root password recovery technique for Tru64 on Alpha 4100

[Joe Conley]

We are in possession of the above mentioned system, but nobody has the logon credentials. Is there a way to boot this up and reset the root password?

[Ann Majeske · Accepted solution]

This question has been asked and answered in this forum several times. Try doing a search on the forum and see what you get.

[Ross Minkov]

Joe,



1. Bring the system to the SRM prompt -- P00>>>
To do that if the system is running press the HALT Button or try Control-P from the console. If the system is powered off power it on. Depending on the auto_action SRM variable it might try to boot, but then you can HALT it or power cycle and use Ctrl+C to not allow it to boot (this might be tricky -- you need to know the exact moment to press Ctrl+C -- right before booting).

2. Once at the >>> prompt, boot to single user mode:
>>> boot -fl s

3. run this if you are using LSM:
# lsmbstartup

4. verify & mount all local filesystems:
# /sbin/bcheckrc

or you could just use:
# mount -u / (on V5 there is a mountroot script)

5. here you can either use:
# passwd root (to set a new root password)
or
# vipw (or vi /etc/passwd)
and delete the root password

6. then init 3 or ^D to bring the system all the way up


HTH,
Ross