Lost Admin account while installing Leopard

While installing Leopard I've somehow lost my only Admin account. Consequently I can no longer install new software. I've attempted to boot backup using the Leopard install DVD and holding down the "C" key but it boots straight back into Leopard without the option to change the password. I've also attempted to boot into single user by holding down the Apple and "S" key but that didn't work ether. Of course attempting to reinstall Tiger doesn't work because I get a pop up that states it can't be installed. At this point I've ran out of options and look forward to any helpful suggestions.

Here is what I had to do:
Insert the 10.5 Install CD.
In the finder go to the 'Go' menu and select 'Go To Folder'
In the field provided type: /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/Applications/Utilities and hit enter
Open the Startup Disk application
Select the install DVD as your start up disk. You must quit the start up disk app, it will not let you restart for it.
Restart the computer with the DVD in the drive.
You can now set or reset the password for the Administrator (root) account.
Set the start up disk as your normal start up disk. Reboot.
Log in with the id root and the password you set/reset
Open System Preferences
Select Accounts
Set the desired account to an admin accout.
Log out of root (This is VERY IMPORTANT)
log in to your admin account.
You may want to disable your root account at this point but since this issue could reoccur it may be better not to, though this creates certain security issues.
April.

Similar Messages

Lost Admin Account - Only Standard ones remain... Please Help!

Okay this one is a real kicker, About 10 months ago I helped a friend upgrade their iMac 1.6 G5 to Leopard. All went well and they installed all the updates etc.
A few month ago the Logic Board failed and they got a local Apple Engineers firm to replace the new logic board. They did this and the machine runs fine... however.
They now want help setting up a time machine drive, but... and here is comes... the accounts on the machine... all of them are Standard accounts. None of them are Administration accounts.
So the time machine setting are locked, I click the padlock to unlock and I get prompted for admin Username and Password... both fields are blank. SO I check in the Accounts settings to find that both Users on the machine are Standard and neither have Admin writes.
I can only presume that the company that replaced the logic board, created a new admin account, reset the other accounts to standard, did the work, then deleted the Admin account they created and forgot to reset the Standard accounts back to admin (I have spoken them and they deny all knowledge). before giving it back to my friend.
Is there anyway to find out what the Admin account details are...? Or maybe even root details... (in terminal) so I can at least unlock the User control panel and reset the user accounts back to admin.
Please help with this one... I didn't even know it was possible to run a MAc without an admin account?!

Then, try the steps in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1274 and http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1323191 If nothing there works, then your only solution is to make copies of the Users and Applications folders to another disk, wipe the current one, reinstall the OS, create a new admin user account, use the migration assistant to transfer the Users to the machine, change their status to admin, ensure that works, and delete the new account. Do the same with the Applications or reinstall them. Once you sort things out, make a bootable backup/clone on an ext HD so this never occurs again.

Single user mode, Lost Admin Account, and Disk Permissions

Okay, so I have quite a few issues here. I will start from the beginning.
About a week ago, I tried to install some updates and I could not get the Admin account to work. I went to the users profile and noticed my Admin account was not there. Did a quick search and found Apple's outline of how to fix this via the Operational DVD and the root user. Tried this and it would never work, because as soon as I restarted the computer or changed screens it switched back to a standard account.
Next up, I went into the terminal to check the Admin User group. As it turns out it is not there. So I find a discussion on there that outlines how to rebuild this in single user mode and the Unix prompt. So, I print it off and try to restart in single user mode. After trying two different keyboards and a sum total of 8 to 10 times, I can't restart in single user mode to get to the Unix prompt.
One last thing, last night I went into the Disk Utility on the start-up DVD. I wanted to check the Repair Permission log and I got the following:
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root/Library/Preferences"
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root/Library/"
ACL found but not expected on "Network"
Thoughts?
Thanks for your help!
tpp

first, the ACL messages can be ignored. if you can't get to single user mode you can't fix your admin group. the only reasons that I know why you wouldn't be able to do that is
1. a defective keyboard
2. you have a firmware password set. have you? you'd have to turn it off before you can get to single user mode.
lastly when you restart in single user mode make sure you press command+s right after you hear the chime. do not press it too early or too late. lastly, I'm not sure which instructions you've found to fix the admin group but I have them in this thread
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8011324

