|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When you get the LILO prompt, press the tab key. Find which kernel name is first (probably ``linux'') and type
linux init=/bin/bashOnce you get a prompt, do the following:
mount -wno remount / /bin/vi /etc/passwdThe old trick was to remove the password field (anything between the 1st and the 2nd colon), but some distributions (notably Red Hat) have a bug (or feature, depending on how you look at it) where it won't let you log in as root if there is no password, and also the password command will not work if the password field is blank. The passwd command should work and let you enter a new password even if you don't know the old one (and leave it in place). If that fails, another option is to replace the encrypted password with a known encrypted one, like yours.
The passwords used in UNIX/Linux are usually hard to crack, so the
best thing to do is to boot from a Linux boot floppy, then edit
the password file. Boot from a set of Linux boot floppies, either
for an installation or one of the ``Linux on a floppy'' installations
from http://www.toms.net/rb/. After booting from the floppy, mount
the hard disc, then make a copy of the password file, just in case
(either /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow), then edit the
password file (with vi, pico, etc., or use sed and/or cut) to remove
the password for root. Finally, unmount the hard disk and reboot,
then log in as root and set the root password immediately.
It's probably a good idea to check for other accounts with a
UID of 0, and accounts you do not recognize.
--
Keith Trollope, kt57707@GlaxoWellcome.co.uk
My machine at home has a sis6215 chip, and Red Hat 6.0
doesn't have a driver for it. Probably because of this,
when Gnome runs, the screen is zoomed and everything is huge.
The default resolution is some 320x200. I tried to configure
custom settings through Xconfigurator and also X11Config, but the
resolution didn't change. Where am I stuck? Is there some problem
with my monitor settings?
--
Pankaj Ratan Lal, prlal@quantum.ac.in
According to http://www.xfree86.org/3.3.6/SiS2.html#2,
your chip isn't supported by XFree86.
You can still try XFree86 3.3.6, but there aren't many chances it
will work.
If your chip is VESA 2-compliant, you have another option: use the
VesaFB frame buffer, available at http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ/#FBDev.
--
Marc Merlin, marc_bts@valinux.com
Even though many things could be happening (misconfigured
port settings, broken modem, misconfigured software, etc.), make sure
you have all settings correct and try connecting directly to the
modem with cu -l /dev/ttyofyourmodem.
The ``ttyofyourmodem'' depends on
which COM port you use;
it could be ttyS0, ttyS1, ttyS2 or ttyS3 for COM1, COM2, COM3 or COM4,
respectively. If you succeed in connecting to the modem this way and get an
OK in response to an AT command, then you are okay.
If you bought your computer with Windows pre-installed, it is probable that
you have what is called a Winmodem, which is a crippled kind of modem for
Windows only. If that is the case, you had better buy a modem that works
with Linux. I have bought many 3COM USRobotics ``Python''
internal modem cards
that provide 56K V.90 data/fax/voice services to my Linux servers with
excellent results.
Check this excellent web page for modem compatibilities:
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html. Check the entire modem list table.
There are some people trying to make Winmodems work with Linux, but to play
safe, buy a new Linux-compatible one.
--
Felipe E. Barousse, fbarousse@piensa.com
I have two CD-ROM drives, one recently installed. Before the installation of the second CD-ROM which is an HP 9200i CD_RW, everything mounted okay. Now, when I issue the mount command (mount /mnt/cdrom), I get the following:
CD-ROM I/O error: dev 0b:00,sector 64 isofs_read-super: bread failed,dev 0b:00 iso_blknum 16 block 32 mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/cdrom or too many file systemsBoth are SCSI drives. Please help if you can.
There are two likely reasons for this problem.
Either your ``second''
CD-ROM is seen as ``first'', or the devices are configured to use the
same SCSI ID, thus preventing any of them from functioning. Please
check how SCSI identifiers have been assigned to the drivers and
remember that the smaller ID is considered ``first'' drive (/dev/sr0)
and the bigger ID is considered ``second'' (/dev/sr1).
