[nmglug] dude, wheres my password?

[Jason Davis]

On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 18:20 -0700, Karl Hegbloom wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-04-12 at 18:20 -0600, joe at highmayhem.com wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Yeah, I'm that guy. I thought I knew it, I don't remember changing it, 
> > but I can't log in as root with any password thats in my head. What can 
> > I do? Can I change it to something new? Can I find out what it is?
> > 
> > What would you do?
> 
> Reboot the computer.  If you use 'lilo' for a bootloader, then press the
> 'Shift' key to get a boot prompt.  Type the name of the kernel you want
> to boot with 'init=/bin/bash' appended.  eg:
> 
>   boot:  linux init=/bin/bash
> 
> If you use the Grub bootloader, then highlight the kernel you want to
> boot, and press 'e' to edit the boot commands.  Arrow down to the line
> that begins with 'kernel', and press 'e' again.  At the end of the line,
> add a space and 'init=/bin/bash' (minus the quotes), then press Enter.
> Now press 'b' to boot it.
> 
> In either case, you will be at a shell prompt logged in as root.
> Nothing will be running, no init.d scripts will have been run, and your
> '/' directory will be mounted read only and will be the only one
> mounted.  Type:
> 
>  mount -o remount,rw /
> 
> ... to mount it read/write, then run the 'passwd' command to set your
> root password.  Then:
> 
>  mount -o remount,ro /
>  reboot
> 
> ... and let it boot normally.  You will now have a new root password.
> 


nice Karl!
I have always just booted to a live cd and chrooted in and reset the
passwd , but i think i like your way better