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From: regn@geyer.UUCP (Robert Regn)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Using MINIX in O/S Class
Keywords: MINIX
Message-ID: <616@geyer.UUCP>
Date: 25 Mar 91 18:59:56 GMT
References: <1991Jan24.003024.5875@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <14386@chaph.usc.edu>
Reply-To: regn@geyer.UUCP (Robert Regn)
Organization: University of Wuerzburg, Germany
Lines: 19

In article <14386@chaph.usc.edu> karrer@aludra.usc.edu (Anthony Karrer) writes:
>We are using MINIX 1.5 in our undergrad O/S class at Loyola
>
>(a) They don't continually screw up the hard disks ... Is there a
>way that we can get around them having access to their own root
>disk (and /etc/passwd)?  How can they change their passwords without
>having access to the root password in order to copy the /etc/passwd
>file back to the root disk on the hard drive (we are using a RAM disk)? 

We have had the same problem. Our solution:
Use a crontab line as:
0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * *  mount /dev/hdx /mnt; cp /etc/passwd /mnt/etc/passwd ; umount /dev/hdx

where hdx has the root image.

This copies changed passwd files back to disk.
-- 
	Robert Regn				University of Wuerzburg, Germany
	regn@informatik.uni-wuerzburg.dbp.de