RE: Superuser password lost
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Bill Moran Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 6:15 PM To: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Superuser password lost Apparently I miscommunicated. My point was that the OP's message used the term superuser in an ambiguous way. (i.e. the way I mentioned). To me, it wasn't clear what it was asking for, and thus sending the OP to the PC-BSD community (where folks are probably familiar to the GUI widget he's dealing with) seemed the best thing to do. Historically on all UNIXes superuser = the root user The problem as I see it is that recently Apple (probably stole this idea from someone else) has introduced ambiguity into the term with the creation of what they call the owner account into MacOS X. With regular MacOS X there's some things that an ordinary user can do, but when an ordinary user tries to do some other things, MacOS X flashes up a dialog asking for the owners password. However, even if you su to root, there's still things that the system will not let you do which is insane because real UNIX will happily allow the root user to rm -r / if desired. Once more, proving that MacOS X is nothing more than UNIX-on-training-wheels, and reaffirming what Apple's historic view of it's customers really is (ie: dumb and dumber) Microsoft also introduced ambiguity into the concept, although to their credit, they scruplously avoided use of the term superuser or root. Under Microsoft operating systems, there's ordinary users and there's administrators and you can have multiple administrators, which isn't possible in UNIX - thus a MS administrator a UNIX superuser. I would suspect PC-BSD has copied the Apple nonsense and has created this mutated account that's not quite a real superuser account, and not quite a regular user account. Ted ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 10:14:32PM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: Because I don't think it's appropriate to drag this conversation on and on, I'm going to try to answer all the responses in a single email. Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:27:36AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: [snip] No. The term superuser is a made-up term for any way of gaining root privs. In my experience it's confusing as there are two commonly used methods for doing this, the su command and sudo, and they require different passwords. I have never seen the term used that way. I have seen su and sudo referred to as ways of a non-root id gaining superuser priviledge/root priviledge but not a superuser as someone who is not root, but has a method of gaining root priviledge. Apparently I miscommunicated. My point was that the OP's message used the term superuser in an ambiguous way. (i.e. the way I mentioned). To me, it wasn't clear what it was asking for, and thus sending the OP to the PC-BSD community (where folks are probably familiar to the GUI widget he's dealing with) seemed the best thing to do. I don't really care, but when I read the OP, I believed he was looking for root from what was presented and so that was how I responded. The rest is just small talk.But, asking the PC-BSD folk is not a bad idea. jerry ... ... Alex Zbyslaw [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'd contend that the su manpage *should* say root not superuser, since root is hardwired as the default. But for other cases, any user with UID 0 might work just as well (e.g. toor). I agree on this point, but not enough to bother trying to put a patch together that (based on the conversation here) is likely to be controversial. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost [SOLVED]
Ok thank you very much it works Luigi Kris Moore a écrit : Luigi, Normally you can't just look-up the password, however you can reset it if you like. To reset, use this procedure: 1. Boot the system 2. At the splash loader screen, choose option 4 single user mode 3. When it drops you to a boot prompt, hit enter, then type in: # mount -o rw / 4. Next enter the password change command: # passwd 5. Change your password, and then type: # exit That should be it! ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Superuser password lost
Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? Thanks Luigi ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
In response to Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? This is a PC-BSD-specific question. There is no such thing as the superuser ... it's a colloquialism frequently used by folks to make things sound cooler (or for some other reason I don't understand) PC-BSD has several community lists, including a support list. Have you tried asking there?: http://www.pcbsd.org/content/view/22/29/ -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
Thanks to all. I'll try it. Luigi ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
Is this the root password of the system or something else? Regards, Ivailo Tanusheff Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12.03.2008 14:59 Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To freebsd-questions freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc Subject Superuser password lost Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? Thanks Luigi ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
