*BSD News Article 44653


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From: jcargill@grilled.cs.wisc.edu (Jonathan Cargille)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: login as root
Date: 29 May 1995 14:25:16 GMT
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <3qclgc$qed@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
References: <3q8c44$9rf@detroit.freenet.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: grilled.cs.wisc.edu

In article <3q8c44$9rf@detroit.freenet.org>,
Michael Marson <ac381@detroit.freenet.org> wrote:
>
>(putting on the asbestos suit)

No asbestos necessary...  ;-)

>
>OK, I have been trying to install FreeBSD 2.0 from the Infomagic  CD-ROM,
>and 2 errors are occurring:
>
>1) XFree86-3.1 install halts and crashes during extraction.  I have not been
>    able to get it to fully install, on multiple attempts.  Other portions
>     of BSD have installed correctly including the kernel.

The XFree86 install isn't actually crashing; it's just prompting for
some input on the second virtual screen.  Press ALT-F2 to switch to
that screen, and ALT-F1 to change back.

Yes, this is non-intuitive, and should have been better documented.

>
>2)  I have been unable to determine the default password for "su", which
>    is what BSD reports I must login as when I try to login as "root".
>     All seemingly obvious passwords (<enter>, "1", "123", etc) have failed.

Don't type "su" to the "login:" prompt; su is a user-level command you
use to become root after you're already logged in as someone else.
When the "su" command prompts you for "password:", you should enter
the password for "root".  (There should be no root password by
default; in other words, just press return).

Also, you need to add yourself to group "wheel" in the /etc/group file
before you can use "su".

Hope this helps,

Jon Cargille
DiscNet, Inc.