I'm having login authentication issues. I was messing with shadow something when i was drinking, and since then i havent been able to log in. Unfortunately the only user i can remember the pass for is root. I had posted about my problem and was given the suggestion to delete the content between the first to colens on the root line of my /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files. Didn't work. Before i would get authentication failed when enterint the password, now i get it after i hit return from entering the username. Help please, i have to get out of knoppix back to something where settings are saved and office isn't in another language.

Login as root and give them new passwords.
code:
passwd [username]
code
Type new password twice.
Now if you have authentication problems, at least you know they're real, if not...
Resume drinking.

I cannot log in as root, when i type root and hit return from the gui logon, i get authentication failed. This is before i even enter a password. From the command line, it just refreshes the screen w/ a new login prompt following the return after typing root.

Sorry, thought you had root access. You'll have to go with single-user mode.
I'm not sure specifically with RH9, but basically edit grub arguments and add 's' or 'single' to the end of the kernel line.
If you get to the gui login, you missed it.
Once you're in single user mode, you're root, change the passwords.
See if there's a FAQ page for your distribution that will give you more lucid instructions.

depending on the settings of your windows manager, it may disallow root logins at the gui prompt which seems to be true in your case. Try going to a terminal screen (CTRL+ALT+F1) and login as root from there.

I can't login from any method i've tried. I'm sure i'd faail over telnet if i had that open. Is there a way to reset all users?

Or just the passwords?

Knoppix isn't the best on a ram limied machine.

Single user mode for RedHat9, either grub or lilo:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/l...ng-single.html

PS: Once you're in single-user mode:
pwunconv will decrypt your passwords and move them from /etc/shadow to /etc/password('un-shadow' your users).