*BSD News Article 96526


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From: patrick@interlog.com (Patrick McConnell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Help: password db corrupt
Date: 30 May 1997 15:15:23 GMT
Organization: PFM Consulting
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I guess I've done something stupid, and now my password database is 
corrupt. I believe what happened was I over-wrote the /etc/pwd.db file. 
I tried restoring it with the pwd_mkdb command, but it just gives me an 
error. Then I deleted all the related files (/etc/passwd, 
etc/master.passwd, /etc/pwd.db, /etc/spwd.db), and tried again with 
pwd_mkdb. I can get into the system by using -s at the boot: prompt then 
mounting the file systems manually.  I've tried adduser, which gives me 
the same error as pwd_mkdb, and I've tried setting the root password 
with the install boot disk. I still have the original copy of the passwd 
file, but it's not much good to me ...

Ok, so if you're finished laughing, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Patrick