This is regarding the PPC machine in our lab, the OS running is Linux. Since we don’t know the root login and password, we couldn’t login to this PPC machine. We tried to login as using single user to reset the password – however when we reach the single user prompt, inputs from the keyboard are no longer recognized and the machine freezes.



Any help in debugging this issue would help. Make and model are below:



Make: Motorola

Model: MVME2604 PPC

OS: Linux 2.4

Does this help?

From my reading of the OP, I'd say it probably does not...

@remesvv;
I am assuming that you cannot log in under any username..

I would try the single user boot again--it should have worked. Otherwise, try this:

Boot from any live CD version of Linux
Open a terminal
cd to /mnt
create a directory (mount point) using "mkdir ppc" (any name is OK)
run "fdisk -l", and look for the partition where / may be mounted--let's assume it is sda2.
"mount /dev/sda mnt/ppc" This mounts the partition to the mount point we just created.

cd to ppc, then "ls" If you see a root tree, including /etc, then cd into that. Otherwise, you need to go back and try a different partition.

Once you find /etc then use any editor to modify the root entry---removing the "x" between the first 2 colons. This will allow you to reboot and log in as root with no password required.

If I lost you somewhere, let us know how far you get.

Also what version of Linux? (you just told us the kernel)

@pixellany
Nice solution.