Unixware 2.1 root recovery - no disks or info available...

[Arthur Marsh]

Allen Underdown wrote:

> I've been trying to recover the root password on a Unixware 2.1 based
> system. Unfortunatly, I have no information on the system at all. I
> also do not have an emergency boot diskette or the username/password
> of the system owner. I have been able to create a install disk from a
> downloaded image and rawrite, however, this boots and requests a
> serial number/key combination, which I also do not have.
>
> I have an emergency boot floppy for UnixWare 1.0, but this didn't
> work, nor did booting from a Linux distribution. I guess the
> filesystem is different enough that the hd won't mount.
>
> All I need is enough to get the system booted and the hard drive
> mounted so I can edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files.
>
> Is there an opensource distribution that I can get mounted and access
> the HD from? The system is IDE based. Or, is there a way or open
> serial number/key available to bypass the boot diskette?
>
> Thanks!
> Allen

I wonder if the free single user evaluation packs of UnixWare 2.X either
don't require a serial number/key combination or include a single user
serial number/key combination? Presumably the single user evaluation
version would be enough to mount an existing disk and edit /etc/passwd
and /etc/shadow.

I still have a copy of the UW 2.X evaluation pack at home and will check
on this.

Regards,

Arthur.

[Arthur Marsh]

Arthur Marsh wrote:

> Allen Underdown wrote:
>

>> I've been trying to recover the root password on a Unixware 2.1 based
>> system. Unfortunatly, I have no information on the system at all. I
>> also do not have an emergency boot diskette or the username/password
>> of the system owner. I have been able to create a install disk from a
>> downloaded image and rawrite, however, this boots and requests a
>> serial number/key combination, which I also do not have.
>>
>> I have an emergency boot floppy for UnixWare 1.0, but this didn't
>> work, nor did booting from a Linux distribution. I guess the
>> filesystem is different enough that the hd won't mount.
>>
>> All I need is enough to get the system booted and the hard drive
>> mounted so I can edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files.
>>
>> Is there an opensource distribution that I can get mounted and access
>> the HD from? The system is IDE based. Or, is there a way or open
>> serial number/key available to bypass the boot diskette?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Allen

>
>
> I wonder if the free single user evaluation packs of UnixWare 2.X either
> don't require a serial number/key combination or include a single user
> serial number/key combination? Presumably the single user evaluation
> version would be enough to mount an existing disk and edit /etc/passwd
> and /etc/shadow.
>
> I still have a copy of the UW 2.X evaluation pack at home and will check
> on this.

I tried it at home and the installation required a serial number and
activation key which I had never obtained /-:.

A control-break brought one out to a terminal with some programs but not
mount present.

I do have a UW 1.1 Application Server license and media which could boot
a system and should be able to mount a UW 2.X vxfs disk with more
chance than the emergency boot floppies (look in Google group archives
for all the grief people have had with UW emergency boot floppies).

Has anyone else worked around this kind of problem?

Arthur.