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wtrepani (MIS)
3 Jun 02 12:14
All,

We have an SGI Octane that we don't know the root password to, does anyone out there know how to reset this without a re-install?  I am not sure what version of OS it is on.

Thanks

Will
Helpful Member!wakuuuup (TechnicalUser)
10 Jun 02 1:13
You need to have an OS CD handy (just the first one of any version of IRIX compatible with an Octane - 6.5.x will work and I think 6.4 will as well).

As you boot your system, press ESC when you first see the
dialogue box that says something like 'Hit ESC for maintenance menu'.

Choose to install system software and insert your CD into
in the CDROM drive. Once the installer loads, go to the
admin menu (by typing admin) and open up a root shell (by typing shroot). Now vi the file /root/etc/passwd and delete the password field for root (the password field is the second one, with all the random-looking characters in it).

Now exit without installing or removing anything and upon
reboot you should have an unprotected root account.

This will be held up if you have a PROM password that you
do not know. If this is the case, I'm not sure how to get
around it (it used to be jumper settings on older machines
but I think SGI changed that).
boogyman12 (TechnicalUser)
1 Jul 02 14:11
I did all that, and when I get to the login chooser, if I select root, it says I can't log into that account...  is there some kind of security level restriction as there is in linux (this is an Octane workstation, w/ Irix 6.4).. if so, is there any way I can be able to log into root directly??

thanks
boogyman12
boogyman12 (TechnicalUser)
1 Jul 02 14:38
All-

nevermind, I fixed it...  turns out the root password was blank. to fix, I did the procedure above (you don't need to vi the passwd or shadow files); once you do "shroot" you can just "$passwd root" to change the root password.

thanks again
bab52 (Visitor)
15 Sep 02 17:13
Hello,
I have a Octane that I don't know the root password. It is running IRIX 6.5. I tried the tricks above but none worked. I tried to boot from a 6.4 IRIX CD, but when the installer tells me that the disk cannot be mounted. When I try to mount it manually (mount /dev/dsk/dks0d1s0 /root) I get a device busy error message.
Can you help me ?
Best regards,
Philippe

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