[SOLVED] New install- no root password! init=/bin/bash crashes!

keithostertag · 02-20-2013, 09:57 AM

Just finished a new install of Debian Wheezy via netinstall, minimal install, no DE or even wm's yet. 3.2.04-amd64.

Everything seemed to go well, and I can login with my user name.

However, the system doesn't recognize the root password that I gave it during the install.

This has happened to me before in the past, and I have used this procedure to change the root password:

Get to GRUB screen
Press e to edit
add "init=/bin/bash" to end of the kernel line
ctrl-x to reboot
from there I would mount -rw -o remount / then passwd, etc...

That has worked in the past. This time I get:

Code:

bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash: no job control in this shell
root@(none):/#

Then nothing. No response to any keyboard entry. Crashed?

I've googled around, and lots of posts regarding similar but nothing helpful so far.

Can you help?

Thanks,
Keith Ostertag

linosaurusroot · 02-20-2013, 10:12 AM

Sounds like there's something up with /dev/console . What about booting from a live CD?

keithostertag · 02-20-2013, 10:21 AM

Hi- thanks for responding. Boot from live CD, then what? chroot, then able to use passwd? Could you detail? I've never actually used chroot before... Not sure which live CD's I have, would it work if I use a Ubuntu live cd?

Keith

linosaurusroot · 02-20-2013, 10:29 AM

Any live CD should do. Mount your disk (I assume you know which partition and what format) and

a) edit /mnt/etc/shadow to your choice
You can get an old-style passwd hash by

Code:

perl -e 'print crypt("passhere","ab"), "\n"'

or

b) chroot to /mnt and run passwd

keithostertag · 02-20-2013, 11:13 AM

OK, thanks, that worked.

I first tired a Trinity Rescue Disk, and that didn't work- I got an error saying "chroot: cannot run comand "/bin/bash": exec format error". That looked ominous, but then I tried an old Ubuntu I had around. Got a terminal, mounted my root partition, chroot then ran passwd. Now I am back in business with a root password, configuring.

I don't use shadow passwords, and really don't know anything about perl.

Thanks linosaurusroot!

Keith Ostertag