--
Alessandro Rubini, rubini@linux.it
/dev/cdrom is a symbolic link to a device
like /dev/scd0 (the first SCSI CD-ROM). The second SCSI CD-ROM
will be /dev/scd1. So, when wanting to mount the second CD-ROM, issue
the command mount /dev/scd1 /mnt/cdrom, or
create new links like /dev/cdrom0 to /dev/scd0 and
/dev/cdrom1 to /dev/scd1. Don't forget to update the /etc/fstab,
because mount /mnt/cdrom will read the fstab and mount
the device allocated to this mounting point.
--
Paulo J V Wollny, paulo@wollny.com.br
Are your printers parallel? If so, you might not have the parallel printer port driver configured correctly. Sometimes with Red Hat, the parallel port is not set up correctly after the installation. Add this line to the /etc/conf.modules file:
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pcReinitialize your machine, and your parallel port should now work fine. Configure everything with the printtool utility and send a test page to print.
A local user I know, Scott Hettel, recently solved this
problem on his own
system. He found that Red Hat 6.1 does not support the IBM PC parallel
printer port by default. The answer for this is on Red Hat's
web site.
See bug numbers 5698 and 5821 on their site for the resolution to this
problem. You may also want to look at bug 8969, which discusses port
compatibility. Please note that these issues affect only version 6.1 of Red
Hat.
--
Chad Robinson, Chad.Robinson@brt.com
S1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mgetty ttyS1Shortly after the system came up after reboot, I received this message continuously at about five-minute intervals:
INIT: Id "S1" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes.Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong? I'm running Red Hat 6.0.
The message you get means that Linux starts the mgetty process
and for some
reason it dies, gets restarted and dies again. The most probable cause
is that your modem cable does not have the correct pin wiring to work. Check
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-17.html#fast_respawn to
find out a bit more about the problem.
To override the cable problem (but losing modem control features),
use the -r option for mgetty, which makes mgetty
not monitor
and detect the missing pin signals on your cable. I would still buy
a good modem cable, though.
--
Felipe E. Barousse, fbarousse@piensa.com
Your mgetty ttyS1 command exits immediately and init disables its
further invocation.
You should first make the command work from the command line, where
you can check what its error messages are and whether it works as
expected. You should put the command in inittab only after your
problems (misconfiguration, I suppose) are fixed.
--
Alessandro Rubini, rubini@linux.it
I use a Compaq Presario which came with an ESS sound chip,
but I would like to use SB Vibra 128 instead. The problem is I cannot
disable the ESS chip because there aren't any jumpers. Also,
it's not possible to
disable from BIOS menu. Is there any way to make my new sound card work
under Linux? It seems as if both sound cards want to use the same
resources. I am using Slackware version 7.0.
--
Chumpon Thamwiwat, thchum@rocketmail.com
Having no way to change settings of the ESS sound chip, maybe you
can change the settings on the Vibra hardware.
The driver configuration parameters may be of help also; many times, the driver
indicates to the hardware which IRQ and address the device should use.
If you do not load the driver for the ESS, then the ESS won't be
activated,
therefore you could load the driver for the Vibra, assuming there is no
conflict of hardware settings and each board has its own drivers.
--
Felipe E. Barousse, fbarousse@piensa.com
The hfs utilities package containing XHFS can be found at
http://www.mars.org/home/rob/proj/hfs/.
As for your Ethernet cable, you'll have to start with
getting TCP/IP running. Configure
your Mac and your laptop to be on a common subnet. Use 192.168.100.0
netmask 255.255.255.0, for example.
--
Marc Merlin, marc_bts@valinux.com
Many on-line help resources are available on the SSC web pages. Sunsite mirror sites, FAQs and HOWTOs can all be found at http://www.linuxjournal.com/.
Answers published in Best of Technical Support are provided by a team of Linux experts. If you would like to submit a question for consideration for use in this column, please fill out the web form at http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/techsup.html or send e-mail with the subject line ``BTS'' to Ellen Dahl at bts@ssc.com.