[time-nuts] Spectracom 9189 password reset? Instructions in manual don't work :-(

[Jason Rabel]

> Thank you for everyone's suggestions.  I'm definitely connected to the 
> correct serial port for configuration and communication using com port 
> settings 9600,n,8,1.  When power is applied I get various boot messages 
> before being presented with a ">" prompt whereupon I can enter "help" 
> and get some help text.  During the boot process there is prompt 
> indicating there is a 2 second delay where sending any character will 
> interrupt the boot process - but when I do that the system goes quiet 
> and doesn't appear to do anything else.

The first ">" prompt sounds like it's BIOS related...

The 2-second delay is the one you want to interrupt and enter your own boot
commands.

It's been too long since I've had to do this and like an idiot I never wrote
down any notes. However just google something like "linux boot single user
mode" and look for OLD tutorials where you actually have to enter in text,
the newer guides all talk about menus and more modern bootloaders and such.
But basically it involves adding the word "single" or "boot -s" or similar
to the boot process which will eventually get you to the shell prompt. Then
you will need to remount the partitions read/write (important if you want to
save your changes). Check the manual too for how to change the passwords,
some have special commands that will copy the passwd file to a certain
location so that it survives across reboots.

> BTW, for anyone interested, inside the unit, it is a custom PCB (fairly 
> large) with a GPS module (Motorola Oncore maybe?) and can be built with 
> either a small 10MHz oscillator or a much larger TCXO.

I've never seen inside that particular unit. A couple pictures would be nice
if you could post them online somewhere or shrink the file size enough to
attach to your message.