Yes I think it is the root password of the system. Ivailo Tanusheff a écrit : Is this the root password of the system or something else? Regards, Ivailo Tanusheff Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12.03.2008 14:59 Please respond to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To freebsd-questions freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc Subject Superuser password lost Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? Thanks Luigi ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 09:52:38AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: In response to Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? This is a PC-BSD-specific question. There is no such thing as the superuser ... it's a colloquialism frequently used by folks to make things sound cooler (or for some other reason I don't understand) I don't understand this response. Superuser is just another name for the root user which is any user id with a UID of 0. I haven't used PC-BSD flavor, but in general, with BSDs you force them to boot - by killing power if necessary, but a clean shutdown is better (but that usually requires root). Then, while it is booting, make it boot to 'single user' mode. At that point, at the console, you are root. Clean up a little fsck -p mount -u / mount -a swapon -a Then just set a password for root --- and don't forget it. passwd root follow the prompts If PC-BSD doesn't let you boot to single user, then you will need to use an installation CD to get to the point you can write to the passwd and master.passwd files. jerry PC-BSD has several community lists, including a support list. Have you tried asking there?: http://www.pcbsd.org/content/view/22/29/ -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
In response to Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 09:52:38AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: In response to Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? This is a PC-BSD-specific question. There is no such thing as the superuser ... it's a colloquialism frequently used by folks to make things sound cooler (or for some other reason I don't understand) I don't understand this response. Superuser is just another name for the root user which is any user id with a UID of 0. No. The term superuser is a made-up term for any way of gaining root privs. In my experience it's confusing as there are two commonly used methods for doing this, the su command and sudo, and they require different passwords. Frankly, I don't know whether PC-BSD is asking for the root password or asking for him to confirm _his_ password for use in a sudo-like operation. I don't know of anywhere in the FreeBSD base system that the term superuser is used, so I assume he'll get a more direct answer from the PC-BSD folks. I haven't used PC-BSD flavor, but in general, with BSDs you force them to boot - by killing power if necessary, but a clean shutdown is better (but that usually requires root). The instructions you give are only correct if it's the root password he lost. It's likely you're right and this will get him up and running again, but I didn't know that for sure and didn't want to lead him down a bunch of steps only to find out that it was asking for something different. I was curious about the PC-BSD community and checked their web site. Based on what I saw, the best advice to me seemed to be to direct him to them. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:27:36AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: In response to Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 09:52:38AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: In response to Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? This is a PC-BSD-specific question. There is no such thing as the superuser ... it's a colloquialism frequently used by folks to make things sound cooler (or for some other reason I don't understand) I don't understand this response. Superuser is just another name for the root user which is any user id with a UID of 0. No. The term superuser is a made-up term for any way of gaining root privs. In my experience it's confusing as there are two commonly used methods for doing this, the su command and sudo, and they require different passwords. I have never seen the term used that way. I have seen su and sudo referred to as ways of a non-root id gaining superuser priviledge/root priviledge but not a superuser as someone who is not root, but has a method of gaining root priviledge. Anyway, the OP sounds mostly like root is what was needed. jerry Frankly, I don't know whether PC-BSD is asking for the root password or asking for him to confirm _his_ password for use in a sudo-like operation. I don't know of anywhere in the FreeBSD base system that the term superuser is used, so I assume he'll get a more direct answer from the PC-BSD folks. I haven't used PC-BSD flavor, but in general, with BSDs you force them to boot - by killing power if necessary, but a clean shutdown is better (but that usually requires root). The instructions you give are only correct if it's the root password he lost. It's likely you're right and this will get him up and running again, but I didn't know that for sure and didn't want to lead him down a bunch of steps only to find out that it was asking for something different. I was curious about the PC-BSD community and checked their web site. Based on what I saw, the best advice to me seemed to be to direct him to them. