Root password problem

Somehow since yesterday, I am no longer able to login to any programs in su mode. I’m also not able to login as root from terminal. I’ve followed instructions from the forum about how to reset the root password but they don’t work, returning the error message:

tom@desktop-linux-1= /home/tom $ su
su: incorrect password
tom@desktop-linux-1= /home/tom $

This after changing /etc/passwd to delete the “x” between the first and second colon and /etc/shadow to show “root ::::”.

I’ve also tried renaming the “passwd.old” and “shadow.old” files after renaming the originals as “*.sav”

Is there anything else short of re-installing that I should try?

openSUSE 11.4

tom@desktop-linux-1= /home/tom $ uname -a
Linux desktop-linux-1 2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-07-21 02:17:24 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Tom

On 10/25/2011 10:06 AM, tommyttt wrote:
>
> Somehow since yesterday, I am no longer able to login to any programs in
> su mode.

exactly what do you mean by “in su mode”? is it:

-log into kde/gnome/etc as root?

-log into kde/gnome/etc as yourself and then use (for example) YaST,
File Manager Super User Mode or other root powered GUI apps?

> I’m also not able to login as root from terminal. I’ve
> followed instructions from the forum about how to reset the root
> password but they don’t work,

did you have reason to believe that your root password had been
forgotten or somehow damaged?


DD
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems

Do not mess with the passwd file. In the Grub menu boot to runlevel 1 and change the root password. Then reboot normally.

On 2011-10-25 10:06, tommyttt wrote:
>
> Somehow since yesterday, I am no longer able to login to any programs in
> su mode. I’m also not able to login as root from terminal. I’ve

Search for this thread here: “Root password during after install”


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

Any login method, whether from terminal, terminal using kdesu, starting a root mode program (krusader), or login to a desktop.

> I’m also not able to login as root from terminal. I’ve
> followed instructions from the forum about how to reset the root
> password but they don’t work,

did you have reason to believe that your root password had been
forgotten or somehow damaged?
I haven’t changed or forgotten my password. I also use it in another distro (scientific linux, FreeBSD) where it works correctly.

Tried that. Didn’t work. Wouldn’t let me log in as root there either.

I had already done the ideas provided in a forum search but they didn’t help. When this first happened yesterday, I rebooted into PartedMagic, edited the passwd and shadow files as listed in the forums but that didn’t solve the problem.

Guess I’ll just re-install 11.4 and see what happens in the future.

Thanks all for the suggestions.

On 10/25/2011 11:46 PM, tommyttt wrote:
>> exactly what do you mean by “in su mode”? is it:
> Any login method, whether from terminal, terminal using kdesu, starting
> a root mode program (krusader), or login to a desktop.

imo, that last part: “login to a desktop” as root is a likely candidate
for the cause of your problem…

such has caused many reinstalls because finding what was messed up by
logging into the GUI desktop as root is sometime just impossible to find…


DD
openSUSE®, the “German Automobiles” of operating systems