Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 21:45:14 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Michael Graalfs <mgraalfs@yahoo.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Free BSD 4.5 Install Message-ID: <20020809204514.GA90130@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> In-Reply-To: <20020809085851.29063.qmail@web40107.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20020809085851.29063.qmail@web40107.mail.yahoo.com>
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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 <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Fx> 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 <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Del>
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
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