Debian 5 - was Re: Query abouut root account
On Mon, 16 Jul 2012, Denis Witt wrote:
On 16.07.2012 10:01, Bret Busby wrote:
I have forgotten the root password, and have not logged into root on
that computer, or updated the system, for about a year, I think.
Do you have physical access to this machine? Or can you get someone to boot
it with a live-CD?
If so you can boot from the live-CD, chroot into the system on the disk and
change the root passwd.
Bye.
One of the reasons that I wanted to be able to log in as root, is to
perform an update on that system.
The system is running Firestarter on Debian 5.
However, another problem has arisen, that indicates that that system
apparently cannot be updated, and has to stay as it is, without having
been updated for about a year or so, which is unfortunate for a
firewall computer.
I have a Samsung MFP printer thing; a CLX-3185FW, and I had been able to
use it with a Debian 5 system that I had been using. Then, the Debian 5
system went awry (a separate system from the firewall system), and
became apparently unusable.
So, I installed Debian 6 on another computer (this computer), and have
been using that on this system, for the past few or several months.
But I was unable to install the drivers for the printer, on the Debian 6
workstation.
I have now been advised by Samsung, that the CLX-3185FW works with
Debian 3.x through 5.x, but does not work with Debian.
("Why is this so?"; that a peripheral device that worked with Debian 3.x
through 5.x, now does not work with Debian 6? Has Debian 6 been made
incompatible with some hardware that ran (relatively) okay with Debian
3.x through 5.x?)
So, I today tried to instal Debian 5 on my HP NX5000 laptop, which is
one of the systems on which I have previously (relatively) successfully
run Debian 5, in the past (until the HDD crashed on that computer, and
got replaced, so I installed Debian 6 on it).
But, when it came to the APT part of the setup in the installation
process, I could not successfully configure the mirror setting.
In looking at the Debian web site, I found, and tried,
http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive, as one of the many mirrors
that I tried.
That did not work.
No mirror worked.
So, I thought that I would try to find the optical disks (CD's or DVD's)
ISO images, download them, and just instal it from the ISO images.
But, I could not find any ISO images for Debian 5.
The Debian website stated that, when Debian 6 was released; 06 February
2012, updates for Debian 5 ceased, and Debian 5 got shifted and
archived.
But, I can not find any archived ISO images for Debian 5, so I can not
instal Debian 5, and thus, I can no longer use the printer/scanner, that
I was able to use with Debian 5. Unless I switch to MS Windows...
Are ISO images available on the Debian web site, or in its repositories,
for Debian 5?
I had to abort the installation, as it would not progress any further,
and, would not even "install a basic system", so, I had to abort the
installation, and that appears to have harmed to Debian 6 installation
on the HP NX 500, so I will probably now have to re-instal Debian 6 (on
booting Debian 6, I got "fsck failed with error 8 - login as root or
press <CTRL-D> to continue").
But, if Debian 5 is still available, both in the ISO images, so as to
allow installation, and, in repositories, so that existing Debian 5
systems can be updated to at least the February 2012 update state, then
I would be able to use the Samsung CLX-3185FW, for more than just a
photocopier, and, I would be able to be a bit more confident of the
security of the firwewall that appartently can not be updated.
I note that Firestarter has apparently not been maintained for a few
years, so, whilst it apparently is available as an installable package
within the Debian 6 set of packages, there would probably not be much
advantage in upgrading the firewall to Debian 6, due to Firestarter for
Debian 6, being probably not more updated than the Firesrater on Debian
5.
And, other firewall software, appears to be too difficult for me to deal
with, so I am stuck with Firestarter.
So, advice as to how I can obtain Debian 5 ISO image downloads, and, how
I can perform an update (what URL's I need for the /etc/apt/sources.list
file) on the Debian 5 firewall, if these can be achieved, would be good.
Thank you in anticipation.
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
....................................................
Reply to: