UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

I have a SunBlade 150 sparc machine. I get this box without root password. When I truned on the machine and typed ctrl -D to run under normal mode. The file system couldn't be mounted. If I don't care about current system and files on the machine and want to rebuild this box with solaris 10. Can I use solaris 10 CDs to reboot the machine and format the hard disk. Then install solaris 10 as new operating system. Please advise. If this is impossible, how can I get the root password? Can I contact Sun company for the support? Thanks for your help.

You should be able to put in the Solaris 10 CD and from the ok> prompt do a "boot cdrom -s". Then once you're in single user mode use passwd to set a new root password.

rhfrommn:

Thanks for your advice. I hvae tried to put solaris 10 disc 1 into CDrom. It didn't show any ok prompt. The system told me these information:

/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 is not okay.
Mount: please run fsck and try again
failed to open /etc/coreadm.conf Cannot create /dev/fb:
INIT: cannot create /var/adm/utmpx
INIT: failed write of utmpx entry: " "
INIT: Single user mode.

The system asked me to press ctrl -d to run in normal mode or provide root password for maintenance. I have no password. Then I press ctrl + d. Then system asked me to choose 0-6 or s or S for running mode. I choose s or S or 3. It all failed to boot into single user mode and to run fsck to fix file system.

It seems that you couldn't mount the file system and boot the system up running if you don't have root password. Any suggestions or the way to work around to solve the problem. Thanks.

Press STOP+A in the OBP screen to get the >ok prompt.

Yes, do stop-A as ebbi suggested to get to the ok> prompt. Once you have that the boot -s cdrom will boot it from the CD without asking for a password. You could set the root password then using passwd. To make it permanent you'd have to mount up the root filesystem from the hard disk and copy the new encrypted string into /etc/passwd on the hard drive - which would of course require getting fsck to run and being able to mount the hard drive.

However, after reading the thread again it looks like you're just trying to install Solaris 10. You shouldn't need to do anything with the root password for that. I believe if you put the cd in the drive and then boot from the CD-Rom without the -s it should start the Solaris install program. You will answer a bunch of questions about how you want it set up then it will install Solaris for you. One of the questions should be the root password you want to use once the system is installed. It has been a while since I built a machine off of cd though so I could be mistaken . . . .

rhfrommn and Ebbi:

Thanks for both of you for your kind help. You are right. Because I don't know what kind of Sun system on the box currently, this is why I plan to install solaris 10 as a new system and get rid of old operating system. If I boot from cdrom and install solaris 10 on the box, can I set up root password during this process. If I do, I will get a new box with new root password and new operating system. If I follow your instruction to boot from cdrom and fix root password, then I want to install solaris 10 again. Can I and how do I do it? Thanks.

Yes, when you install solaris you will be able to set the root password. It is part of the install procedure, I'm just not sure exactly what step it occurs. It may be before the packages are downloaded from the CD to the hard drive, but it may be after.

If you decide you don't like the setup you have you can always boot of the CD and install it again. Installing Solaris from CD should work the same whether the system is completely blank, has an older Solaris version, or a previous Solaris 10 installation. The install CD doesn't care.

Good luck,
Ralph