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No admin access or ability to use terminal


kurick
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Ok, I finnaly got OS X running on my PC hardware.

 

The problem I am havin now is I no longer have admin access to install software, or making system changes, liek the date and time.

 

My persoanal account says it's an admin account, but when I am doing something that prompts me for a username or password, it wont accept it.

 

Usually the name field is allready filled in, but now it is blank. When I put in my username and password it says:

"You must type an administrator's name and password to make changes to system preferences."

 

If I try typing "Administrator" for the username it says the invalid username or password. This happens if I use my user account password or leave it blank. Admin as a username does not work either.

 

Also, some programs like Terminal will no longer run. They icon for them is a defualt apllications icon. When I double click on it, nothing happens, no error.

 

Does anyone have any idea's?

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  • 6 months later...

i'll bump this up as i have a similar problem. after a failed 10.5.5 update and a leo4all reinstall (upgrade, not clean install) it boots up and works perfectly until i have some admin task to do... like disk utility or preferences. when i'm prompted for a password i enter my normal one (the one that i chose upon user creation, with full admin privileges) and i get the invalid user/pass error. i tried resetting the pass from the leopard disk but that doesn't seem to work either.

 

Can anyone please help us?

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The standard admin account for OSX (and any linux system btw) is "root". You have to login as that and reset your settings there, like this:

 

1. Run single user mode using the -s flag while booting i.e. type -s at the "boot:" prompt and wait for the prompt ":/ root#" to appear (I had to boot -s twice and press Enter after the static cursor appeared to get the prompt; you may not need to), type each of the following lines, followed by Enter and then waiting for ":/ root#" to re-appear.

2. Mount the file system by typing "mount -uw /" (without quotes) at the ":/ root#" prompt.

3. Change the root password by typing "passwd root" at the ":/ root#" prompt and then typing in a new root password and retyping it again as requested.

4. Create the .AppleSetupDone file by typing

"touch /var/db/.AppleSetupDone" (without quotes) at the ":/ root#" prompt

5. Boot the system by typing "exit" (without quotes) at the ":/ root#" prompt.

 

Then you should be able to do those admin-only tasks using the root username and password - beware, though, if your password doesn't work in the admin login box, check your key mappings by typing the password in the username box and see if they match. i have a problem with this and my current install. (i.e. i key and replaced with ' (apostrophe) key, symbols above number keys are switched around, etc.)

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