I deleted the root user! Help!

starboardman · #1 November 2nd, 2005, 07:48 PM

I'm using OSX 10.4.3. I was trying to enable root, but somehow it got deleted. I just added root again, but it's not working because I don't remember any of the properties or values that are supposed to be there. Is there is a default set of properties and values for root on pretty much any system, if so what are they? If not, what do I need to do??

BjarneDM · #2 November 2nd, 2005, 09:37 PM

Just how did you try to enable root ?
Please specify the steps you've taken much more detailed.

starboardman · #3 November 2nd, 2005, 11:57 PM

I used Netinfo Manager, I copied the password from another user to root, and saved it... then , I don't know, I was multitasking and I came back to Netinfo to find that the root user entry was gone!

BjarneDM · #4 November 3rd, 2005, 03:31 AM

So let me get this straight: because of some foolhardy manipulations in 'Netinfo Manager' you have inadvertently deleted the root user account entry.

1) you can't copy passwords around in 'Netinfo Manager'. If you want to change passwords for normal users use the 'Accounts' prefPane or the 'passwd' command in 'Terminal'

2) in 'Netinfo Mananger' you can en-/dis-able the root account and set/change the password for the root account. This is *all* done from the 'Security' menu

3) the root account entry is almost the same as for a normal user account - it's just lacking some un-neccessary entries. The root account has the following entries (when disabled):

Code:

[10:17:07@Utilities]$ nidump -r /users/root .
{
 "uid" = ( "0" );
  "expire" = ( "0" );
  "home" = ( "/var/root" );
  "shell" = ( "/bin/sh" );
  "gid" = ( "0" );
 "name" = ( "root" );
  "realname" = ( "System Administrator" );
  "change" = ( "0" );
  "_writers_passwd" = ( "root" );
}

4) to re-create the root user entry you can thus simply copy eg your admin acount and change/delete the entries in the copy to correspond to the above.

starboardman · #5 November 3rd, 2005, 04:30 AM

Thanks. Now, whenever I use the command "su root", it works but the user becomes "nobody", it creates "nobody" even if I delete it. How can I actually switch to root?

**fryke** · #6 November 3rd, 2005, 05:33 AM

Why even _activate_ the root user in the first place? *sigh* ... You shouldn't login graphically as root, anyway, so...

Code:

Last login: Wed Nov  2 22:08:21 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
frykes-Computer:~ fryke$ sudo -s
Password:
frykes-Computer:~ root# whoami
root
frykes-Computer:~ root#

BjarneDM · #7 November 3rd, 2005, 06:01 AM

I'm assuming the following:
i) when you use 'su root' you get a prompt somewhat like this:
[computername]:~ nobody#
ii) you've used 'Netinfo Manager' to delete the 'nobody' user.

0) !Please! provide much more detailed problem descriptions. I'm having to make educated guesses as to what you are actually meaning, guesses that might lead me to provide bad, incomplete or falty advise:
a) describe in as much detail as possible the steps you have taken that has led you into trouble
b) if you are seing something abnormal or unexpected, please provide an example of the abnormal behaviour as well as an example of what you expected to see.

1) !!!DON'T!!! delete the special users created by and used by the system. That's the straight way to eventually getting serious problems with your OS - finally leading you to having to reinstall everything from scratch. Look, 'Netinfo Manager' is a program you !!!ONLY!!! mess around with if you are at least 200% sure of what you are doing - or are willing to the the consequenses. To be blunt and frank, you seem to understand neither the special user accounts nor the 'Netinfo Manager'. Normal Mac OS X system administration *doesn't* require *any* interaction with 'Netinfo Manager' at all !!! It's for serious and very, very advanced administration of the system. Normally, you only ever use it to enable the root account - and even that seldomly.

2) nobody has to look like this:
[10:22:33@Utilities]$ nidump -r /users/nobody .

Code:

{
  "name" = ( "nobody" );
  "passwd" = ( "*" );
  "uid" = ( "-2" );
  "gid" = ( "-2" );
  "change" = ( "0" );
  "expire" = ( "0" );
  "realname" = ( "Unprivileged User" );
  "home" = ( "/var/empty" );
  "shell" = ( "/usr/bin/false" );
  "_writers_passwd" = ( "nobody" );
}

!Please! make sure that it does so.

3) under normal circumstances you don't need to switch to the root user. 'sudo' is more than enough and isolates you from most serious mistakes. !Don't! use the root account for normal administration - it's for very serious emergencies only.

4) actually switching fully to root is accomplished with this command:
sudo su - root

5) if the reason for you to want to switch to root is that you are tired of being prompted for the admin password a much better solution is to do as described here: http://fink.sourceforge.net/faq/usag...hpLang=en#sudo

nixgeek · #8 November 3rd, 2005, 09:12 AM

ACtually, sudo should already be installed with Mac OS X by default. And using the sudo command will alow you to do anything root can do without actually becoming root. The only reason you might need to activate root is if an application (like nmap) needs exclusive root access. There are ports now of nmap for OS X that don't even require you to manually enable to root user...it takes care of that for you.