Root login issue

    Unfortunately I can't access via web (forgot password) nor ssh like I used to a couple of weeks ago because I ran out of space, so, I accessed to portainer and delete some images to have some storage back. but ssh keeps closing by peer automatically.


    7WJP0M3


    So today I hooked up a display and keyboard to Dwight (OMV-server) but even directly by console I can not access root.


    Here's a video of what happens when I try to login as root.


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    I want to migrate OMV from the 16gb USB OMV to a larger 64gb but seems like It doesn't gonna work the easy way.


    Any advice?

  • Dsousa

    Added the Label OMV 5.x

  • chente

    Approved the thread.

    Everyone who has access to docker has effectivly root acces.


    Install an container e.g. ubuntu, mount /etc/shadow into it and set the password for user root to something known by manually editing the file.

    Or you coud try to mount /etc to /etc into this container and use passwd root to change the password.

    If you got help in the forum and want to give something back to the project click here (omv) or here (scroll down) (plugins) and write up your solution for others.

    I only have like 300MB of storage, I cannot install ubuntu lol.


    I have jellyfin container, can I use it to restore the root password?

    The ubuntu image has 75 MB, but you can use any container with a shell and an editor.

    You can try to get some free space by removing the docker logs or temporary volumes, unused images,

    If you got help in the forum and want to give something back to the project click here (omv) or here (scroll down) (plugins) and write up your solution for others.

    Can I erase space from the root directory?


    I do not want to mess with the password since I am thinking it is not the problem, the video shows that it does not prompt for password and the connection closed by peer from the ssh. so I am thinking that even if I successfully change the root password it is not going to solve the issue.

    You should not remove things from the root directory (/root/) except you put it there and know what it is.

    You can delete old logfiles in /var/log/

    Quote from Dsousa

    I want to migrate OMV from the 16gb USB OMV to a larger 64gb but seems like It doesn't gonna work the easy way.

    I don't know what you mean by "easy" way, but you can just mount the hard drive in another PC and copy it to the new drive.

    Assuming /dev/sde is your old drive (16gb) and /dev/sdf is your new drive, use

    dd if=/dev/sde of=/dev/sdf bs=32M to clone it. Afterwards expand your file system on your new drive.


    Could it be that root access is just deactivated? Do you have an unprivileged user account for login which can use sudo?

    What means do you have to access the server?


    If the only thing you can connect to is portainer, run a container, mount the / volume to a directory and check what is taking up your space or check fpr unused container / volumes /images.


    what is the error from the ssh? use ssh -vv root@<ip_of_my_omv>


    I do not watch videos, so post some text or screenshot please.

    If you got help in the forum and want to give something back to the project click here (omv) or here (scroll down) (plugins) and write up your solution for others.

    Quote from Zoki

    What means do you have to access the server?

    I mean that I can access the NAS, Jellyfin and other Docker services.

    Quote from Zoki

    what is the error from the ssh? use ssh -vv root@<ip_of_my_omv>

    $ ssh -vv root@192.168.0.27

    WARNING: Ignoring unknown option -v

    WARNING: Ignoring unknown option -v


    ssh: Connection to root@192.168.0.27:22 exited: Error reading: Connection reset by peer


    And directly at the login no ssh (keyboard connected) after type root, it didn't prompt for password, instead I get: Login Incorrect


    If I try other user like admin it ask for password, but I only remember the root password.

    Quote from Steini

    Could it be that root access is just deactivated? Do you have an unprivileged user account for login which can use sudo?

    I'm going to change the admin password since I forgot it and try that tomorrow.

    On what system are you trying to do the ssh? Windows and linux accept the -v (verbose) flag.


    If root account is locked or login not enabled, create a new account from the ui and put it into the ssh group. Then you should be able to log in with this user.


    if you still have access to portainer, use on of the images you have around to look at what is happening on your os disk. (Create a new container, mount / (host side) to /rootfs (container side). Start the container and use portainer to get a console. Then execute (in the container) du -xhd 1 /rootfs.

    If you got help in the forum and want to give something back to the project click here (omv) or here (scroll down) (plugins) and write up your solution for others.

    Quote from Zoki

    On what system are you trying to do the ssh? Windows and linux accept the -v (verbose) flag.

    I was on mobile sorry.
    Here you have the verbosity


    Disk usage


    Quote from Steini

    Could it be that root access is just deactivated? Do you have an unprivileged user account for login which can use sudo?

    I change other user password via /etc/shadow with the root password and login directly not by ssh with success. but it is not sudo user


    Thank you all, I really appreciate your time to help me. 🙏

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