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Trouble reinstalling OS X Panther

JiGGm

JiGGm

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 2, 2004
18
0
Hi, I've searched around a bit and havent found a problem like mine, and was looking for a suggestion or two.

My best friend has a new iMac G5, the problem is, he's really stupid. He came to me a few days ago pretty pissed about his computer. It was setup to auto login, and he made a new user. Logged into the account, and could never get back into his old one because he forgot his password. So we tried reinstalling by putting disc 1 of panther in and holding c during the boot. It goes to the apple screen, then a new apple logo appears over the normal one and is fragmented slightly. I was wondering if this is normal, because it just sat there with the computer seemingly working hard for about 10 minutes without doing anything. I think it froze, but I dunno.
If anyone has any suggestions, that would really help us out.

Thanks,
Jake
 
unfortunately no, he created i guess the equivelent to a guest. He didnt modify it at all, just the default privelages. So we're thinking a reinstall is necessary.
We did manage however to option+s into single user and assign a new password to root (didnt ask for old password). That seemed to work while in single user. We went back, booted into his new account with pretty much no priveleges, entered a terminal, ran su, and it wouldnt accept the new password we just created.
 
JiGGm said:
unfortunately no, he created i guess the equivelent to a guest. He didnt modify it at all, just the default privelages. So we're thinking a reinstall is necessary.
We did manage however to option+s into single user and assign a new password to root (didnt ask for old password). That seemed to work while in single user. We went back, booted into his new account with pretty much no priveleges, entered a terminal, ran su, and it wouldnt accept the new password we just created.
Click to expand...

Not sure about this, but I think you can reset any password in single user mode. Also, see if you can get the cd working (or find another) to access the change password utility. Also, if the new account isn't admin, you won't be able to use su.
 
hmmmm... okay.
So we shall do the password recovery tool off the disk. To do that you hold C at boot and it enters the install menu (with disc 1 in of course)?
Because we tried that and the disc starts spinning, but the Apple startup screen (with the apple in the middle) just sits there, and theres a slight fragmentation on the upper left side above the apple.
How long does it take (with g5 imac 17" 1.8ghz 512mb ram) between initializing the disk from holding C to getting into the setup menu? I'm thinking it shouldnt take long, but we let it chug away for 10 minutes or so before giving up.
 
JiGGm said:
hmmmm... okay.
So we shall do the password recovery tool off the disk. To do that you hold C at boot and it enters the install menu (with disc 1 in of course)?
Because we tried that and the disc starts spinning, but the Apple startup screen (with the apple in the middle) just sits there, and theres a slight fragmentation on the upper left side above the apple.
How long does it take (with g5 imac 17" 1.8ghz 512mb ram) between initializing the disk from holding C to getting into the setup menu? I'm thinking it shouldnt take long, but we let it chug away for 10 minutes or so before giving up.
Click to expand...

Longer than a normal login, but not ten minutes. My guess is the cd is bad. You can see if it was just a fluke and try the cd again or look for another disk.
Also, I think, (never tried, but seen it done with other *nixes) that you can reset other passwords as well as root from single user mode without knowing the original password.
Another possibility is that with root enabled, you can login from the login window, if it displays only fields for the username and password. Even if it is in a list, the option other may be included in the list (not sure what enables it, I've seen it at times and not at others, haven't really looked into it), which you can select to login as root and change everything from there.
 
hmmmm. i suppose i'll check the disk against an MD5 sum.
 
I'm using the disc labeled 1. Is the restore cd disc 3?

by the way, is disk spelled with a C or a K at the end. Totally unrelated but I have been wondering for some time.
 
JiGGm said:
I'm using the disc labeled 1. Is the restore cd disc 3?

by the way, is disk spelled with a C or a K at the end. Totally unrelated but I have been wondering for some time.
Click to expand...

A 'K' but you hold 'C' to start up with because it is a CD.

It takes about 4 minutes I would think to start up off of a CD. Then you can reset the password there. Hehe, I think that you should make an extra account on your buddies Mac, Just In Case...
 
JiGGm said:
I'm using the disc labeled 1. Is the restore cd disc 3?

by the way, is disk spelled with a C or a K at the end. Totally unrelated but I have been wondering for some time.
Click to expand...


If you're using the disks that came with the imac, they should say something like software install and restore. If you bought 10.3 separately, use those disks. You should use disk 1 in either case.
 
