Hi AIX Gurus,

I've purchased a second hand pSeries and don't know the root password. I've used the following instruction to reset root password and everything seems just fine. However, after it reboots, the system still says the root password I used is invalid. I really don't know why. I did use "sync; sync; sync; reboot" after resetting root password. Please help. Thank you in advance.

pSeries and AIX Information Center

I'd start with checking that root is allowed to login at all. Second thought: given that you purchased your server from abroad it might be installed with a locale that is different from what you expect. Reset the password again and use only chars and numbers to prevent you being tricked by a wrong keyboard layout.

(1) I use its serial port to connect to its console. Root access should not be a problem in this case, I think.

(2) It is a US system. I have tried different types of passwords from abc to axadf23adfddf - you know what I mean.

Thanks.

I see. Well, in this case you might want to think about what the difference between 'rlogin' and 'login' could be.
As you are sure about what characters you typed you could check next whether there is an asterisk or an exclamation mark in the password field of /etc/passwd. An asterisk would point at a problem during setting the password and also prevent you from login in. Subsequently you would then check whether the crypted password is in /etc/security/passwd.

Somewhat unlikely but possible would be that the option account_locked is set to true or the the loginretries counter is set to a positive integer with the unsuccessful_login_count exceeding that number. Run 'lsuser root' as root to find out.

These suggestions sound good. I will try them this evening. Thank you very much for your help!

reinstall AIX, I would never ever use a preinstalled AIX from a second hand buy

Here is the info. Everything looks fine, doesn't it?

# head /etc/passwd
root:!:0:0:AIX System Account:/:/bin/ksh
daemon:!:1:1:AIX System Account:/etc:
bin:!:2:2:AIX System Account:/bin:
sys:!:3:3:AIX System Account:/usr/sys:
adm:!:4:4:AIX System Account:/var/adm:
nobody:!:-2:-2:AIX System Account:/:
lpd:!:104:-2:AIX System Account:/:
imnadm:!:20:22:AIX System Account:/home/imnadm:/usr/bin/ksh
dev:!:200:1:AIX System Account:/u/dev:/bin/ksh
lowes:!:201:200:lowes:/u/lowes:/bin/ksh

# head /etc/security/passwd
root:
password = pptbHGaco/tFw
lastupdate = 1244092509
flags = NOCHECK
daemon:
password = *
bin:
password = *

# lsuser root
root id=0 pgrp=system groups=system,bin,sys,security,cron,printq,audit,mqm home=/ shell=/bin/ksh gecos=AIX System Account auditclasses=general login=true su=true rlogin=true daemon=true admin=true sugroups=ALL admgroups= tpath=nosak ttys=ALL expires=0 auth1=SYSTEM auth2=NONE umask=22 registry=files SYSTEM=compat logintimes= loginretries=5 pwdwarntime=14 account_locked=false minage=0 maxage=8 maxexpired=4 minalpha=4 minother=1 mindiff=3 maxrepeats=3 minlen=7 histexpire=26 histsize=5 pwdchecks= dictionlist= fsize=-1 cpu=-1 data=262144 stack=65536 core=2097151 rss=65536 nofiles=2000 time_last_login=1205946435 time_last_unsuccessful_login=1244090425 tty_last_login=/dev/tty0 tty_last_unsuccessful_login=/dev/tty0 host_last_login=s1492a host_last_unsuccessful_login=s1492a unsuccessful_login_count=13 roles=