Access other users from the login panel

Sep 14, '02 11:37:21AM

Contributed by: mithras

Ordinarily, to log in as console, root, or a network user, an admin must have enabled the "Other..." button on the "List of Users" login panel (covered here in a previous hint).

However, even if the "Other..." button is disabled, you can still access the "Name/Password" login panel:

  1. Press the down arrow to select one user in the list.
  2. Hold the option key, and press return.
The login panel magically transforms from the "List of Users" to the "Name/Password" dialog. From here you can enter "root" if you've enabled root, or ">console" to enter a text-only environment, or the name of a network user. Unfortunately, if you have chosen the "Name/Password" panel, there doesn't appear to be a way to force a switch to the "List of Users" panel.

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