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From: mikulska@odin.ucsd.edu (Margaret Mikulska)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: problems with root access
Message-ID: <16199@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 31 Jan 91 03:03:58 GMT
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Organization: ECE Dept., UC San Diego
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Somebody with no net access asked me for help with apollos gone berserk
after a power failure. I'm not familiar with their setup, but if
anything here rings a bell, I'd appreciate a hint.

Basically, they have two servers and some diskless nodes. After the power
failure, the sys admin can't log in as root or do 'su' (getting 'login 
incorrect' or 'sorry'). However, everybody can log in as an ordinary user.
Also, the ownership of files owned by root is shown by root's ID, i.e., 0,
and not by its name 'root'. Some files 'can not be found'.

I know this is a preposterously inadequate description, but that's what
I have. The sys admin is lost and desperate. I myself know more about
other UNIXes than about apollos. Perhaps some apollo guru among you
recognizes what's going on even from this description.

It seems rather obvious to me that some corruption of the file system
has occurred - perhaps of the rgy files ? One can always go back
to the distribution tapes and backups, and restore everything from scratch,
but perhaps this is an overkill. 

Somebody suggested to me that the system might have reset the root passwd
to the default password. I had no chance to check it this helps, but would
this account for file ownership showing as belonging to "0" instead of
"root" ?

Any help/hint/advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Margaret Mikulska
UC San Diego

mmikulska@ucsd.edu