How to change root password?

[Grogster]

Hi all. Slacko 64, 6.3.0

Run terminal and passwd root, enter in new password for root, confirm it, get back a message to say password has been changed. Exit terminal. Reboot.

...but new password does not take effect.

Password for root is still the default of woofwoof. If I try to connect to the Puppy box via Windows 10, the new password does not work, but the OLD one does. IE: I can access the puppy machine fine with root/woofwoof as you would expect with a clean install, but the new root password is being ignored.

Anyone got any ideas why that should be?
Is there something else I am supposed to do to make the new password take effect?

EDIT: I think this was my mistake. I needed to use smbpasswd root to change the SAMBA password for the networking. I have now done this and rebooted, and now Windows totally refuses to talk to the puppy box at all. Comes up with message saying I don't have permission to access it - which would be right if I changed the password. Now I just have to work out how to get Bill(Windows) to update the credentials for the puppy box - the experimenting continues....

[Peterm321]

...but new password does not take effect. Sad

AFAICS, the password is stored in the file /etc/shadow and to keep the password over reboots would require that the contents of this file be preserved. Presumably, the copy of /etc/shadow is kept in the main puppy software repository squashed file. For Puppy Tahr, that file would be puupy_tahr_6.xxx.sfs (where xxx is the version number). The other alternative is to find a way in the initial boot process to overwrite the /etc/shadow with a copy that has the correct password. For a full install, the process is automatic. For a frugal there may be a way via the save file. I don't use a save file (I prefer to manually make any changes) so can't advise well on how to do this but there is plenty of topics about updating and checking savefiles on these forums.

[rcrsn51]

@Peterm321: Did you read the EDIT above?

[rockedge]

Code: Select all

smbpasswd -a root

and I change to the root passwd to match

Code: Select all

passwd root

the Samba config may need some slight modification

[Grogster]

Well, that has REALLY stuffed things up.

After having done that, no Windows boxes can see the Puppy box anymore, and OpenElec can't see it either! :p

Oh dear.....

I would not have thought it would matter, really, to the VISIBILITY of the box on the network. IE: The Puppy box should still be visible to the other boxes on the LAN, but you just can't talk to it without the correct password. This is not the case.

That, AND several of the other boxes that WERE visible on the LAN have now vanished, and I can only access one box out of about six machines on the LAN. Weird....

I shut down the ENTIRE network, including all switches and the ADSL router, and rebooted everything. As soon as I boot the Puppy box, it now blocks the visibility of most of the other boxes on the LAN. I would not have thought that possible, just by changing the root password on that one Puppy box. Power off the Puppy box, and the other boxes come back on the LAN and can be seen and accessed.

I think I will have to install a new copy of Puppy to fix this, as I need that machine on the LAN - it has 16TB of hard-drive storage in it! :p I will keep the problem one on it's USB drive, and will setup a new copy - I see they have Slacko-64 6.3.2 now, so it is a chance to update the Puppy distro.

I can't understand how just playing with the passwords on that one box could have mucked up the LAN for all the other boxes so badly though. If anyone has any ideas as to how or why that should be, I would LOVE to hear about it.

[Grogster]

Hi all.

Just a little update for you:

Clean install Slacko-64 6.3.2.
Configure network IP address to static.
Mount partitions
Terminal: smbpasswd -a root and proceed.
Terminal: passwd root and proceed.
Exit terminal.
Reboot.

Windoze still refuses to talk to the box via networking(is still totally invisible), but I can connect to the location using the IP address of the Puppy box, the share-name, and entering in the Samba password, and Windoze linked to it easily then.

I found that information in a very useful page here:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ho ... indows-10/

It would seem that Windows 10 is a little touchy with Samba shares.....

[Peterm321]

@Peterm321: Did you read the EDIT above?

Yes I had read the edit section before I posted. The OP advises "the experimenting continues...." and may be interested (or perhaps not ) in some more information provided to explain why a root password change may not survive a reboot.

thanks