Root Password

[Jeff Vian]

On Tue, 2006-04-11 at 07:15 -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Apr 2006, Kaushal Shriyan wrote:
> 
> > On 4/11/06, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at mindspring.com> wrote:
> > > On Tue, 11 Apr 2006, Andy Green wrote:
> > >
> > > > Kaushal Shriyan wrote:
> > > > > Hi All
> > > > >
> > > > > I am unable to reset my root password, It gives me the following information
> > > > >
> > > > > [root at 311111e python]# passwd root
> > > > > Changing password for user root.
> > > > > New password:
> > > > > Retype new password:
> > > > > passwd: Failed preliminary check by password service
> > > > > [root at 311111e python]#
> > > >
> > > > What happens with just
> > > >
> > > > passwd
> > > >
> > > > on its own?  This should set your current user password, which is root.
> > >
> > > is this under NIS, by any chance?
> > >
> > > rday
> > >
> > > --
> > > fedora-list mailing list
> > > fedora-list at redhat.com
> > > To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
> > >
> >
> > Yes its under NIS
> 
> in that case, i would just google on the combination of "NIS" and that
> error message and see what comes up.
> 

IIRC from the last time I used a system with NIS involved, the command
to be used to reset a users password was yppasswd.

However, the root password should always be local to the machine and not
set under NIS. (Think about what would happen if the only way to log in
was when connected to the NIS server, but you needed to do admin stuff
on the machine so it was disconnected from the network.)