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no shell

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by elemzy

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i have a sun machine. the default login shell for administrator is the bourne shell. i tried changing the shell using the chsh command but it failed. i then edited the etc/passwd file and changed the shell for the root to csh. i then rebooted, but when i tried to login with the root account the system said there is no shell. pls help me cause this is the only account with administartive priviledge.

5 replies

by why

If you've not got an account that can put the passwd file back how it was you're going to have to boot from the installation media, mount the disk and do it that way.

When messing around with the root account, always, always test it out in a seperate session before you log out the original one. That includes changing the root password. I think you can see why!

by draegor

AFter you have completed reboot as described in answer #1. Remember that you can also use admintool to change the shells.

In the first instance you also might have forgotten to change the /etc/shadow file in conjuction with the password file. Tryit with a test user though and not with root. :-) Good luck

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