root unable to login

[ajeetraina]

This morning I tried to login as root in fedora machine it throws:

sh-3.00 # passwd root
passwd:unknown user name 'root'

I checked the /etc/passwd file and it says:

root:x:500:500:/home/root:/bin/bash

I tried to change 500 to 0 and again tried.
But to my surprise,it threw the same error:
passwd:unknown user name 'root'

and the file /etc/passwd get changed to root:x:500:500:/home/root:/bin/bash again


Also ,I checked the root directory..its there?
If I run #useradd root
it says: useradd:unknown gid 100
No group "mail" exists,creating mail spool with mode 0600

Can anyone help me whats going on here.???????plzzz
I am stucked !!!!!

[kurzer]

I don't know what you did but a normal line for root in the /etc/passwd looks like this:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

The user 'root' is created automatically at the installation, and it's not possible to change the root password as normal user. Only root can change passwords of other users.

[ajeetraina]

No maan !!!
I was just trying to mount NFS users for the fedora Directory Server and that happened.
I know that root is numbered 0 and there is no other user with that id but wonder how can I install becoz thats the development machine..Plzz help???

[ajeetraina]

[QUOTE=ajeetraina]No maan !!!
I was just trying to mount NFS users for the fedora Directory Server and that happened.
I saw the /etc/passwd file and noticed that "0" being assigned to lp groupid,halt groupid and few more ..whats that?Any idea.

[ajeetraina]

[QUOTE=ajeetraina][QUOTE=ajeetraina]No maan !!!
I was just trying to mount NFS users for the fedora Directory Server and that happened.
I could see "0" in front of lp and shutdown groupid which tells that the root ahs rights for that? Anydiea?

[stevea]

I was just trying to mount NFS users for the fedora Directory Server and

Sounds like directory server is *working*.

[away]

I had the same problem when I played with suid/sgid
after a bit of browsing through /etc I found passwd.OLD along with passwd file, which I overwrote above /etc/passwd

p.s sorry if the reply is uncompetent as i am quite a newbie in linux

[ajeetraina]

If the directory server is working but I am in runlevel 1 and in that level no eth0 card is active..how can it affect the local machien at runlevel 1???

[ajeetraina]

I saw the file called passwd.OLD and mv it to passwd but the error remains.

[away]

Have you also overwritten /etc/shadow.OLD file over /etc/shadow? It must be also present in the directory
for me that solved the problem

[ajeetraina]

No man !!! Nothing ..ok let me know how can I get out of this problem without disturbing the critical project going on in this machine.I mean can I insert the CD and go to rescue mode.OR any alternative ?