[Milhouse]

I have not attempted to delete shadow files yet via samba and Windows PC to regain access and controil via ssh (both files then reboot?)

Yes both files (shadow- is a backup of the original shadow file prior to any modification, but there's no benefit to be had from keeping it).

and not sure what to look for in log files for clues on why I get access denied when trying to login via ssh

I can see sshd is running, and I see two failed password attempts in the latest journalctl:

Code:

Dec 11 22:23:02 LibreELEC sshd[1072]: Failed password for root from 192.168.1.35 port 54113 ssh2
Dec 11 22:23:17 LibreELEC sshd[1072]: Failed password for root from 192.168.1.35 port 54113 ssh2

so it looks like you are entering an incorrect password. Have you tried entering both the old ("libreelec") and new passwords?

I don't know what ssh client you are using, but I'm using PuTTY (Windows app) and when I enter an incorrect password it shows "Permission denied", so it's entirely possible your "Access denied" error is actually an incorrect password, possibly because the shadow file contains garbage, or it's changed back to the default.

You could try viewing the shadow file - it should look similar to the following (which is the default - your "root" line will be different if you've changed the password):

Code:

systemd-network:*:::::::
root:$6$sY7aGbTxcU2ZeqDN$Rlb40DOjy8JbyvH052FGYMTcWWRFZaPvvdFiqFeYgGBklDGxivnDBGeW2fia94RzyYZbyXpBLwltV/JaDc7Op/:::::::
nobody:*:::::::
dbus:*:::::::
system:*:::::::
avahi:*:::::::

Try deleting the shadow file - it will be recreated with the default "libreelec" password.

I have just submitted another PR so that LibreELEC will always overwrite the shadow file with default settings if it appears that the shadow file contains garbage (ie. is missing the entry for root), and this will be in #1212. This should fix your issue, restoring the default password, assuming your shadow file has become corrupted after the power loss.