Lost admin account now standard

My admin account has changed for some reason and now is a Standard account only. So I cannot upgrade any software or perform any admin functions on this iMac G4 now. How can I upgrade this account again to perform Admin functions ?
Many thanks,
Charles

Catch 22
It says start from your Mac OS X Install DVD. However to do so from System Preferences/Startup Disk requires an Administrator account and password which I no longer have as the admin account has disappeared.
Any other ideas anyone please ?
Thanks,
Charles

Lost Admin account

Hi, I have just upgraded OSX server from 10.5.3 to 10.5.4 and strangely my administrator accounts are gone although my local user accounts are still there. Does anyone have an idea of the mistake I could of made. I did the update using the "Update OSX" option in the menu bar from my local account rather then from the admin account with the server preferences. Is this the reason? IS there an easy way to go take the system back, I have time machine backups?
sean

you can make a new password by reseting root/master password, boot from the install disk (hold down c on startup with the disk in the drive) and in the top left where it says installer ( the drop down menu bar) i think there is an option to change/reset the root/master password. if that works i think you just log in with username root and password whatever you set it to.
i think :?

Lost cd drive while install itunes, help

Hi Lost my CD drive while installing ITunes, any ideas

Yes.
Download the Trial version and enter your serial number.

ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact - error while installing db 10gr2 (10202)

Hi
i am trying to install Oracle 10gr2 in IBM Zlinux environment. I am getting the following error, while installing the database. This error was thrown
as pop up while passing database config. step.
ORACLE_HOME, LD_LOAD_LIBRARY, ORACLE_SID are set properly.
I have also tried re-linking all libraries, it did not work.
I appreciate earliest help.
------------------ERROR Message
ORA-12547: TNS:lost contact
-------------------Linux version and architecture
Linux rkbxxx.us.oracle.com 2.6.18-128.el5 #1 SMP Wed Dec 17 11:45:02 EST 2008 s390x s390x s390x GNU/Linux
--------------------Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.3 (Tikanga)
krishna

[aime@strkb14 10gr2]$ ping strkb14.us.oracle.com
PING strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.028 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.056 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.057 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.064 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=0.074 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=0.067 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=0.071 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=0.069 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=0.068 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=0.069 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=0.069 ms
64 bytes from strkb14.us.oracle.com (130.35.40.62): icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=0.068 m

Used Macbook and Lost Admin account

Hi everyone
I just bought used Macbook OSX V10.8.2 and there is an admin account that I do not know its password
is there a way I can make my own admin and delete this one ? or change the admin password ?
Thanks

Job done
thanks for asking mate

ISync will only launch in Admin accounts in Snow Leopard

I use Sync Together from Mark Space. Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, the application will not launch and stops responding upon launch so I force quit. When I changed the account to an admin, this does not happen. The same thing happens with iSync. I am guessing that the root problem of Sync Together is that iSync is not launching.
Can anyone else launch iSync while logged in as a 'Standard' account?

There was a problem with the sync services. This article helped me solve this problem:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627

When try to install get a dialog box asking for admin account even though current account is admin

i'm logged into an account that has admin privledges. when i try to install FIrefox 5.0.1 get a "Run as" dialog box. when continue with current account or any other admin account the install quits with no warnings or messages of any kind.

The Three Best Alternatives for Security Questions and Rescue Mail
     If you do not have success with one, then try another:
        1. Send Apple an email request at: Apple - Support - iTunes Store - Contact Us.
        2. Call Apple Support in your country: Customer Service: Contact Apple support.
        3. Rescue email address and how to reset Apple ID security questions.
A substitute for using the security questions is to use 2-step verification:
Two-step verification FAQ Get answers to frequently asked questions about two-step verification for Apple ID.

Can't get into Admin account

I came home the other day and my computer was off, meaning the power had apparently gone out. I turned it back on and everything seemed normal when I got to the login screen. I put in the password for my admin account and it started to log in like normal but then all of a sudden the screen goes black and this white text appears. It says something about Darwin at the top of the screen and asks for a login name and password. I type in the info and it says that no folder exists for my login name and it was logging me in as "/" or something close to that. Well I managed to figure out that typing exit gets me back to the main login screen. I signed into to one of the other accounts on the computer, and it worked fine (which is how I'm typing this now). I looked in the Users folder and strangely, the 2 non admin accounts had one folder each, but my admin account had four, named Admin 1, Admin 2, etc. I searched the Apple website for similar problems but couldn't find anything useful. Any ideas?

