Enabling root login without an administrator account

[Chris St Denis]

Well, my second suggestion about creating an account and SUing to root 
should still be correct. Assuming of course that you can get in in 
single user mode.

Take a look at /etc/ttys there may be something in there restricting it, 
thats all I can think of.


 Veronica Labarca wrote:
> Hi Chris,
> Thanks for your quick response. No. I mean root login at the console is
> dissallowed. Why??? Beats me! I got it that way. 
> Viqui 
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris St Denis [mailto:chris at smartt.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 2:24 PM
> To: Veronica Labarca
> Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Enabling root login without an administrator account
>
>  Veronica Labarca wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>> I have inherited a FreeBSD server and need to change the apache 
>> configuration, but cannot log in to the server. I have the root 
>> password (and know how to change it if needed in any case). The 
>> problem is that root login is disabled. There are various 
>> administrative accounts on the server, but I don't have the password 
>> to any of those. Can someone advise me as to either, how to get the 
>> root login enabled or how to change the password on a different account?
>> Thanks for any help you can provide.
>> Viqui
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>   
>>   
>>     
> I'm assuming you mean root login via SSH is disabled (as is the default).
> IIRC, root can always login from the console.
>
> Login as root from the console (or boot into single user mode) and edit
> /etc/ssh/sshd_config
>
> Uncomment "PermitRootLogin" line and change no to yes.
>
> An alternate (and better) solution is to create yourself a user account in
> the wheel group and use that to login then SU up to root.
>
>   


-- 
Chris St Denis
Programmer
SmarttNet (www.smartt.com)
Ph: 604-473-9700 Ext. 200
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