updated os card, now no access, no root or first user pw.

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 26 October 2021 19:08:14 Gene Heskett wrote:

ping!

> Greetings all;
>
> I have a red pitaya, and I just, after about 18 months, overwrote its
> boot and operating u-sd with about a 4 version newer os and app image.
> Used dd of course.
>
> But the image had no root account pw, and no first user at all.  And
> it runs headless. Running a u-boot, armhf version of ubuntu 16-04 even
> after the update.
>
> So I need to restore enough of the passwd and logins, to at least get
> a first user and valid passwd reset into it?
>
> This thing has no video output, or keyboard input in it and no shell
> access that I can find from its web browser interface that only works
> for the mac address of its ethernet port. So this has to be done by
> putting the card in a reader on some other machine and editing the
> correct files.
>
> How do I preceed given those restrictions?

It occurs to me that if I could concoct a "single" mode boot that ran 
sshd in a passwd-less key session, allowing me to ssh into it, this 
might be fixable as I could then run the password using a normal user or 
for root.

But I've no clue how to construct such a bootup in a u-boot environment.

This thing cost me just under 1 thousand dollars, and is a must to have 
if maintaining an AM radio station, as one of its functions is a Vector 
Network Analyser, measureing the tower characteristics and drawing the 
Smith Charts of that measurement for the FCC. I can put this card in a 
reader, on another machine, and do anything to it that needs done.  What 
I don't know is what needs to be done. So I need help from u-boot 
experts, which I am not.

Please help.

And Thank you.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.
-- 
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