Root Account Problem

hi, hopefully someone can help with this...

in suse 10 on yast, i went into the user accounts section and set the root account to 'Disable User Login" - thinking that this would just force people to login as a normal user and su to root if needed.

however, this seems to have made it that you can never login as root! not via su. yast will no longer start, super user shell doesn't work etc

i've tried booting to runlevel 1 - it asks for the root password and won't let me in
i've tried booting cd1 of suse 10 but i can't start the 'repair' mode - it just hangs! (can start installation via safe settings, but not much can be done from there it seems)

is there a way to modify the root account to revert the 'Disable User Login' and change the root password?

many thanks if you can help,
dave

hi, hopefully someone can help with this...

in suse 10 on yast, i went into the user accounts section and set the root account to 'Disable User Login" - thinking that this would just force people to login as a normal user and su to root if needed.

however, this seems to have made it that you can never login as root! not via su. yast will no longer start, super user shell doesn't work etc

i've tried booting to runlevel 1 - it asks for the root password and won't let me in
i've tried booting cd1 of suse 10 but i can't start the 'repair' mode - it just hangs! (can start installation via safe settings, but not much can be done from there it seems)

is there a way to modify the root account to revert the 'Disable User Login' and change the root password?

many thanks if you can help,
dave
[/b]

Hi,

Try doing the following:
At your boot menu: type the following command: init=/bin/sh, press enter and let it boot up, after it does boot up you should be tossed into maintenance shell which will provide no password prompt.

Once youre there, try and see what has been set as root user shell in /etc/passwd, and change it according to your needs.

Even though you should be able to "su" to root from GUI: hint: "kdesu||gnomesu"

# kdesu <command>

Hi,

Try doing the following:
At your boot menu: type the following command: init=/bin/sh, press enter and let it boot up, after it does boot up you should be tossed into maintenance shell which will provide no password prompt.

Once youre there, try and see what has been set as root user shell in /etc/passwd, and change it according to your needs.
[/b]

You are a star! That got me into the shell and I could modify /etc/shadow - needed to remove the '!' from the root line which is wat was stopping root from logging in.

Many Thanks,
Dave

PS best backup the machine now!