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I deleted all common-* files in /etc/pam.d folder and now I am locked out. I am running Ubuntu 14.04. I did backup all these files in a folder inside pam.d but now I can't even move them. If I try, I get a permission error. If I add sudo, I get this error:

sudo: unable to initialize PAM: No such file or directory

Here are things I tried and failed:

  • sudo pam-auth-update --force (get above error)
  • Went into recovery mode and ran "Repair broken packages"

  • Went to recovery mode, and chose 'root - Drop to root shell prompt'. When I hit enter, I get this:

    Give root password for maintenance. (or type Control-D to continue)**

I never set any password for the root account and I believe it might be disabled. I get access to the console via the web and do not have access physically.

I did tons of searching on Google and almost all point to using LiveCD which is not an option for me. Is there anything else I can do to fix it?

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  • Whomever the admin is will have to either boot from a LiveCD/LiveUSB or reinstall. If you don't have root or physical access to the machine then there's nothing that you can do. – Nasir Riley Sep 4 '18 at 21:27
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    Ok, thanks. Now I can rebuild in peace knowing there are no other options. I will add pam.d to my do not delete list :) – Damon Sep 4 '18 at 23:20
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If your web console has access to edit Grub, you can change the init= portion of the boot string to: init=/bin/bash

That will drop you directly into a bash shell.

From there you'll need to remount the system from read-only to read-write.

mount -o remount,rw /

Once the system is read-write, you can restore your files.

Also while there, if you wish, you can set the root password.

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  • If he doesn't have root access then it's highly unlikely that he can edit grub. – Nasir Riley Sep 8 '18 at 0:28
  • He can't edit the grub configuration on the filesystem - but he may be able to edit the grub entry on boot. – foobar Sep 9 '18 at 3:08
  • How can he edit it on boot when he doesn't have root or physical access? – Nasir Riley Sep 9 '18 at 6:34
  • @Nasir Riley: You don't need root to edit the grub entry on boot (although a username/password combination can be set separately for it). The root account on the linux system is completely irrelevant to grub's boot operations. Additionally, web consoles typically do show the boot-loader - this is confirmed since the user says the can get into "Recovery Mode" which is typically an option selected in the boot-loader. – foobar Sep 10 '18 at 15:02
  • He would have to drop into a shell to edit grub. He has already stated that he is prompted for a root password when he tries to do that. Your suggestion doesn't work. – Nasir Riley Sep 10 '18 at 15:40

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