change root password - single user mode -- OS X 10.3???

hey everyone,
has anyone heard about those 4 steps you can do in single user mode to change the root password??

/sbin/fsck -y
/sbin/mount -wu /
/sbin/SystemStarter

then passwd root

i've tried it on my 10.2 machines, and it's worked great. however, when i tested it on my panther machine, all the steps worked fine, however when i typed passwd root, instead of asking me for a new password, it just returned a new line, ready for more commands.

what's up with this??

I never had the chance to use OSX 10.2 so I'm not sure how much help I can be there – not knowing what was changed – but in Panther the root account is disabled by default and the password is set to '*'. This simply means that you can't change it, or at least not while the '*' is there .

The simplest way to enable root is to use the NetInfo manager: click the padlock and enter your password so you can make changes if you need to and click Enable Root User under the Security menu.

You should also be able to do this from the command line using the ni* commands however if you can I would use the manager .

Hope this helps,

Mark.

A bit late, but here's the solution.

(assuming there is no protection enabled for open firmware)

1. hold command-S when booting
2. /sbin/fsck -y
3. /sbin/mount -uw /
4. /usr/libexec/register_mach_bootstrap_servers /etc/mach_init.d
5. cd /var/db/netinfo; netinfod -s local
6. /sbin/SystemStarter

Steps 4/5 are new for Mac OSX 10.3

HTH,
M.