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Problems resetting password on G4 ibook OS X 10.3

M

mof

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 20, 2010
14
0
I'm trying to reset the admin password on a G4 iBook running Jaguar. I don't have the original disks as it belonged to the father of my friend for whom I'm trying to sort it out. My friend inherited a password protected admin account but no password.

I have Tiger disks for Macbook Pro and G5 and was under the impression that any OS installation disk can be used to reset the password having booted from the disc (I've done this before on more modern macs with no issues) but get the message "unable to find driver for this platform "powerbook6,5""

Any help would be greatly appreciated as my patience is running out almost as fast as my limited expertise...

Mof
 
mof said:
I'm trying to reset the admin password on a G4 iBook running Jaguar. I don't have the original disks as it belonged to the father of my friend for whom I'm trying to sort it out. My friend inherited a password protected admin account but no password.

I have Tiger disks for Macbook Pro and G5 and was under the impression that any OS installation disk can be used to reset the password having booted from the disc (I've done this before on more modern macs with no issues) but get the message "unable to find driver for this platform "powerbook6,5""

Any help would be greatly appreciated as my patience is running out almost as fast as my limited expertise...

Mof
Click to expand...

The grey disks you receive with a Mac are for that model only, so they won't work on another, hence the driver error. You need a retail copy, you could pick one up on eBay pretty cheaply, or there are several other methods including entering Single User mode; walkthroughs for which you could easily find by searching.
 
Thanks for the advice. I've seen several different posts with single user methods that haven't worked. Could you point to one that will work?

Thanks
 
mof said:
Thanks for the advice. I've seen several different posts with single user methods that haven't worked. Could you point to one that will work?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Found this, give it a try.

1. Hold Command+S down after you hear the chime.
2. When you get text prompt, enter these commands to create a brand new admin account (hitting return after each line):

Code: 
mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
shutdown -h now
 
Thanks again for your help, although it hasn't worked. I'm trying the 3rd time and transcribing if you feel you can shed any light on this for me. I'm personally stabbing wildly in the dark and not one single line of this means anything to me...

Initially there is the message:

Singleuser boot -- fsck not done
Root device is mounted read-only
If you wanted to make modifications to files,
run 'sbin/fsck -y' first and then '/sbin/mount -uw /

I decided to try this on the second attempt, having not read it the first time...

sbin/fsck -y gets the message "fsck_hfs: volume is journaled. No checking performed.... use the -f option to force checking"

sbin/fsck -f does its thing so I type "/sbin/mount -uw /" and
"rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone" as suggested then am told ".AppleSetupDone: no such file or directory"

Sorry to be so long-winded, I've no idea how much of that is relevant - as I said I've no idea what any of this means.

I'm starting to think that I have a bigger issue than a forgotten password...?
 
mof said:
Thanks again for your help, although it hasn't worked. I'm trying the 3rd time and transcribing if you feel you can shed any light on this for me. I'm personally stabbing wildly in the dark and not one single line of this means anything to me...

Initially there is the message:

Singleuser boot -- fsck not done
Root device is mounted read-only
If you wanted to make modifications to files,
run 'sbin/fsck -y' first and then '/sbin/mount -uw /

I decided to try this on the second attempt, having not read it the first time...

sbin/fsck -y gets the message "fsck_hfs: volume is journaled. No checking performed.... use the -f option to force checking"

sbin/fsck -f does its thing so I type "/sbin/mount -uw /" and
"rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone" as suggested then am told ".AppleSetupDone: no such file or directory"

Sorry to be so long-winded, I've no idea how much of that is relevant - as I said I've no idea what any of this means.

I'm starting to think that I have a bigger issue than a forgotten password...?
Click to expand...

It looks like the syntax may be different in OS X 10.3 Panther, see this message thread, specifically message #2 for what looks like the correct syntax.
 
Hi,

Thank you all for your input.

Firstly - apologies for confusing my cats, the iBook is, of course running Panther.

