How to get a short password for Edison root logon

[JMona1]

I have setup two Edison boards. A breakout board and an Arduino board. Fantastic systems BTW!

Somehow on the first I managed to get a short 3 letter password when I logon to root. Did not think much of it at the time. When I went to setup the second (Arduino) board, --setup insisted on a 6 or greater length password. I think originally on the first board I also have a 6 character password but somehow I was able to drop it down to 3. I do not remember how, or think much of it at the time. Both systems I should add run via Wi-Fi.

So my question to experts here is:-

How do you get a short password for root, (say 3 characters)?

BTW, I'm not concerned about security – nothing there. I'm rebooting many times however.

John

[idata · Accepted solution]

Hi monahanz,

If you run the command configure_edison --password, you will be asked to enter the new password. You will see that it should be a password between 8 and 63 characters. You can modify this limits by editing the file configure_edison. In order to do so, follow the steps below:

1. Open the configure_edison file by running the command: vi /usr/bin/configure_edison
2. Search for the function setEdisonPassword()
3. The limits are set in the line 276, in the if statement. You only have to modify the numbers. I replaced the number 8 by the number 1. Optionally, you can modify the print statement as well to be consistent with the new limits.
4. Save the file.
5. Run the command configure_edison --password. This time you should be able to enter a password of at least 1 character. I tested it by entering 123 and it worked.

Hope this helps you.Regards,Diego

[JMona1]

Thanks again Diego.

John