freebsd forgets root password

[Kevin Kinsey]

kalin m wrote:
> 
> 
> hi all ....
> 
> this is really weird.
> i've must have set up the root password on this new machine i got at 
> least 5 times and after a few reboots this thing forgets it.
> i have to go in single user and reset it again and again?!?
> 
> what can be the reason?

Can you clarify a bit?  Do you mean, "after rebooting I can get
in without a password", or, "after rebooting it refuses the password
I type", or something else?  Are you logging into the console, or
into something like xdm/gdm?  What about normal (non-root) accounts,
do they also have this problem?

And, for that matter, why have you done "a few reboots"?  This
isn't Windoze ;-)

 > while i'm on here... the machine comes with an ethernet card

<snip>

Sounds like, possibly, a newer variant of the device?  Occasionally
a manufacturer makes a new variation on a chip/device and the FBSD
driver doesn't recognize it.  If you can get the thing to work, or
maybe use another card and update, it just might.  Can't say for
sure, but you might check the CVS Web Interface for changes to
the msk(4) driver in the last $n months.

At any rate, the suggestion to read the manpage for msk(4) isn't
a bad one.  It could be that you need to add a KLD to loader.conf
or something ... at the very least, it should say what variants
are expected to work with msk(4).

HTH,

Kevin Kinsey