ARRRGGHH Please help server 10.3.9. nightmare

[orig_jane]

Hi,
We have a mac server running 10.3.9. It was becoming slow, so in my infinite wisdom, i decided to restart the machine. Unfortunately, on doing this, it no longer accepts the login ID or password!! CAPS lock is not on.

Has anyone got any ideas, or do i have to reload it?

Thanks very much, am quite desperate as i am work (there are no mac guys here)!!

Jane

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Try resetting the admin account password by booting from the OS X Server Install CD/DVD:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274

[orig_jane]

Cheers, will give that a go. Just out of interest, do you think that the password pref file has got corrupted?
Thanks once again.
Jane

[ElDiabloConCaca]

There is no "password" preference file. Mac OS X stores passwords in a NetInfo database.

It is possible, however unlikely, that the NetInfo database is corrupt in some way. Resetting the password or simply restoring from a backup should fix things.

[orig_jane]

Ahh, and thats why I ask people that know about these things!
Thanks ever so much, you have saved my skin!

[icemanjc]

There is no "password" preference file. Mac OS X stores passwords in a NetInfo database.

It is possible, however unlikely, that the NetInfo database is corrupt in some way. Resetting the password or simply restoring from a backup should fix things.

I kind of just had to mention that this seems to happen a lot to me with 10.5 server, where it messes up the username a lot. So what I do is log into the server using the user name "root" with the password you set and then resetting the stuff.