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<TITLE>The Answer Gang 65: BIOS passwords - Bane of my existance</TITLE>
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<H4>By Jim Dennis, Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Breen, Chris, and the Gang,
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>BIOS passwords - Bane of my existance</H3>
<p><strong>From Unidentified Querent
</strong></p>
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Ben Okopnik, Heather Stern
<br></strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
Can I send the Answer Gang a question and ask that I not be identified?
PLEASE??? Reason: I feel stoopid enough already. Hey, you may decide
that it isn't even a good idea to print this one. I doubt I would...
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
You really have no reason to feel stupid. Not knowing something does not
equate to being stupid; as I tell the students in my classes, "educated is
what you're supposed to be when you come out, not when you come in."
However, I don't think that there will be any problem with honoring your
request: Heather, the TAG's Answer Gal, scrubs off the e-mail addresses
anyway, and I've already removed your name.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
Yes. I can strip anybody who wants down to <em>anonymous</em> and I already
make a sincere effort to scrub company references, etc from most things.
Someotimes it matters (like when someone is a spokesperson for the
company of a product we're talking about) but usually it is cruft and
gets cut.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As Editor Gal I can make sure this thread is scrubbed thorughly of your
identity, and will.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
It's really TWO questions but the second question is not necessary if
you have an answer to the first (which I doubt).
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
(1)
I read your "LILO:Password Protected Entries" article in the new
March LinuxGazette. Though I do not have a LILO question, I'd like to
ask you to follow up on something else you touched on in that article.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
One of my toys is a CTX EzBook 800 laptop which is currently running
<A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 7. A while back, I thought it would be a good idea to block access
to "Lorraine's" BIOS settings. I set the BIOS password so that access to
the BIOS is blocked but booting is not. Good thing. I soon forgot the
password.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
Ut oh. This is below the scope Linux can probably help with, but read on.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
This isn't a HUGE problem since I don't have to access the BIOS very
often but booting from a CDROM is now impossible (without using a boot
floppy) and setting or correcting local time is a real pain in the rump
(see question 2).
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
have you tried setting Linux' date and then:
<br><tt>hwclock --systohc</tt>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I know BIOS backdoors exist but I've been unable to find one for mine.
</strong></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
<TT>/dev/nvram</TT> maaaaybe. Unfortunately it's laced with some righteous warnings
and most people use it by figuring out what to do with it when they <EM>have</EM>
normal BIOS access.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Lorraine's got a PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0.67A dated 1985 - 1997. In
the year or so since I got stoopid, I've scoured the Internet for info
on what the Phoenix backdoor might be - I found nothing. I even
contacted the manufacturer, CTX, to see if they would help. All they
would suggest was popping open the laptop and removing the BIOS battery,
something I'm not sure I'd do even if I knew how to (yeah, I know I'm a
wimp).
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
Opening the laptop may be tricky. The usual rule is There Are Lots Of
Tiny Screw To Get Lost. Taking notes and not making sudden moves while
it's half open (so you can see where plastic traces are plugged in before
yanking them loose carefully) are both good.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
But the BIOS is usually a watch battery and about as easy to deal with as
a watch once you have it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
You may want to get printouts and take notes during bootup of things that
are BIOS options as far as you know them. dmesg may help some.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
So... The questions remain: Do you know how to foil this sucker or,
failing that, can you
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
(2)
Tell me how to reset the BIOS time from within SuSE 7? That'd be a
piece of cake with RedHat's linuxconf but I've yet to find anything in
SuSE that would do the trick. Don't even ask about yast and yast2...
Change time zone, yeah. Change time, no way.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
Ah yes, this would be the hwclock command I gave above. You have to be
root to use it.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As for linuxconf, err, I haven't had good luck with it myself. YaST
(yess, that's really how the command is spelled) is the admin tool
under SuSE, but as you can see, it's really more about installing
stuff, not so much for sysadmin work.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Take a look at the 'cmostool' utility
<<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/hardware/?M=A>"
>http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/hardware/?M=A></A>;. It allows you to back up,
modify, hex dump, etc. the CMOS - as well as deleting the whole thing
(which wipes out the password.)
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
!!! WARNING WARNING WARNING !!!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Do not do this if you don't know what you're doing! Wiping your CMOS
<EM>will</EM> make your system unbootable. You must know at least the CHS
(cylinder-head-sector) values for your hard drive, and either know or be
able to figure out the other necessary settings. If you dump your CMOS and
get stuck, you are on your own!
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Now that I've scared you into twitching fits and heebie-jeebies...
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Most BIOSs today are auto-configuring, and will either auto-detect or give
you the option of auto-detecting your HD; Phoenix BIOS certainly does that
(it's been my favorite for many years now.) For myself, if I'm going to do
that sort of thing - and I've worked on many, many machines where the
owner had set a BIOS password and forgot it - I'll boot DOS, save a copy
of the settings to a bootable floppy via 'savecmos', and only then blow
away the password via 'cmosedit'. That way, if things go truly awry, I can
at least get back to where I was and try something else. The 'savecmos'
utility (including 'cmosedit') is available all over the Net, e.g.
<<A HREF="http://members.tripod.co.uk/paulc/cmosutil.zip>"
>http://members.tripod.co.uk/paulc/cmosutil.zip></A>;.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
P.S.: I bought this laptop new from Sears (don't laugh) and have the
receipt and everything. Honest!
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
I will be <EM>certain</EM> to stop by and check up on you. Have them ready, and
be afraid. Be <EM>very</EM> afraid.
<IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
Cool. Makes it lots easier to insure and all. It's entirely a side
note, but <A HREF="http://www.mobilix.org"
>http://www.mobilix.org</A> has a nice list of laptop resources.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Thanks!!!
<br>Signed: Stoopid
</STRONG></P>
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