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Forum Discussion
dminkovsky
Oct 23, 2011Aspirant
Documentation of Debug / Tech Support Mode
Hi Everyone,
I've got an NVX Pioneer running 4.2.19. I am wondering whether anyone could shed some light on logging in to the NVX via debug mode. Here's my problem:
I was using root shell access to do some permissions maintenance, when I also wanted to enable shell access for an account. In the process of working with the `chsh` utility in interactive mode, I decided that I had to run and aborted the process. I didn't check /etc/passwd before logging out of root, having faith that `chsh` was built not to corrupt things! Later, I discovered that my root user line in /etc/passwd is now: "root:x:0:0:root:/root:1 exit", corresponding to the exist status of `chsh` when aborted!
Needless to say, this does not allow me to log in as root, and in fact, I am thinking that 'exit' is now root's default shell. I've tried variants of `$ su -c` and `$ su -s` to no avail, and unfortunately I had no configured sudo users :( :(.
So, can I edit this file via debug mode? How can I log in to the NAS via debug mode once it's been booted into debug mode? I'm assuming debug mode boots an alternate OS from a flash ROM.
Thank you!
Dmitry
I've got an NVX Pioneer running 4.2.19. I am wondering whether anyone could shed some light on logging in to the NVX via debug mode. Here's my problem:
I was using root shell access to do some permissions maintenance, when I also wanted to enable shell access for an account. In the process of working with the `chsh` utility in interactive mode, I decided that I had to run and aborted the process. I didn't check /etc/passwd before logging out of root, having faith that `chsh` was built not to corrupt things! Later, I discovered that my root user line in /etc/passwd is now: "root:x:0:0:root:/root:1 exit", corresponding to the exist status of `chsh` when aborted!
Needless to say, this does not allow me to log in as root, and in fact, I am thinking that 'exit' is now root's default shell. I've tried variants of `$ su -c` and `$ su -s` to no avail, and unfortunately I had no configured sudo users :( :(.
So, can I edit this file via debug mode? How can I log in to the NAS via debug mode once it's been booted into debug mode? I'm assuming debug mode boots an alternate OS from a flash ROM.
Thank you!
Dmitry
4 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- mdgm-ntgrNETGEAR Employee RetiredTech support mode is for tech support only. Depending on what you've done they may be able to fix this issue for a fee. I would suggest you open a tech support case to find out.
- sphardy1ApprenticeOr if you have a config backup, you could restore the original files that way
- dminkovskyAspirantThanks for your responses mdgm and sphardy.
So, when the box is in 'Debug / Tech support' mode, and says it's IP on the OLED, there is no documented way you guys are aware of that I can hop on to whatever OS is running at that particular moment and make changes to items on the filesystem? That seems pretty lame, and kind of strange. I haven't port scanned the box to see what's open debug mode, but it would be truly unfortunate if the device has this excellent built-in option for booting an OS from an alternate volume in times of trouble, with no use access. I know this is beyond the commercially intended use of this product, but that's why I'm not taking this issue to tech support. Wondering if the hobbyist community had some insights on debug mode.
I do not have a config backup that I am aware of. Now that you mention it, I had made one a long time ago, but it's well expired relative to many FrontView updates that I've done.
At this point I am dumping the entire contents of the NAS to a different volume over my local network. Once that finishes, if I don't find a way to fix this error I introduced, I'm planning on wiping on the whole thing. Seems really strange that I can't get into there with an alternate boot mechanism and make that adjustment. :(
Best,
Dmitry - PapaBear1ApprenticeIf you have an old copy of the configuration it should still be good. While some changes have been made to Frontview, none have rendered previous copies of the config unusable that I am aware of.
Now if you have made major changes to the configuration, those will be lost, of course they will be with a factory default as well.
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