Magento admin panel inaccessible with no error (after server hang)

centos, magento

Solution

I have employed a hack in one of the core magento files detailed here: http://blog.chapagain.com.np/magento-admin-login-problem/

I have had to comment out lines in "app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Session/Abstract/Varien.php": (please note this is for 1.6 - check link posted for advice on 1.4)

$cookieParams = array(
    'lifetime' => $cookie->getLifetime(),
    'path'     => $cookie->getPath()//,
    //'domain'   => $cookie->getConfigDomain(),
    //'secure'   => $cookie->isSecure(),
    //'httponly' => $cookie->getHttponly()
);

also line 104 comment out :

//call_user_func_array('session_set_cookie_params', $cookieParams);

It seems to be when the server went down something happened to the session, as the new install also failed.

Problem

the server that a magento install was on crashed for (currently reason unknown) and now the backend is inaccessible. I either get no error or I get access denied. I am able to preform the password reset. I have tried: - clearing the browser cookies and cache - clearing the session, tmp and cache folders in magento - using the magento database repair tool - no errors were found - creating a new user manually in the admin_users table (this gets access denied) - rebooting the server again (last resort but still no) The main admin user gets a redirect loop. Any ideas are welcome, I am now stumped. EDIT:I am really after any way to recover a magento admin login? or failing this any way to export the data (without exporting the bugged section)

Original source