SCO Help ...

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010, Ben Duncan wrote:
> Ok, this is for any of YOU long time SCO admins.
>
> I have inherited a SCO state agency client when their 80 year old admin
> was forced into retirement - gurney to hearse ... ok I made that up,
> BUT he was forced to retire - and he WAS 80 years old ...
>
> Anyway, there ARE no passwords for the SCO system written down.
> I DO have, the Floppy and the CD that is for the OS that is on system.
>
> My Question is how do I hack the root password so I can get to the machine.

If they have BackupEdge or Lone Tar backup software on the
machine, there are probably boot/recovery disk(s) around that
would allow you to boot, then get to the shell where you can
manually edit the /etc/shadow file or even chroot to the mounted
root directory to do a ``passwd'' command.

Depending on the SCO version, you might be able to escape to a
shell from the installation media, but I don't remember how one
would do this.  I think this worked with OpenServer 5.0.6a and
earlier, but seem to remember seeing something on comp.sco.misc
by Bela Lubkin recently talking about this.

As a last resort, I have been known to install the main HD in a
working SCO box where I could mount it, and do the passwd thing.

Bill
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