Re: Can't login as root
On Fri, 2001-09-14 at 09:28, james@soon.co.uk wrote:
> Hello
>
> I think I have just done something really inept which seems to have
made my Debian system useable details as follows:
>
> 1/ Login as root working in the -/- directory.
>
> 2/ While using chmod to change permissions on a file accidentally hit
the return key when I had only written -chmod ?R 777 /- You?ve guessed
it every file on the system was given a 777 permission level.
>
> 3/ Logout and login as a user everything seems OK
>
> 4/ Logout and tried to login as root and got the following error
-incorrect login-
>
> 5/ Did a hard off/on restart of the system (user account not allowed
to ?shutdown-). On rebooting gdm and ssh (prime suspect?) failed to
start -incorrect permissions-.
>
> 6/ System returns -incorrect login- error when trying to login as
?root- but will allow a user login.
>
> 7/ The problem ? can?t login as root, user account does not have
enough privileges to do any thing meaningful (which seems strange since
everything on the system now has 777 permissions). How do I get my
system back?
>
> I have had quick look in the Debian achieves but can?t spot anything
similar so any pointers would be gratefully received.
The usual answer is a complete restore of your system from your current
nightly backups. But since that never seems to be an option . . .
I think you clobbered all your suid bits which are required to move to
and from root level access for a number of commands runnable by uers.
Most likely su and login both can't get root privelages on your system
anymore. Unless you have a mode backup list for your system I think
you're going to have a really hard time "fixing" it. Perhaps you can
find some luck with dpkg-reconfigure * from the list spit out by dpkg
--get-selections. You'll most likely have to do this from single user
mode as that's going to be the only way to get on as root. So on your
reboot put a 1 after the neccessary arguments from lilo to boot your
kernel, root and whatever.
--mike
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