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Archer C7 and a lost password

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 12:32 am
by Avolow
Hello,

I have the TP-Link Archer C7 and cant seem to get anywhere on resetting a forgotten/lost password. I have been reading forum posts for the last two days and am pretty sure I am getting it into failsafe mode, but cant log in using putty on telnet. It refuses connection. I found a post that said as of 1.10.0 (which is the version I am on) telnet is no longer used, I need to use SSH. However SSH will only take me to a log in prompt, and since I don't know the password I cant login to continue.

I am pretty sure this is going into failsafe. When I am plugging it in, I wait for the slow flashing of the WPS light, then start tapping the reset button till the flashes are a fast even flicker. I do not have internet connection at this point, and I can ping the IP address. But SSH still wants a password.

At this point even if I cant get the password reset and have do a hard reset and just wipe the slate clean, then I can re set up my settings and get back up and running. I just cant seem to find any info that works. :?

I am at a loss and dead in the water. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Avolow.

Re: Archer C7 and a lost password

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 4:07 am
by Lantis
Sounds like you're halfway there.
Once in failsafe mode, you need to login as "root" with no password. When it prompts you to enter a password, just press enter.

Re: Archer C7 and a lost password

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 11:19 am
by Avolow
Thank you for your reply. :D

I was finally able to get into it last night (midnight), but at the SSH login I had to enter "password" in the password prompt before it let me in. Once in I tried the "mount_root" then "passwd", but it came back with an error saying that the files were read only, and it would not let me change the password. :?

It did let me do the factory reset. Been up most of the morning setting everything back up from the excel sheet I keep it all in. Have just about everything set, just waiting for a couple devices others have to log back in and get the restrictions setup before I make a config backup.

For the future, is there anything that can be done for the read only error (see below) when trying to reset the password?

passwd: /etc/passwd: Read-only file system
passwd: can't update password file /etc/passwd



Thank you again for the help. :D
Avolow.

Re: Archer C7 and a lost password

Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2019 5:42 pm
by Lantis
mount_root is supposed to solve that, so a bit peculiar that it didn't.

Re: Archer C7 and a lost password

Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 8:31 pm
by Avolow
Thank you for your help. :D