enable password for single user mode

cyrulo · 02-27-2007, 06:37 AM

I've found that to enable a root password for SUM i have to add the following line to my /etc/inittab file:

~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin

my question is why, and what for the id field is ~~, does it mean something ??

will be thankfull for any answer

live_dont_exist · 02-27-2007, 09:04 AM

I'm not sure what the ~~ signs mean but /sbin/sulogin invokes a shell. Try running /sbin/sulogin in your normal Linux session. You'll notice it pops up with a user/password prompt.

So by adding these lines into inittab you cause a prompt to pop up asking you for a password.

I think this is the reason it asks you for a password.

Cheers
Arvind

cyrulo · 02-27-2007, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by live_dont_exist

I'm not sure what the ~~ signs mean but /sbin/sulogin invokes a shell. Try running /sbin/sulogin in your normal Linux session. You'll notice it pops up with a user/password prompt.

So by adding these lines into inittab you cause a prompt to pop up asking you for a password.

I think this is the reason it asks you for a password.

Cheers
Arvind

Thanks for your reply, but that is what I know already,
it is as You said adding these lines into inittab causes a prompt to pop up asking for a root password while starting SUM and because of :wait: option init won't go further unless you give a proper root password.

But my concerns are about strange ~~ in the id field, are they reserved for special something or what ??

appologise me being inquisitive, but willing to be so makes man know more

live_dont_exist · 02-28-2007, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cyrulo

appologise me being inquisitive, but willing to be so makes man know more

Absolutely...go ahead and ask all you want

. Well , I wasnt sure myself so I looked up some stuff online and as you already mentioned the ~~ stands for id .

Here's what I found out:

Code:

the /etc/inittab file has the following format:

identifier:runlevels:actiontype:command

`identifier' is a unique identifier, from 1 to 4 characters. Make sure you don't use duplicate identifiers in your file. The identifier has no bearing on how init works; the names don't have to mean anything.

So from what I understand from this, it wouldnt matter if you changed the ~~ to XX as long as that was the only line in /etc/inittab with XX . Makes sense??

I havent yet tried it out. Maybe you'd want to back up your /etc/inittab file, change the ~~ to XX and then log in to SUM and see if everything still works okay.

Hope this helps a bit. If I try it out at home tonight after work I'll post back. Do post back if you try it out earlier.

Cheers
Arvind