This guide explains how to reset the admin login password for Bichon.

⚠️ Available starting from Bichon version 0.3.4 This recovery tool is NOT included in the Docker image. It is distributed together with bichonctl inside the official release archive and must be executed manually on the host system.

You can download it from the GitHub Releases page.

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Important Notice

• This tool does NOT stop bichon-service automatically
• You must stop the service manually before running it
• The database cannot be opened while the service is running

docker stop bichon

or:

docker compose down

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Requirements

• Access to the host machine
• Bichon release package (same archive as bichonctl)
• Original database encryption password

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Locate bichon_root_dir

This is the directory mounted into Docker. The directory must contain:

meta.db

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Run the Tool

Ensure that bichon-admin is on the same machine where meta.db resides, so it can access the database file.

Extract the release archive:

tar -xzf bichon-<version>-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Run the tool:

./bichon-admin

The tool will prompt you for the absolute path to bichon_root_dir (the directory containing meta.db). It must be able to read and write meta.db for the password reset to succeed.

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Reset Procedure

1. Select Reset Admin Password
2. Enter absolute path of bichon_root_dir
3. Provide the database encryption key (same value used by the server)
4. Confirm admin account information
5. Enter the new admin password
6. Confirm database update

On success:

Success! Admin password has been updated.

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Restart Service

docker start bichon

or:

docker compose up -d

Log in using the new admin password.

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Common Errors

DatabaseAlreadyOpen

Cause: bichon-service is still running Fix: stop the service before executing the tool.

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Decryption failed

Cause: incorrect encryption password Fix: use the same encryption key configured during initialization.