I tried this:

Boot to single user mode by holding down Command-S at startup (after you've removed the Open Firmware password). At the command line, type exactly (remember, capitalization and spaces matter very much--print this out beforehand so you can get this exactly correct)
/sbin/fsck -yf

repeat this step until you get a message that no files were modified. Then type exactly
/sbin/mount -uw /

This mounts your hard drive in read/write mode (it was originally mounted in read only mode by booting to single user mode).

Now, type exactly
/bin/rm /private/var/db/.AppleSetupDone
/sbin/reboot

result again ".AppleSetupDone no such file or directory"

I've attached a screenshot of the "ls" command result

Thanks again guys for trying to help an ignorant mac user to try to keep an old iBook from the scrapheap. I will put my efforts today into trying to get hold of a disk!
 
Hi,

Please see attachment (if it has uploaded this time...)

Thanks
 

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mof said:
Hi,

Please see attachment (if it has uploaded this time...)

Thanks
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... looks like the symbolic links ARE intact.

Can you boot the machine as normal? What is the result?


EDIT: in other words, are you still at least able to log into a non-admin account and what is the name of that account?
________
vapor genie
 
Last edited:
Hi,

The machine boots and operates normally. Needs a re-install to tidy it up as my friend had filled up the HD. I thought I could do that with the disks I have but unfortunately not for the reasons explained to me above.

As it stands I can't even update the software as updates are password protected...
 
mof said:
Hi,

The machine boots and operates normally. Needs a re-install to tidy it up as my friend had filled up the HD. I thought I could do that with the disks I have but unfortunately not for the reasons explained to me above.

As it stands I can't even update the software as updates are password protected...
Click to expand...

OK, that's a good thing. What we'll attempt is to give admin rights to the non-admin user.

In single user mode (command-s at startup) type the following (take careful note of the spaces and upper/lowercase). Replace 'youruser' with your non-admin user's account user name:

mount -uw /
nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -merge /groups/admin users youruser

If you get "invalid path", type these two commands first:

nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /groups/admin gid 80
nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /groups/admin passwd '*'

and then try the original 'nicl -raw......' again.

then simply reboot the machine:

reboot

You should then have admin rights for your user that WAS a non-admin user.

The other thing to try before this is simply trying no password at all. Some people setup the first user without a password, but you'll still get the password prompt even if there isn't one.
________
vapor genie review
 
Last edited:
Many thanks for the help.

I'll try later and let you know either way.

I tried the no-password option early on to no avail.

Thanks again.

Mof
 
:(

I've attached another screenshot for your info - sorry about the quality

As you can see, the general message is "Write Failed"

You can probably point out something very stupid that I've done wrong, if not thanks for your help anyway - I'll recommend that my friend picks up an install disk on ebay.

Mof
 

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Consultant - Why don't they ask the original owner for password?

Thanks for the input. The original owner has ventured the names of various pets (all now sadly deceased) which I have tried in a multitude of different case variations. This blindingly obvious solution did occur to me but if you have any more of these please keep them coming as it's not out of the question that there is one that I've missed.:rolleyes:
 
mof said:
:(

I've attached another screenshot for your info - sorry about the quality

As you can see, the general message is "Write Failed"

You can probably point out something very stupid that I've done wrong, if not thanks for your help anyway - I'll recommend that my friend picks up an install disk on ebay.

Mof
Click to expand...

Yup, you missed the trailing slash when mounting the volume which made it read-only.

IE:

/sbin/mount -uw /
________
CRF150R
 
Last edited:
MacTech68 said:
Yup, you missed the trailing slash when mounting the volume which made it read-only.

IE:

/sbin/mount -uw /
Click to expand...

MacTech68 - I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patience and genius - new account created and that particular problem now solved.

In fact thanks to everyone who took the time the time to look in and help out - even if my general dumbassedness made it harder than it should have been.
 
mof said:
MacTech68 - I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patience and genius - new account created and that particular problem now solved.

In fact thanks to everyone who took the time the time to look in and help out - even if my general dumbassedness made it harder than it should have been.
Click to expand...

No probs. Glad it all worked out! :)
________
Ferrari F1/86 specifications
 
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