any way to recover root password on 5.2

[Matthew Seaman]

On Thu, May 06, 2004 at 12:28:18PM +0300, Gregory Edigarov wrote:

> I forgot root pasword on my just installed server.
> I've tryed to recover it by going to single user, then doing 
> mount -a; passwd root, but no success. It says "entropy device
> blocking. Dance fandago on keyboard to unlock".
> what can I do?

Like it says, type a lot of gibberish into the keyboard.  One of the
places the system can derive randomness from is the time interval
between key presses.  If you're worried about accidentally typing a
command and hosing your system, then you can start by doing:

    # cat >/dev/null

type arbitrary stuff for a few minutes, and then hit Ctrl-D.

Then try re-running passwd(1).

Alternatively you can edit /etc/master.passwd using vipw(1) and simply
delete the crypttext of the password for the root account.  Then boot
back into multi user, and immediately log in as root and set a new
password.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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