I'm not sure how much this may help.
Problems with lost Admin account, or
Restore admin user status.
If your admin user loses admin status for whatever reason (and it has happened to a few people), and you do not have a second admin account, then try the following:
Boot into single-user mode. At the prompt enter:
mount -uw /
nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -merge /groups/admin users your-username-here
Press RETURN after each command.
To restart in OS X enter:
reboot
I recommend you write down these commands in a monospaced font. Be sure to carefully note where there are spaces in the command line.
Because of the abnormal shutdown I also suggest you do the following:
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger, and 4.1 for Leopard) and/or TechTool Pro (4.6.1 for Leopard) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

Photoshop Elements 12 fails while installing shared technologies.

I am having the exact same problem as all these folks. Yes I have tried all these things, yes I have followed all the links, and scoured the internet:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5914286
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5909390#5909390
http://forums.adobe.com/message/5904696#5904696
Elements 12 install fails during install of Adobe Organizer. No indication of problems in the logs, just fails and rolls back. Near as I can tell the folks at adobe don't know what the real problem is, they only have a long series of very complicated and arcane tricks that _might_ "fix" the problem. I have tried all of them in every imaginable combination and still can't get elements 12 to install. I have installed stock, plain vanilla win7, applied hotfixes, tried to install and it still fails.
I repeat. This install failed for me in an identical fashion on a clean win7 box.
Any software that requires even one of these hack measures to install should be sent back to the shop for more testing. I've been told variously to try all these things, and more!
copy the installer to the root of c:
Delete this folder or that folder
Make a new admin account and install with that
Edit the registry
Turn off services in msconfig
Install in safe mode
What would be most helpful for me right now would be either 1) a patch to fix this critical install error or 2) explicit explanation from Adobe about what the real problem is so I can fix it myself.
I'm a little edgy, sorry for the tone. This is the single worst install experience I've ever encountered.

Hi Jeff,
To follow up, I had an adobeconnect session today with a very competent and friendly adobe tech. It looks like we have resolved the issue. He said there was some kind of problem with air and/or bridge not keeping their files updated, not 100% on that part so don't quote me. He said one way to fix is to completely uninstall anything adobe and start from scratch. The other option is a little hackish, but it works for me and saves me the trouble of completely redoing the install. To follow up here are the steps to get this working, ymmv:
- Go through the Adobe Premiere Elements 12 install process up to the point where installing shared components crashes. Do not click OK.
- Start the task manager (ctrl+alt+del)
- Go to the processes pane and kill msiexec.exe*32 process, the adobe installer should die.
- Delete the Adobe Premiere Elements 12 link that's created on the Desktop. Do not use this link, it points to the Welcome screen and crashes.
- Also delete C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 12\Adobe Premiere Elements 12.exe, for same reason as above.
- The exe that works is in that same directory called "Adobe Premiere Elements.exe", it doesn't go to the welcome screen and it does seem to work.
- Now it requires Adobe Application Manager to run, and we just killed the installer so you have to go grab it from:
http://www.adobe.com/appsmanager
- You don't even have to actually run it, just download and install and you're good (If you do run it it updates itself to Adobe Creative Cloud which has unknown consequences).
- Now run Adobe Premiere Elements.exe and plug in your adobe id
- ftw, should be good to go.
I tried this on 3 different machines. The installer broke identically on all and this procedure got it working. NB - Organizer apparently still isn't installed, but that doesn't bother me. Not sure if this will impact long term operations.
Thanks for your assistance, this does seem to be working for me now.
-isaac

Hide a admin account in System Preferences

Hi, I am trying to hide a admin user in the Accounts Pane in System Preferences. I followed the only instructions I could find http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080127172157404, but it only hides it in login and fast user switching. Anybody got some ideas?
Thanks

Hi Dyenera,
Follow these steps to hide a user from the Accounts pane in System Preferences:
1. Right click on the account you want to hide in the Accounts pane in System Preferences and choose "Advanced Options". You should be logged in as another admin account while doing this with the Accounts window unlocked.
2. Change the User ID to a number between 300 and 499. e.g. 401 is usually free. You can check which numbers are free by executing "dscl . -list /Users UniqueID" in the Terminal. You will see a list of all the accounts on the machine most of which are already hidden and used various services in OS X.
3. Change the Home Directory setting to /var/nameof_user_tohide so that other admin users won't delete it inadvertently or otherwise.
4. Click OK to save these settings and then quit System Preferences
5. You need to move the user's home directory to /var and change the ownership of the user's home folder now that you have changed the user's ID. E.g. In Terminal:
mv /Users/nameof_user_tohide /var
chown -R 401 /var/nameof_user_tohide
6. Tell OS X to hide user's with a User ID less than 500 (This wasn't required in earlier versions of the OS): In Terminal: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow Hide500Users -bool YES
7. Reboot and enjoy!

