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Update salix 13.0 to 13.1, but the password is lost

Posted: 29. May 2010, 23:14
by lihua
I updated my box to 13.1 online according to the WIKI, but forgot to do 'lilo -v'. After reboot, my passowrd is no more correct. But i do not change the password. What to do next?

Re: Update salix 13.0 to 13.1, but the password is lost

Posted: 30. May 2010, 06:05
by Akuna
The first step would be to fix lilo, then boot in runlevel 3, login as root & change your regular user password.

1- You will find guidance to fix lilo here: http://fredgnix.blogspot.com/2010/05/re ... kware.html
The post is in French, but what it basically says is to boot in Salix iso, come out of the installer & then you can issue the commands in yellow (modifying then as needed to reflect your own setup).

2- To boot into runlevel 3 once lilo is fixed: start your computer & when you get to the lilo boot screen, simply hit the tab key, type linux 3 & press Enter.

3- Once you arrive at the text identification, login as root & issue the following command:

Code: Select all

passwd name_of_the_user_for_which_you_lost_the_password
Simply follow the instructions (you will be asked to type the password twice).

Once the password is changed, type:

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init 4
This should bring you back to your regular GDM login screen

PS: It seems odd that your password changed, you might first want to check that it is not a numlock issue before going through the procedure of changing your regular user password. Or maybe your keyboard is simply not responding anymore because the kernel modules do not correspond with the loaded kernel. So fix lilo first & verify that you still have that problem before following steps 2 & 3.

Re: Update salix 13.0 to 13.1, but the password is lost

Posted: 30. May 2010, 13:43
by thenktor
Akuna wrote:PS: It seems odd that your password changed, you might first want to check that it is not a numlock issue before going through the procedure of changing your regular user password. Or maybe your keyboard is simply not responding anymore because the kernel modules do not correspond with the loaded kernel. So fix lilo first & verify that you still have that problem before following steps 2 & 3.
Perhaps he has overwritten his passwd/shadow files with dotnew.

Re: Update salix 13.0 to 13.1, but the password is lost

Posted: 30. May 2010, 16:42
by gapan
thenktor wrote:Perhaps he has overwritten his passwd/shadow files with dotnew.
That's exactly what the OP did. The original files are in the same location with a .orig suffix, so he can get them back.

Re: Update salix 13.0 to 13.1, but the password is lost

Posted: 30. May 2010, 23:59
by lihua
Thank you, guys.
I updated lilo following Akuna's advice, Salix works now. But all the password and usernames lost, expect for ROOT with no password. Also, the settings are lost too. Maybe thenktor is right, i will check the .orig files later.