Mechcozmo said:
A 'K' but you hold 'C' to start up with because it is a CD.
Click to expand...

Nope. It's spelled Compact Disc. Take a look at any CD you have laying around. Especially look for the little official logo.

I'm not sure, but I believe that magnetic media such as hard drives and floppies are spelled as disk.
 
ahhhh ok.
The Disc is still hanging on boot. I'm not sure why, I guess something about it isnt happy.

Man, my friend is a moron, that extra account is going to be made (good looking out Mechcozmo), I can see this happening again : -D
 
JiGGm said:
ahhhh ok.
The Disc is still hanging on boot. I'm not sure why, I guess something about it isnt happy.
Click to expand...

Bad CDs happen.. Apple makes coasters too.

Do you have another mac to use FW target disc mode on, and can start up via the network?
 
I'm going to be a smart one and ask, Was there any extra hardware? Did he add third party RAM? Is there any firewire devices plugged in? Go to the bare minimum if there is any other hardware or extra RAM installed.
 
Are you using the discs that came with the iMac G5, or discs from another copy of Panther? You MUST use the iMac G5 install discs to boot, because the iMac can't use any version of OS X earlier than the special build of OS X.3.5 that came with the iMac. So, if you are using discs from a second install of Panther, the disc will be trying to load OX X.3.0 on the iMac, which will fail.

Once you make sure that you are booting from the proper disks, you should be able to use the "reset password" option from either the Apple Menu or the Installer Menu to get back into the admin account.

You do NOT need to reinstall OS X to get back into the account, the password can be reset once you boot from the right CD.
 
awesome, a buddy at work lemme borrow his panther disc and it worked. Awesome. Now we can actually add/remove programs and all that. Thanks guys. Oh btw, I do have an admin account on his box now, no more "oh, dude, I forgot my password again, maybe i should write it down"
 
JiGGm said:
awesome, a buddy at work lemme borrow his panther disc and it worked. Awesome. Now we can actually add/remove programs and all that. Thanks guys. Oh btw, I do have an admin account on his box now, no more "oh, dude, I forgot my password again, maybe i should write it down"
Click to expand...

That's great. Yeah, sounds like you're gonna have to back this guy up, so make sure you don't forget your password:D.
 
never

Its one of my main 3
And i wrote it down and taped it in my freezer behind the ice trays.

He's in good hands :)
 
JiGGm said:
Its one of my main 3
And i wrote it down and taped it in my freezer behind the ice trays.

He's in good hands :)
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear you got things working. That's a really cool (no pun intended) place to hide your password. I don't think anyone would ever think of looking for a password there (until now that is). ;)
 
Well done. It always creates a sigh of relief when someone can fix somthing.

Kyle? said:
Another possibility is that with root enabled, you can login from the login window, if it displays only fields for the username and password. Even if it is in a list, the option other may be included in the list (not sure what enables it, I've seen it at times and not at others, haven't really looked into it), which you can select to login as root and change everything from there.
Click to expand...

For those wondering, in Panther, to log in as root at the login window you need to change to the name and password display. If you have the login window set to list (ie only usernames) simple press option and return and then click on any user. The display will change to username/password format. Then you can simply enter root and your password. (assuming you have root enabled of course)
 
man, all this tooling around on his comp, it makes me mad jealous as a pc user. The layout of OS X kills XP. God, give me a mac for xmas... errr... santa i mean.

In my world Santa is more a form of plastic, with Visa written on it.
 
moot said:
For those wondering, in Panther, to log in as root at the login window you need to change to the name and password display. If you have the login window set to list (ie only usernames) simple press option and return and then click on any user. The display will change to username/password format. Then you can simply enter root and your password. (assuming you have root enabled of course)
Click to expand...



Ooooohhhh. Kewl. That is very kewl. :D
 
moot said:
Well done. It always creates a sigh of relief when someone can fix somthing.



For those wondering, in Panther, to log in as root at the login window you need to change to the name and password display. If you have the login window set to list (ie only usernames) simple press option and return and then click on any user. The display will change to username/password format. Then you can simply enter root and your password. (assuming you have root enabled of course)
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was pretty sure there was another way to get to root even with list mode enabled other than the seemingly randomly appearing "other..." option. Thanks for telling us what it is.
 
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