From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Aug 9 13:45:26 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 39ED137B400 for ; Fri, 9 Aug 2002 13:45:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BA9843E91 for ; Fri, 9 Aug 2002 13:45:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk ([IPv6:::1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g79KjKFo090374; Fri, 9 Aug 2002 21:45:20 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost) by happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id g79KjEqC090373; Fri, 9 Aug 2002 21:45:14 +0100 (BST) Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 21:45:14 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman To: Michael Graalfs Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Free BSD 4.5 Install Message-ID: <20020809204514.GA90130@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> References: <20020809085851.29063.qmail@web40107.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20020809085851.29063.qmail@web40107.mail.yahoo.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, Aug 09, 2002 at 01:58:51AM -0700, Michael Graalfs wrote: > New to BSD. I get the install complete and the login > fails. Either the login id is incorrect or the > password is incorrect. I tried reseting the password > but that didn't work. I am thinking that the root > usser id is incorrect. My question is how do I change > that? If you didn't set a root password during the install, then you should be able to login as root with no password on one of the console vty screens. Press -- where x is a digit from 1 to 8 to switch screen. Remember that unix account names and passwords are case sensitive (so check for caps-lock being on). The convention is that user names are generally created using all lower case letters, but passwords should contain mixed upper and lower case letters, digits, punctuation and so forth for security. If you do get in, first set up a password for the root account: passwd root then create yourself a user account: pw user add -n michael -c "Michael Graalfs" -G wheel -m passwd michael In general you should (almost) always log in as an ordinary user and su(1) to root only when absolutely necessary. The '-G wheel' bit in the command above adds you to the 'wheel' group which means you will be permitted to use su(1) by the system. If you failed at the first hurdle above, and still can't manage to log in as root, essentially you need to go through the procedure for recovering a lost root password described in http://lantech.geekvenue.net/chucktips/jason/chuck/1002317496/index_html You should be able to bring your system down cleanly without being able to log in as root by the vulcan nerve pinch -- rather than anything as drastic as hitting the reset button. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way Tel: +44 1628 476614 Marlow Fax: +44 0870 0522645 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message