Many times when you boot with init=/bin/sh the / partition will still be
mounted ro.  use:

mount -o remount,rw / <enter>

then try passwd to see if it will work.

-Bill
On Sat, 2003-07-12 at 13:47, David Demland wrote:
> I would love to have several days, but this is a business system that
> has to
> get up ASAP. The other odd thing is that when I copy the file the owner
> is
> shadow. Does any one know why this would happen. If I am in a shell why
> am I
> not root?
> 
> David
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of
> technomage
> Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 1:14 PM
> To: plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> Subject: Re: Root password problems
> 
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> can you copy the shadow files off?
> if so, get another box, use john the ripper and sit back for a while (it
> may
> take anywhere from 2 hours to several days to break the passwords).
> 
> Mage
> 
> On Saturday 12 July 2003 12:57 pm, David Demland wrote:
> > I have a few Debian boxes, and a FreeBSD box, that no one knows the
> root
> > password for. I have booted with an init=/bin/sh then tried passwd.
> This
> > has worked only on one of the boxes. The rest get an error message of:
> >
> > passwd: Authentication token manipulation error
> >
> > My research shows that I should backup the shadow file and run the
> pwconv
> > command to regenerate the shadow file. I can not do this on these
> machines
> > because they have mounted the root file system as read-only and will
> not
> > allow me to update the shadow file. What do I have to do to fix this
> > problem so I can run the passwd command on these machines?
> >
> > David
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------
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> 
> - --
> I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or
> numbered!
> My life is my own - No. 6
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-- 
Bill Warner <wwarner@direct-alliance.com>
Direct Alliance