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:27:36AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: In response to Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 09:52:38AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: In response to Luigi [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hi all, Maybe it's a simple question but i'm a newbie lost in my new BSDworld. I've installed PC-BSD but when I want to install a software, It ask me a superuser password. I think I lost this password. How can I retrieve this superuser password ? This is a PC-BSD-specific question. There is no such thing as the superuser ... it's a colloquialism frequently used by folks to make things sound cooler (or for some other reason I don't understand) I don't understand this response. Superuser is just another name for the root user which is any user id with a UID of 0. No. The term superuser is a made-up term for any way of gaining root privs. Wrong. superuser is, just as the previous poster said, a synonym for root, i.e. a user account with UID=0 See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superuser or http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/superuser.html -- Insert your favourite quote here. Erik Trulsson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
Bill Moran wrote: I don't know of anywhere in the FreeBSD base system that the term superuser is used, so I assume he'll get a more direct answer from the PC-BSD folks. Hate to be picky, because I'd agree with most everything else you wrote, but superuser, and its synonym super-user, do appear in many base man pages, for example the su page shown below. Sometimes it's a shortcut for root (or other UID 0 user), like below in su, sometimes just for effective UID 0 in general, for example as in mount(8). The su utility requests appropriate user credentials via PAM and switches to that user ID (the default user is the superuser). A shell is then executed. I'd contend that the su manpage *should* say root not superuser, since root is hardwired as the default. But for other cases, any user with UID 0 might work just as well (e.g. toor). --Alex ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
On Wednesday 12 March 2008 16:27:36 Bill Moran wrote: I don't know of anywhere in the FreeBSD base system that the term superuser is used In the kernel even! suser(9), suser_cred(9), vfs_suser(9) -- Mel Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules and never get to the software part. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
On 12 mrt 2008, at 19:26, Mel wrote: On Wednesday 12 March 2008 16:27:36 Bill Moran wrote: I don't know of anywhere in the FreeBSD base system that the term superuser is used In the kernel even! suser(9), suser_cred(9), vfs_suser(9) Have you had a look at 'man su' ? Arno ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Superuser password lost
Because I don't think it's appropriate to drag this conversation on and on, I'm going to try to answer all the responses in a single email. Jerry McAllister [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:27:36AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: [snip] No. The term superuser is a made-up term for any way of gaining root privs. In my experience it's confusing as there are two commonly used methods for doing this, the su command and sudo, and they require different passwords. I have never seen the term used that way. I have seen su and sudo referred to as ways of a non-root id gaining superuser priviledge/root priviledge but not a superuser as someone who is not root, but has a method of gaining root priviledge. Apparently I miscommunicated. My point was that the OP's message used the term superuser in an ambiguous way. (i.e. the way I mentioned). To me, it wasn't clear what it was asking for, and thus sending the OP to the PC-BSD community (where folks are probably familiar to the GUI widget he's dealing with) seemed the best thing to do. Erik Trulsson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:27:36AM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: [snip] No. The term superuser is a made-up term for any way of gaining root privs. Wrong. superuser is, just as the previous poster said, a synonym for root, i.e. a user account with UID=0 See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superuser or http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/superuser.html Who am I to argue with wikipedia? But the second link you provide does not agree with your explanation. According to The Jargon File, my wmoran account is a superuser, because it's a member of the wheel group. Thus, my argument that the term is ambiguous, which (based on the links you provided) you seem to be backing up. Alex Zbyslaw [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hate to be picky, because I'd agree with most everything else you wrote, but superuser, and its synonym super-user, do appear in many base man pages, for example the su page shown below. Sometimes it's a shortcut for root (or other UID 0 user), like below in su, sometimes just for effective UID 0 in general, for example as in mount(8). The su utility requests appropriate user credentials via PAM and switches to that user ID (the default user is the superuser). A shell is then executed. Mel [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In the kernel even! suser(9), suser_cred(9), vfs_suser(9) OK, I was wrong on this point. Alex Zbyslaw [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'd contend that the su manpage *should* say root not superuser, since root is hardwired as the default. But for other cases, any user with UID 0 might work just as well (e.g. toor). I agree on this point, but not enough to bother trying to put a patch together that (based on the conversation here) is likely to be controversial. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
