Changing root's password

Question

As my name says, I am new to Solaris. I inherited an x86 box running Solaris 9 and I do not know the password for the root account. I know that Linux allows you to boot into single user mode and change the password. Can someone tell me if there is a way to do this with Solaris 9?
TIA

Answer 1

This will only work if you're happy with the vi
text editor, regardless of platform.
If you've never used vi before, please find
a cheatsheet/tutorial on the web before
trying to edit /a/etc/shadow!
Just a couple of things to watch on x86 -- the
procedure will work, if you also:
1. Get a copy of the Solaris 9 CD 1.
2. Do a 'boot cdrom -s'. This boots into single-user mode.Instead of 2, let the BIOS boot from the CD,
let it discover devices, then when it asks
what kind of installation you want:-
1 Interactive
2 Jumpstart
<etc>
don't choose a number: this is where
you get to type in
boot -s
and hit 'return'.
When the CD boot completes, and you get
a prompt, run the 'format' command,
note the name of the disk (something
like 'c0t0d0'), and quit with ctrl-D.
x86 systems often see their disks
as c0d0, not c0t0d0 -- that's why
we're being cautious here.
You then need to run the prtvtoc
command, pointing it at '/dev/rdsk/the name of
the disk you just noted', plus 's2':
#prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
or
#prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0d0s2
or
#prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/yourDiskNameHeres2
The final column of the prtvtoc output tells you
which partition is doing which job.
Normally, partition s0 houses the root (/)
partion, which is why step 3 below generally
works on a Sparc.
Here's my prtvtoc output.
# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
* /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 partition map
* Dimensions:
* 512 bytes/sector
* 248 sectors/track
* 19 tracks/cylinder
* 4712 sectors/cylinder
* 7508 cylinders
* 7506 accessible cylinders
* Flags:
* 1: unmountable
* 10: read-only
* First Sector Last
* Partition Tag Flags Sector Count Sector Mount Directory
0 2 00 0 2049720 2049719 / <--THIS ONE!
1 4 00 2049720 8194168 10243887 /usr
2 5 00 0 35368272 35368271
3 7 00 10243888 25124384 35368271 /var
So for my machine, I need s0 on c0t0d0 -- on yours, look for the prtvtoc row ending in a '/', and note the
partition number in the first field.
You'll use this, preceded by an 's' for 'slice'
in the mount command below. If your '/' is partition
3, then use 's3' below.
Now we're good to go!
3. mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /amount /dev/dsk/YourDiskNameYourRootPartion /a
eg
mount /dev/dsk/c0d0s3 /a
4. TERM=sun; export TERMhmm, on a PC monitor try
TERM=vt100; export TERM
5. vi /a/etc/shadow/And use your vi cheatsheet to navigate to
the second field of the root row,
and delete the field:
root:dTomYcgqKJjoo:12527::::::
becomes
root::12527::::::
6. init 6
ok, you now have no root password -- after
reboot, login as root and hit 'return' when
asked for a password.
To set a new password after reboot, run
the 'passwd' command.
Good luck.
PS. A fresh install might be easier.