botched 3.1 -> 3.2 upgrade: reset dom0 password

[Jake]

hello list,

i have taken a R3.1 system installed from the ISO and attempted to
upgrade it to R3.2 by following the instructions from the docs (
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/upgrade-to-r3.2/ ), but i have encountered
an unusually irritating problem in the process: after getting to step 7
of the dom0 upgrade, the machine was rebooted and i cannot log into dom0
using the password that worked fine with R3.1. i am 100% certain that
this is not a PEBCAK error and that my previously working password for
dom0 is no longer working.

that said, this is typically an easy enough problem to fix on most *nix
systems: drop to single user mode during boot and reset the password for
root or whatever user. i have searched the qubes-users archives, found
no advice on how to do this and had no luck trying this myself. i have
used the install ISO to boot into "rescue mode", manually mounted the
LUKS volume and attempted to reset the password to no avail. it would
appear that the passwd installed in dom0 does not support the -R option,
nor does passwd work properly inside a chroot, e.g. mount / filesystem
on /mnt, run 'chroot /mnt' and run 'chroot <username>'.

if there is a trick to interrupting the qubes boot process to drop into
single user mode, i would greatly appreciate someone sharing that
information. it seems the issue is that this must occur between
unlocking the LUKS volume and arriving at the password prompt for dom0.

regards,

jake

[Unman]

Hi Jake

Sorry to hear of your problem. I havent encountered this in a number of
upgrades.

If you want to use a chroot, then you need to do something like this:
Mount the decrypted disk to /mnt
$ sudo mount ‐‐bind /dev /mnt/dev
$ sudo mount ‐‐bind /proc /mnt/proc
$ sudo mount ‐‐bind /sys /mnt/sys
Then chroot, and the passwd command should work within the chroot.

(If you've already tried this, apologies - it isnt clear from your
post.)

unman

[Jake]

unman,

thanks for the feedback on the upgrade process. i'll try to repro the
issue on identical hardware.

the extra steps to make passwd work are appreciated, i'll give them a
try if i can reproduce this failure.

regards,
jake