I lost my root password and I've followed what I've found in the forums to delete the passwd, shadow, and smbpasswd files. But when I boot the server, it still requires a password for the root account. What am I missing?

https://wiki.unraid.net/Articles/Getting_Started#Setting_a_Root_Password

1 hour ago, trurl said:

https://wiki.unraid.net/Articles/Getting_Started#Setting_a_Root_Password

It's not prompting to set a password. It's asking for a username and PW to log in.

https://wiki.unraid.net/Manual/Troubleshooting#Lost_root_Password

it always asks for a username/PW.

If you have followed the given instructions how to delete the old one, enter "root" as username and hit the ENTER key (blank PW) for entering the site.

ENTER is your friend :-)))

 

17 hours ago, MAM59 said:

it always asks for a username/PW.

If you have followed the given instructions how to delete the old one, enter "root" as username and hit the ENTER key (blank PW) for entering the site.

ENTER is your friend :-)))

 

Tried that, It still tells me the PW is required

Edited October 17, 20223 yr by Cramoly

yeah, i told you it is required. But if you have followed the instructions "how to reset the root password" it will be EMPTY and only the ENTER key is needed then.

 

These are the lines that you need to read and do:

Lost root Password

Occasionally users lose their password for managing Unraid via the Unraid webGUI or console. This may be that they simply forgot the password, but corruption of the flash drive can also result in the password not being recognized.

Passwords for shares can be changed/reset from the Unraid webGUI.

To reset the management password use the following process:

    Shutdown server and then plug the USB boot flash device into a PC or Mac
    While there it is a good idea to run a check on the flash drive and make a backup of its contents
    Delete these files:

        config/passwd
        config/shadow
        config/smbpasswd

    Plug the flash back into the server and start up again.

Note that this will reset all user passwords including ‘root’ user to null (blank).

There is an alternative procedure that can be used for just resetting the root password (but is a little more prone to error):

    Plug the USB drive into another computer
    Bing up an editor (such as Notepad++) on the following file:

        /boot/config/shadow

    On the first line you should see something such as:

        root:$&$&%*1112233484847648DHD$%.:15477:0:99999:7:::

    Change that line to the following (essentially delete the content between the first and second semi-colons):

        root:15477:0:99999:7:::

    Plug flash back into server and start up again.

OOOH! I just notice that there is a big typo in this manual!!!

First of all it is not "semi-colons" but "colons" and, much more critical, the last example line should read

"root::15477:0:99999:7:::"

(2 colons after root)

Somebody has to correct the wiki I think...

 

 

Edited October 18, 20223 yr by MAM59

On 10/18/2022 at 12:25 AM, MAM59 said:

yeah, i told you it is required. But if you have followed the instructions "how to reset the root password" it will be EMPTY and only the ENTER key is needed then.

Yeah, I only pressed the enter key with it blank, and that's still the result I got.

 

 

 

On 10/18/2022 at 12:25 AM, MAM59 said:

OOOH! I just notice that there is a big typo in this manual!!!

First of all it is not "semi-colons" but "colons" and, much more critical, the last example line should read

"root::15477:0:99999:7:::"

(2 colons after root)

Somebody has to correct the wiki I think...

 

 

Well no wonder that method wasn't working for me. I have deleted the files at this point, but I may have to put them back and go with this method now that I know why it wasn't working.