I re-installed snow leopard and my admin account is gone :(

I re-installed snow leopard and my admin account is gone
I became "standard user"
How do I get administrator priv again?
I've got the DVD original.
Any help very much appreciated
Thanks

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1278 and http://agrona.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/mac-os-x-10-5-administrator-user-changes- to-standard/ should point you in the right direction.

Installing apps from non-admin account

I read an earlier post that installing apps from a non-admin account is a bad idea because SL applies the wrong permissions. I normally install from a non-admin account.... I don't see that the permissions on stuff I've installed are any different from apps that came with SL. Most everything is drwxr-xr-x. Was this fixed, or am I missing the problem.

KJK555 wrote:
+"That isn't a problem at all. Applications should not require that the user have write+
+access to the application."+
I didn't say anything about a user having write access permission, I was talking about read
permissions. All apps installed in the /Applications directory should have group permissions
set to admin or wheel (depending on the type of app), so the system can read them without
problems. That's the Unix way.
I completely disagee. The system already has read permission to all applications in the /Applications folder. It doesn't matter what the group privilege is set to. The "other" permissions are set to read only. System (root) can read it regardless. If you can show me an Apple tech article that says that apps installed in the /Applications folder should have their group privilege changed to "admin" or "wheel" then I would gladly take that back.
+"Leopard does not put any ACLs on anything installed in the /Applications folder"+
That's right, it doesn't normally, but if it finds an app that it does not have permission
to read, it will assign an ACE(s) to it so that it can access it.
I just tested that in 10.5.8, and it does not happen as you say. I can't try it in 10.6. I'd appreciate if you could provide a specific example where you can make this happen.
Besides, all users, by default, have read only access to all applications. Unless a user specifically changes permissions on an app to deny read access to everyone, then this isn't an issue.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1875193&start=60&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866808&start=15&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8776714&#8776714
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1850256&start=30&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2351437&start=15&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9447059&#9447059
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9067640&#9067640
I know what ACLs are and how they work. I have read through those and cannot find in any of those threads anything about what you had been talking about.
+"That is also false. Root rights are granted by the user entering the admin username+
+and password when prompted. It does not matter where an application is installed in+
+order for it to be given root permission."+
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963
"Application installers, Applications folder
A third-party application installer incorrectly sets permissions on the files it installs,
or even the entire Applications folder. Symptoms of the Application folder's permissions
being set incorrectly include applications appearing in the dock as question marks, and/or
not being able to connect to the Internet. It is also possible that software installed while
logged in as one user will be inaccessible when logged in as another. To avoid this, make sure
you are logged in with your normal user account when installing software that you wish to use
with that account."
That has to do with third party installer apps that developers have not written properly to conform to OS X standards. It isn't an issue with applications that install by drag-and-drop. It sounds to me like you have looked at the permissions that Apple has put on its own apps and jumped to the conclusion that third party apps won't work unless they have the exact same permissions applied to them. That simply isn't true.
"Software access=user access
Most applications executed by a user only have access to the files that the user has access to.
Backup software, for example, may not back up Mac OS X system files that have root ownership."
Utilities, especially disk utilities, are to be installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder, for reasons
stated above.
No. That is completely wrong. Like I said earlier, an application is given root permission by user authentication. It matters not one little bit what the application's enclosing folder is. I personally have no third party apps in /Applications/Utilities; just what Apple puts there as part of a standard OS X installation.
More permission tips:
http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html
http://mostlyslow.blogspot.com/2009/04/technical-mac-os-x-permissions-issues.htm l
Have you even read those? I suggest that you do; because most of what you have written about how file/folder/application permissions in OS X is completely wrong.

Lost Admin account while installing Leopard

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