[gentoo-embedded] root passwd with a stage3 filesystem? (for nfs-root purposes)

[Christopher Friedt]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to use the filesystem obtained here below as an nfs root for 
my board.

${MIRROR}/experimental/arm/embedded/stages/stage3-arm-uclibc-softfloat-20050811.tar.bz2

Originally, I ran into some trouble when I allowed the default init 
routine to run, because it froze on 'starting local'. I eventually 
discovered that was because my main serial device should be /dev/ttyAM0 
instead of /dev/ttyS1 in /etc/inittab. I fixed that, and then found that 
I couldn't login as root, even after adjusting /etc/password to

root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
...

I wrote a very simple init script to mount things and run /bin/sh, but 
that generates 'kernel panic - attempt to kill init!' when I exit. I'd 
still like to use the default init scripts for now, so that inittab 
respawns a login prompt of some kind, but for some reason none of the 
password-changing methods I'm aware of have worked.

I've even tried to erase the root password entry in 
/etc/{passwd,shadow}*, but that didn't work. I've tried changing the 
password to nothing or 'password' using /bin/passwd, but that also 
doesn't work!

This is completely puzzling for me at the moment.

ack! plz help!

Chris
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