Cannot login to root account on FreeBSD 7.0

[Mel]

On Friday 31 October 2008 17:13:14 mdh wrote:
> --- On Fri, 10/31/08, Pramod Dematagoda <pmd.lotr.gandalf at gmail.com> wrote:
> > From: Pramod Dematagoda <pmd.lotr.gandalf at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: Cannot login to root account on FreeBSD 7.0
> > To: mdh_lists at yahoo.com
> > Cc: "FreeBSD ML" <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
> > Date: Friday, October 31, 2008, 12:00 PM
> >
> > On Fri, 2008-10-31 at 08:19 -0700, mdh wrote:
> > > --- On Fri, 10/31/08, Pramod Dematagoda
> >
> > <pmd.lotr.gandalf at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > From: Pramod Dematagoda
> >
> > <pmd.lotr.gandalf at gmail.com>
> >
> > > > Subject: Re: Cannot login to root account on
> >
> > FreeBSD 7.0
> >
> > > > To: "Mel"
> >
> > <fbsd.questions at rachie.is-a-geek.net>
> >
> > > > Cc: "FreeBSD ML"
> >
> > <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
> >
> > > > Date: Friday, October 31, 2008, 11:09 AM
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, 2008-10-31 at 16:00 +0100, Mel wrote:
> > > > > On Friday 31 October 2008 15:53:23 Pramod
> >
> > Dematagoda
> >
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, 2008-10-31 at 07:09 -0700,
> >
> > Jeremy
> >
> > > > Chadwick wrote:
> > > > > > > On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 06:59:04PM
> >
> > +0530,
> >
> > > > Pramod Dematagoda wrote:
> > > > > > > > But now I've faced a big
> >
> > problem, I
> >
> > > > can no longer seem to login to the
> > > >
> > > > > > > > root account where whenever I
> >
> > supply
> >
> > > > the proper credentials to the
> > > >
> > > > > > > > login screen, I always get
> >
> > thrown back
> >
> > > > to the login screen. This
> > > >
> > > > > > > > started happening after I
> >
> > installed
> >
> > > > D-bus and HAL through the FreeBSD
> > > >
> > > > > > > > ports which were built upon
> >
> > Xorg 1.5.1
> >
> > > > which I had built myself
> > > >
> > > > > > > > previously, so I am wondering
> >
> > if
> >
> > > > something I did may have caused the
> > > >
> > > > > > > > problem.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Reboot the machine and at the
> >
> > FreeBSD
> >
> > > > beastie/loader menu, hit "4" to
> > > >
> > > > > > > boot into single-user mode.  Once
> >
> > there, do:
> > > > > > > # mount -a
> > > > > > > # mount -o rw -u /
> > > > > > > # passwd root
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > And change the password.
> >
> > "reboot"
> >
> > > > and you should be good to go.
> > > >
> > > > > > Hey Jeremy,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks for looking into the problem,
> >
> > but
> >
> > > > unfortunately your solution did
> > > >
> > > > > > not work, I changed the root password
> >
> > to
> >
> > > > something else, however I still
> > > >
> > > > > > cannot login to root once I boot
> >
> > FreeBSD
> >
> > > > normally.
> > > >
> > > > > There should be in indication in
> >
> > /var/log/messages or
> >
> > > > /var/log/auth.log.
> > > >
> > > > I checked /var/log/messages, and I found
> >
> > something
> >
> > > > interesting, it seems
> > > > that csh exits with signal 11(core dumped) right
> >
> > after a
> >
> > > > root login,
> > > > there is nothing out of the ordinary in auth.log.
> >
> > But now
> >
> > > > what do I do
> > > > to fix the problem, change the shell?
> > >
> > > Yeowzers.
> > > Change it to /bin/sh for now.  Once you're back
> >
> > up, it'd be interesting to debug this.  Would you like
> > to?
> >
> > > - mdh
> >
> > I found something a bit more interesting, csh crashes
> > regardless of the
> > user account to which it is used for, so something is wrong
> > with csh
> > itself and not the root account.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Pramod Dematagoda
>
> First, please post the output of `uname -a`.  It'd be useful to know when
> you grabbed sources last, if you've built your own world at all, as well. 
> This information is necessary before we continue.  Also please post the
> output from the commands `ls -l /bin/csh` and `md5 /bin/csh`.
>
> While in sh, if you type /bin/csh to run csh, does it crash, or does it
> seem proper?  If it seems proper, try and few commands and see if it still
> does. If it crashes, let's try some debugging.  You should have a csh.core
> file, probably in /root.  Run the command `gdb /bin/csh /root/csh.core`
> (replacing /root/csh.core to whatever path csh.core is in, if it's not in
> /root), and post the output to this list along with everything else I've
> asked for.
>
> Do that now.  If that still doesn't work, I'm going to tell you to...
>
> Build it for debugging.  cd to the directory /usr/src/bin/csh, and run the
> following commands: `CFLAGS='-ggdb' make`, then run `make install`.


No, we don't do that. We run:
make DEBUG_FLAGS=-g clean all install

because:
a) setting CFLAGS omits CFLAGS from the bsd build system and that's not 
advised
b) setting DEBUG_FLAGS disables strip on install (strip strips the debug 
symbols)

-- 
Mel

Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules
    and never get to the software part.