Need to hack my Linux box!

Tobiasly · 07-07-2002, 06:00 PM

This would be funny if it happened to anyone else.

I switched over my Red Hat 7.2 system to use Samba and LDAP for authentication. Everything appeared to be working fine. But then I rebooted, and now I can't log in.. not as root, or any of the other users.

I'm pretty sure what happened is that I forgot to set the LDAP server as a startup service. So now I've gotta get into the system somehow. I thought there was some sorta "single-user" startup mode where you can get in and change things. But I'm not sure if that would now require the LDAP authentication as well.

The /etc/passwd with all the old login info is still there, but everything boots off a SCSI RAID system, and so I don't think I could just make a startup disk because then the RAID array wouldn't be visible.

Any suggestions out there? Right now I'm thinking I'll prolly have to install Red Hat on an old hard drive, recreate the /etc/raidtab to see the drives, and go fiddle with the startup files so LDAP starts at boot. I'd like to avoid that if at all possible though!

tia,
toby

Tobiasly · 07-07-2002, 06:16 PM

Mmkay, nevermind.. I was able to figure out how to get into single user mode after all. It must ignore whatever PAM stuff you have set up and just use /etc/passwd and shadow. Good thing I didn't delete them after all.

I was surprised to find out that I couldn't even get in using SSH. I have it set to require only a valid private key from inside the LAN.

Maybe I should set LDAP to be only "sufficient" instead of "required", in case I hose it up at some later point. It's still pretty confusing to me, so I see that as rather likely.

07-07-2002, 06:00 PM	#1
Tobiasly hot Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Jeffersonville, IN (near Louisville) Posts: 892	Need to hack my Linux box! This would be funny if it happened to anyone else. I switched over my Red Hat 7.2 system to use Samba and LDAP for authentication. Everything appeared to be working fine. But then I rebooted, and now I can't log in.. not as root, or any of the other users. I'm pretty sure what happened is that I forgot to set the LDAP server as a startup service. So now I've gotta get into the system somehow. I thought there was some sorta "single-user" startup mode where you can get in and change things. But I'm not sure if that would now require the LDAP authentication as well. The /etc/passwd with all the old login info is still there, but everything boots off a SCSI RAID system, and so I don't think I could just make a startup disk because then the RAID array wouldn't be visible. Any suggestions out there? Right now I'm thinking I'll prolly have to install Red Hat on an old hard drive, recreate the /etc/raidtab to see the drives, and go fiddle with the startup files so LDAP starts at boot. I'd like to avoid that if at all possible though! tia, toby

07-07-2002, 06:16 PM	#2
Tobiasly hot Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Jeffersonville, IN (near Louisville) Posts: 892	Mmkay, nevermind.. I was able to figure out how to get into single user mode after all. It must ignore whatever PAM stuff you have set up and just use /etc/passwd and shadow. Good thing I didn't delete them after all. I was surprised to find out that I couldn't even get in using SSH. I have it set to require only a valid private key from inside the LAN. Maybe I should set LDAP to be only "sufficient" instead of "required", in case I hose it up at some later point. It's still pretty confusing to me, so I see that as rather likely.

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