok but it wont atart the KDE or GNOME

I went back to linux recue cd'd over the /etc/passwd and again it did not take , it still says

root::0:0:root:/:/bin/bash

So it looks like whin I am *saving the file in pico, the file is not saving

Do I have to do something else to edit and then save that file so I can change it to read

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

[tolstoy]

Ok here's the deal. When you run the rescue disk, you are actually in a temporary filesystem that's running in RAM. What this means is that you are not really looking at the stuff on your hard drive. So, any changes you make to that filesystem (to it's /etc/passwd, for instance), are instantly lost upon reboot.

Luckily, you're real data is mounted under /mnt/sysimage. So just cd over to /mnt/sysimage/etc and edit that passwd file. That's where the stuff on your hard drive will be located. Does that make any sense?

If you used Winduhs to edit you're passwd file, your probably done for. Windows leaves carriage retuns (^M) at the end of everything and well, linux hates this. Now when this happens to /etc/passwd, linux really hates this. The stuff in passwd is most likely correct, its just that winduhs fscked it all up.

You're best bet at this point is to retrieve your original passwd file from where you put it on the net. Unzip it (you had it zipped right?), and before opening it (don't open it in fact) put it on a floppy disk. Now boot RH in rescue mode. Mount your floppy drive by issuing a:

mount /dev/fd0

Then copy your passwd file to where it needs to go--

cp /mnt/floppy/passwd /mnt/sysimage/etc/passwd

The only thing that may foul up this process is if the you don't have a pre-windows-edited copy of passwd. Also, I'm not sure if the RH rescue mode will read VFAT partitions or if /etc/fstab will have the correct entries to even mount your floppy. It probably will, but who knows.

If the above dosen't work, you can get rid of the carriage returns manually and resave /etc/passwd. There is a good turorial in the Plain English Tutorials on this site that can help you with that: http://www.linuxjunior.org/cgi-bin/p...play&id=11

Give this all a shot. If it dosen't work, you may have to re-install. Which, since you are very new to Linux, you'll probably have to do a few more times.

Good luck.

[Kaiser_Sose]

I will try all of that, thanks

before I ZIPed it up and put in on the net I opened it with ultredit. *It asled me about DOS format and i dont remeber if I said yes or NO

I do have /etc/passwd- on my windows machine too. *I think that one is ok but it is a different passwd file

Is there a windows program that I can edit my linux computer files with. *The reason why I do it this way is because I do everything through SSH on my windows machine. *Its alot easier to get to than the linux computer


Lastly, what exactly should I change

root::0:0:root:/:/bin/bash

this file to say

and should I

chroot /mnt/sysimage

That was the only line on the file when I checked before but as you can see it has much more

[Kaiser_Sose]

Thank You, I am back up

All I did was resave it within in pico while I was in chroot /mnt/sysimage

Now back to setting up proftpd

Do you know a windows editor that wont screw up these files

[Schotty]

If you edit it and save it in ASCII format, you should be fine. You may need to touch the file too, to get the file permission bits set. I may be wrong about touch. I merely use Windows for Rogue Spear right now -- nothing else. I never tried doing this, however logic states that since you arent changing formats, you should be okay.