Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Please don't laugh. I just started using Linux two days ago, and now I feel like a total idiot. I was messing around with creating new users, but didn't save my changes. When I went back into the Users and Groups manager it gave me an error and didn't open up. So, I logged off the root account, and once it got back to the login screen root was gone. I still have two regular users, but I cant "su" to gain superuser priveledges because there is no root user. The Users and Groups manager doesn't work in either of these accounts either. Is there any way of getting root back without doing a reinstall?
I'm guessing that your /etc/passwd file is damaged. Try copying the backup file ( /etc/passwd- ) back to /etc/passwd.
Failing that, re-install.
I made a rescue CD that boots into a shell okay...so that I can edit my /etc/passwd file, but how do I mount, and navigate my hardrive from the CD's shell?
And dangit, there's no jot, or nedit on this rescue disk. How do I edit my passwd file without those?
if you fail at vi, here's what i do: first copy the text from the file (or just select it with your mouse)
Then:
Code:
cat > file_you_want_it_in
now either type away or
paste your text by doing <Shift><Insert> OR
<Ctrl><Shift><Insert> to paste selected text.
<Ctrl>+d to stop cat-ting (it also saves the file).
I'm curious how this is done, surely you must be root in order to delete the account, what happens if logged in as root and you delete yourself? (nothing from your experience?) what happens to root owned files? are they then parentless and inaccessible?
What an odd thing to do :P
Also a note is that some users are created for services.applications like mysql (i think) etc.
Thanks, my problem now is that the rescue disk I have must not have SATA drivers. That's what my system drive is, and I can't mount it when in the rescue disk's shell. Any idea where I can get a rescue disk with SATA drivers? I don't have my original Linux distros.
How did you install linux in the very first place - What distro you are running?
Red Hat Enterprise Edition Update 2...it was preinstalled on our Intellistation A-Pro when it arrived. I'm downloading the distros now. Which disk should I use as my rescue CD?
Red Hat Enterprise Edition Update 2...it was preinstalled on our Intellistation A-Pro when it arrived. I'm downloading the distros now. Which disk should I use as my rescue CD?
I dont understand this, what 'distros' are you downloading?? it's usually a good idea to use a rescue disk that is part of your distro, in this case RHEL. You can try Fedora (community based RH testbed, but very good) they have a rescue cd, i'm sure it has SATA drivers (it would be a bit silly if their distro was installable on SATA but the rescue cd couldnt rescue a system on it...)
I dont understand this, what 'distros' are you downloading?? it's usually a good idea to use a rescue disk that is part of your distro, in this case RHEL. You can try Fedora (community based RH testbed, but very good) they have a rescue cd, i'm sure it has SATA drivers (it would be a bit silly if their distro was installable on SATA but the rescue cd couldnt rescue a system on it...)
*blink* if you allowed yourself to mess around like that, still not sure just -how- someone manages to delete the root account on a box, then you can probably afford to just reinstall that box, which is likely to be faster and easier than trying to fix the problem.
*blink* if you allowed yourself to mess around like that, still not sure just -how- someone manages to delete the root account on a box, then you can probably afford to just reinstall that box, which is likely to be faster and easier than trying to fix the problem.
I may do that, but there is a lot of other stuff on here that I would have to reconfigure. The machine is a film editing/visual fx workstation, and all the software for those apps would take forever to reinstall/reconfigure.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.