On 04/23/2014 05:45 PM, John Jason Jordan wrote: > On Wed, 23 Apr 2014 16:11:24 -0700 > David <[email protected]> dijo: > >>> Once logged in I opened /etc/shadow as root (using nano) and added * >>> in front of the JJJ line. Then I rebooted. Sadly, I should not have >>> done that, because now I can't log in, even at the command line. >>> Whatever I enter for the password (including leaving it blank) >>> results in "incorrect password" error. I get the same error message >>> if I try to log in as root. >> >> If you can get logged in as root again, you can try one of two things: >> >> 1) exec 'passwd jjj' to reset the hash >> 2) remove the '*' in /etc/shadow and then you will have no password > > The /etc/shadow file (before editing) showed jjj:*<a long string of > characters>. I assume the long string of characters was the hash. > > First I just added * in front of the line. Afterward I was unable to > log in even at the command line (Ctrl-F1). Subsequent messages said > that putting the * in front disabled the account. So I removed it, but > was still unable to log in, even from the command line (Ctrl-F1). > Subsequently I noted that all the other accounts were followed by :*, > so I added :* after mine (l3eaving the rest of the line blank). From > the above advice this is supposed to leave me with no password, but I > still can't log in. Even leaving the password box empty at the login > screen gives the "wrong password" error. > > Right now the line in /etc/shadow says: > > jjj:* > > Is this what it's supposed to say to just log in without a password?
No, you *must* have the proper number of fields in the shadow file entry to have things work properly. An example of an account that never has login access would be this: www-data:*:15754:0:99999:7::: Now, if you wanted to make it password-free, you only need to remove the '*' and leave no spaces between the colons: www-data::15754:0:99999:7::: Next you switch to another virtual terminal (Ctrl-F4) and then use 'jjj' as the username and you *should* get a prompt straight away. Alternatively, you can try using the hash for your guest account that seemed to work for you before, by pasting that in the second of the colon separated fields. dafr _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
