Re: Asking for root passwd when booting single use

Article View: comp.sys.sun

Article #9740

#9740

From: Bruce Barnett
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 1988 16:53

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galvin-peter@cs.yale.edu (Peter Baer Galvin):
>	On "lesser" versions, you can put the command
>		login root
>	as the first line of the file /.profile but only if root uses the csh
>	shell by default. 

If you value your disk DO NOT DO THIS!

I covered this in sunspots v6n24, and in that issue included the program
lockup.c that should be executed in  /.profile instead of "login root".

The problem with the above scheme is if you get a power failure or a
crash, the system reboots and then:

	runs fsck, which fails
	goes to single user boot
	executes /.profile
	executes login root
	WHEN ROOT DOES NOT LOG IN WITHIN A CERTAIN PERIOD OF TIME,
		LOGIN TIMES OUT AND EXITS.
	the single user shell terminates, and the system boots up
		multi-user WITHOUT FIXING THE DISK!

The more your system crashes, the more corrupt your disk becomes.

Therefore - do NOT add "login root" to /.profile.
--
Bruce G. Barnett  <barnett@ge-crd.ARPA> <barnett@steinmetz.ge.com>
		uunet!steinmetz!barnett

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!purdue!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: steinmetz!grymoire!barnett@uunet.uu.net (Bruce Barnett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Asking for root passwd when booting single use
Message-ID: <2351@kalliope.rice.edu>
Date: 16 Dec 88 16:53:45 GMT
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 29
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: Thu, 8 Dec 88 09:32:43 EST
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 60, message 13 of 14