Fedora 7 and lv problems

[V. Alex Brennen]

On Wed, 2007-08-01 at 15:22 -0400, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> I have a laptop running FC7 installed out-of-box with /boot as its own 
> partition and swap and / under Linux LVM.
> 
> I now need to access /etc/passwd to force-change the password to blank to 
> log into an account.   Knoppix 5.1.1 can see the lvm via lvdisplay but 
> cannot do anything with it.
> 
> What CD/DVD can I use/burn than can help me mount the lvm successfully and 
> change the /etc/passwd file?

You should be able to just boot into single user mode and reset it
with the 'passwd' command.  You can do that by appending "single" 
to the kernel line in the grub boot menu (hit 'e' to edit).

If for some reason you can't just use single user mode, you should
also be able to do it with Knoppix 5.1.1 if you enable LVM2 support
by loading the dm-mod module into the kernel.  The LVM2 utils will
still "work" to some extend with out kernel LVM2 support.

If I'm mistaken about that, the Gentoo Live CD will do it for you:

Step 1:  Boot and make sure hardware/disks are detected properly
Step 2:  Use modprobe to load LVM2 support into the kernel:
             bash# modprobe dm-mod
Step 3:  Load your VG metadata and activate your LVs:
	     bash# vgscan  (should list VGs)
	     bash# vgchange -ay (should activate LVs)
Step 4:  Mount your root partition LV:
	     bash# mount /dev/(vg)/root /mnt

I haven't used Knoppix or FC in years.  But, I've done a recovery
(hardware problems - not password) on Gentoo with the Gentoo
Install CD (which is very similar to the Gentoo Live CD).

If none of this works for you, there should be a Recovery HOWTO out
there that applies to your specific setup.  Ask.com should be able 
to find it for you.  There are a few good ones in the Gentoo-wiki 
that I've referred to in the past.


Good luck,

   - VAB


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