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password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

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  password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized Thomas George <lists@tomgeorge.info> - 2021-08-14 23:10 +0200
    Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2021-08-15 00:00 +0200
    Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2021-08-15 00:10 +0200
      Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-08-15 09:00 +0200
        Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> - 2021-08-15 11:20 +0200
          Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-08-15 13:50 +0200
            Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2021-08-15 17:10 +0200
              Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-08-15 17:20 +0200
              Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2021-08-15 17:30 +0200
        Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not  recognized Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2021-08-15 16:40 +0200

#238664 — password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

The installation from a usb stick went smoothly. Everything works sudo 
commands work so I will rarely need to log on as root.

Nevertheless there are rare cases only root can make changes.

What to do?

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#238671 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

On Sat, 14 Aug 2021 17:00:39 -0400
Thomas George <lists@tomgeorge.info> wrote:

> Nevertheless there are rare cases only root can make changes.
> 
> What to do?

Check out "sudo -i".

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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#238672

> Nevertheless there are rare cases only root can make changes.

You mean cases where `sudo zsh -l` is not an option?


        Stefan

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#238705 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

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On Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 06:06:50PM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > Nevertheless there are rare cases only root can make changes.
> 
> You mean cases where `sudo zsh -l` is not an option?

Up to now, there is exactly one case I am aware of when you'd wish
you had a root password: at boot, the root file system is deemed
too broken to mount, and you are told to fix it manually.

Of course, there are ways around that, but all of them involve having
access to another living instance of an operating system, either
a rescue system or a third system to poke around and try to get your
half-dead root file system up to speed (or you know your way around
the initramfs, which is "another living instance of an operating
system", but not one with access to your brain extension, aka search
engine).

The most convenient step at that point still is "enter your root
password and be dropped into a root shell".

Does anyone know other cases where you'd wish you had a root password?

Cheers
 - t

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#238711 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

	Hi.

On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 08:49:49AM +0200, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 06:06:50PM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > Nevertheless there are rare cases only root can make changes.
> > 
> > You mean cases where `sudo zsh -l` is not an option?
> 
> Up to now, there is exactly one case I am aware of when you'd wish
> you had a root password: at boot, the root file system is deemed
> too broken to mount, and you are told to fix it manually.
> 
> Of course, there are ways around that, but all of them involve having
> access to another living instance of an operating system,

Booting an existing system with init=/bin/sh does not require one to
know a root password, and allows full access nevertheless.

Of course, a console access is required, but the same can be said about
any kind of a rescue media.


> Does anyone know other cases where you'd wish you had a root password?

I can think of nothing, short of broken third-party software that
insists on executing "su -".

Reco

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#238720 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

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On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 12:15:07PM +0300, Reco wrote:
> 	Hi.
> 
> On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 08:49:49AM +0200, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

[...]

> > Up to now, there is exactly one case I am aware of when you'd wish
> > you had a root password: at boot, the root file system is deemed
> > too broken to mount, and you are told to fix it manually.
> > 
> > Of course, there are ways around that, but all of them involve having
> > access to another living instance of an operating system,
> 
> Booting an existing system with init=/bin/sh does not require one to
> know a root password, and allows full access nevertheless.

You don't really get that far if your root FS is unmountable.

> Of course, a console access is required, but the same can be said about
> any kind of a rescue media.

definitely.

> > Does anyone know other cases where you'd wish you had a root password?
> 
> I can think of nothing, short of broken third-party software that
> insists on executing "su -".

Apart from, of course "I don't want sudo on my box", which, to me, looks
like a perfectly valid reason (not that this is /my/ standpoint: I'm a
happy sudo customer, but I know folks who do take this standpoint and
have all my respect).

Cheers
 - t

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#238743

> You don't really get that far if your root FS is unmountable.

Hmm... if it truly can't be mounted, then the system can't read
`/etc/passwd` and then whether there is a root account or not makes
no difference.

In the "usual" case where the root FS is readable but fsck found errors,
then indeed the normal boot steps will require a root password, but you
can normally circumvent this with `init=/bin/sh`.

If this fails because `/bin/sh` is affected by the filesystem's
inconsistency, then you need to resort to the initrd's debug shell,
e.g. with something `break=local` IIRC.

Of course, the existence of a root password can occasionally be handy
for things like `rsync` (strictly speaking, you can probably arrange
for rsync to first log in as a normal user and then use `sudo`, but
it requires a fair bit of fiddling, IIRC).


        Stefan

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#238745 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 11:00:26AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> Of course, the existence of a root password can occasionally be handy
> for things like `rsync` (strictly speaking, you can probably arrange
> for rsync to first log in as a normal user and then use `sudo`, but
> it requires a fair bit of fiddling, IIRC).

You'll generally want to set things up so that direct root logins
require key authentication, not password auth.  (And *definitely* not
some shell/Expect botch involving feeding a password to sudo after a
non-root login.  That's simply terrible.)

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#238750 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

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On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 11:00:26AM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > You don't really get that far if your root FS is unmountable.
> 
> Hmm... if it truly can't be mounted, then the system can't read
> `/etc/passwd` and then whether there is a root account or not makes
> no difference.

That's right.

[...]

> Of course, the existence of a root password can occasionally be handy
> for things like `rsync` (strictly speaking, you can probably arrange
> for rsync to first log in as a normal user and then use `sudo`, but
> it requires a fair bit of fiddling, IIRC).

For that, there is `rsync ... --rsync-path="sudo rsync" ...'. I do use
to back up my virtual server out there, which doesn't like (heh) to
have an ssh root login.

Cheers
 - t

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#238736 — Re: password set at installation of debian-10.10.0-amd64 not recognized

On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 08:49:49AM +0200, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> [trying to enter single user mode requires a root password]
> 
> Of course, there are ways around that, but all of them involve having
> access to another living instance of an operating system,

Not all.  You can supply kernel parameters from the GRUB menu to get
around it.  Historically, "init=/bin/bash" used to work, but that may
not be enough these days.  I haven't tried it in a while.

> Does anyone know other cases where you'd wish you had a root password?

If the sudo package happens to break.

If you break your sudoers file by accident.  ("But who could *possibly*
screw that up?  The format is so simple that you *barely* need a PhD
in computer science to understand the documentation!")

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