radioboy Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 So we have our G5 mac at school, running Panther. my friend changed the password on it and promptly forgot it. this is the main admin account (the name is "mdtv"). we're still logged into the machine, so as long as we dont lose power we're good. is there any way i can drop to a unix shell w/ root access and reset the PW? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isus Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 go to forums.macrumors.com and ask there... i dunno though... i would back everything up and just reinstall... it's probably faster/easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioboy Posted December 18, 2003 Author Share Posted December 18, 2003 go to forums.macrumors.com and ask there... i dunno though... i would back everything up and just reinstall... it's probably faster/easier. format and reinstall because of a lost password yeah right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martog Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 Ah, well you will want to actually reboot the machine. Restart the machine, then when you hear the startup chime, hold down Command and S together. This starts up the machine in single user mode at a UNIX prompt. From there you can type in "passwd mdtv" (without the quotes) and it will prompt you for a new password, and then prompt again for the verifcation. Then type in reboot, and there you go! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioboy Posted December 18, 2003 Author Share Posted December 18, 2003 and this wont prompt me for an "owner password" like OS 9 single user did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martog Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 I don't believe so. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac15 Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 boot from the install CD and in the menu go to change admin password, no questions asked. Works wonders Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fusion Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 boot from the install CD and in the menu go to change admin password, no questions asked. Works wonders Yep, this works great. I was able to make use of this feature when I messed up my root account password. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioboy Posted December 18, 2003 Author Share Posted December 18, 2003 when i type "passwd mdtv" and hit enter it just puts in a carriage return Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martog Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 Weird, I thought for sure that would have worked. Hmmm, maybe OS X operates differently in single user mode in that respect than UNIX does. Try what they said and pop the install cd in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioboy Posted December 19, 2003 Author Share Posted December 19, 2003 cd worked thanks a bunch guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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