Hello.

I am currently using Lubuntu version 17.10 and Linux From Scratch version 8.2 at chapter 6.28. I have compiled and installed Shadow 4.5 and done everything in between but when I came to configuring the package itself (6.28.2) and tried setting a root password using in the chroot environment and it ran:

Without actually prompting me to change the password. It's a small issue and it's annoying but I am very new to this and all the other threads I've seen about this topic have been resolved by rebooting and/or logging out. For me these options didn't work and it's driving me crazy. All help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks .

The quickest way to get out of this would have been to enter a different string the second time. This would have caused the passwd program to exit harmlessly. with an error. If you are warned that the password you have chosen is inadequate, you should not proceed with it, especially if it is a root password. This is a matter of basic security; root is the most powerful user there is, so you don't want a root password that is easy to crack.

Alternatively you can run the passwd program again now and choose a better password. You can run passwd at any time, as often as you like. There is certainly no need to log out or reboot. In fact you can't do either because you are in chroot at this stage. The system you are actually logged into is Ubuntu, not LFS.

Thanks for the quick reply.

The problem is that I'm not prompted to type in anything at all. It skips over it and doesn't ask me to type or confirm a password. I don't know why this is the case.

Thanks again.

Try "passwd -d". That should delete the bad password and allow you to start again from scratch.

Yeah I've tried that too. Still doesn't prompt me to enter a password, just runs through and doesn't allow me to do anything.

Let's get this clear: you enter the passwd command at a root shell prompt and nothing happens? You just get another shell prompt?

So I'm in the chroot environment and do what the book is telling me to do in chapter 6.28. When I get to configuring shadow I do passwd root and

Changing password for root
Enter the new password (minimum of 5 characters)
Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers.
Bad password: too short.
Warning: weak password (enter it again to use it anyway).
passwd: password changed.

comes out skipping the prompts and giving me another shell prompt without any password configuration.

So I'm in the chroot environment and do what the book is telling me to do in chapter 6.28. When I get to configuring shadow I do passwd root and

Changing password for root
Enter the new password (minimum of 5 characters)
Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers.
Bad password: too short.
Warning: weak password (enter it again to use it anyway).
passwd: password changed.

comes out skipping the prompts and giving me another shell prompt without any password configuration.

Okay, I've fixed it. I exited chroot and mounted and populated /dev again. It worked and now the password has been successfully changed. Whew.