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Date:      Sat, 23 Nov 1996 17:48:40 -0600
From:      Jason Hudgins <jasonh@cei.net>
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   major system screw-up
Message-ID:  <1.5.4.32.19961123234840.00688b04@mail.cei.net>

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I just installed freebsd2-1.6 to use for my companies web-server..but I 
made a booboo.
In the passwd file I changed my root startup shell from /bin/sh to /bin/bash.
Cept the problem is that bash is in /usr/local/bin/bash ...
So now I can't login as root because it can't find bash..and of course
since I can't login as root, then I can't fix my error.

So I thought I would use the fixit floppy..I mean..that's what its for 
right? How hard could it be?

So I get the fixit floppy up...mount the hard drive on /mnt and dive into
/mnt/etc..cept there is no editor..not even vi that I can fix the passwd
file with.
So I'm thinking that as long as I have the hard drive mounted, then I can
run the binary off the hard disk..so I cd to /mnt/usr/bin..but there is no
bin directory. Maybe /usr is mounted on a different partition.
   /dev/wd0a is mounted on /mnt
   /dev/wd0b doesn't exist
   /dev/wd0c will not mount .etc..

I finally give up...

So I can't get to vi..hrmm what to do next..create a new root user maybe..
echo "<new /etc/passwd entry for superuser named mojo>" >> passwd
echo "<new /etc/master.passwd entry for mojo with no passwd" >> master.passwd

Seemed to work fine..guess I will reboot the server now and login as mojo now.

When I reboot the machine...the kernel gives me lines of ridiculous errors
chmod after chmod..
And then it tells me that it can't start a system daemon called "cronblah"
And FINALLY it comes up claiming that its no longer www.dancooks.com ..now
its just (Amnesiac).

Now if someone could please tell me how APPENDING a line to the passwd and
master.passwd files could TOTALLY screw up my machine..I would be grateful.
If someone could tell me how to fix this TOTALLY screwed up machine I
would be even more greatful.

I admit most of this garbage is probably due to my lack of experience with
FreeBSD...I have used slackware for a long time and never had these kinds
of difficulties..but I wanted to use FreeBSD for its great network stability.

I really want to get this FreeBSD up, running, & stable as a permanent web
server for my company..I think its a great OS made by great people. But its
just so volatile, that if it breaks..I have a really hard time fixing it.

Thanks
  Jason Hudgins




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