Not sure where else to ask this... Sparc2 passwd file.

I know this is pretty off-the-wall, but I don't know where else to turn....

The company I work for has a couple of old Sun Sparc2 systems that run some old CAD software (Cadnetix). We keep them around in case we have to work on any of the old designs we have archived. Which almost never happens...

But now we do need to work on something, but no one knows the passwords (!!!!). The guy that knew them left (reportedly not happily) and, apparently, changed them before he left, without leaving ANY records. He even changed the default root password. No one has a clue as to what he may have changed them to, and no one knows where he is, even if he were willing (fat chance!) to tell us what they are or change the passwords (even if he remembered them).

Reloading software is out, because that would wipe the old CAD software, which we have no way of reloading properly.

In another life (10 or 15 years ago), I took an admin class given by Sun, and one of the tricks they taught us was how to hack in to the /etc/passwd (or maybe it was the EEPROM password?) file and wipe the passwords.

I remember you had to fire up the system, cd to ???, then use the "tiny" editor (or whatever it was called - not VI - some sort of line-by-line editor, though it used some of the same commands as VI). I just can't remember the exact steps to get to where that password file is. And how to invoke the editor (I think it was LE maybe?).

Does anyone here know how to do this?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

JM

 

You need to have a way to boot into Single User Mode. Once you are booted to SU it will drop you to the BASH prompt. Just type passwd, hit [ENTER] and you will be prompted to change the Root Password.