[lug] Su problems

[Dan Ferris]

Good advice.

I've done some of the stuff below and more (hey, lets install the shadow 
password utilities with a regular /etc/passwd.  Why can't I log in as 
root anymore?)

Dan

David Morris wrote:

>>Dan Ferris wrote:
>>
>>
>>>This is driving me nuts.
>>>
>>>The system is SuSE 9.0
>>>
>>>dferris at stargate:~> su
>>>Password:
>>>su: incorrect password
>>>dferris at stargate:~>
> 
> 
> The possible causes have already been pretty well
> covered...I can't really add to them, but I can offer a
> preventative measure for the future and a solution to
> getting back in.  (Assuming you haven't just fat-fingered
> the password a few dozen times in a row like I did last
> year. ;)
> 
> Install sudo on all linux/unix machines and set any admins
> as sudoers.  sudo allows you root access using your *own*
> password (and in this case it sound like that still works),
> and loggs all activity using the sudo command.
> 
> In fiddling with systems, I've sometimes done the most silly
> things you can immagine (hey, lets move /lib to a different
> partition!  umm, why can't I even use ls anymore? <wince> :)
> ....using sudo doesn't prevent me from messing up the
> system, but it does give me a record of what I did to mess
> up the system, as well as giving me a back door in if I
> somehow mess up the root account (which I have also done).
> 
> Regardless of what you do in the future or what happened to
> cause this problem, one way to get back in is to use Tom's
> Root-Boot Linux.  Its a floppy-disk linux distro that
> includes most common hardware drivers and allows you to go
> into your system as root to fix problems like this.
> 
> --David
> 
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