[lug] Re: linux

J. Wayde Allen wallen at its.bldrdoc.gov
Tue Jun 19 09:01:05 MDT 2001


On Mon, 18 Jun 2001, Danny Xavier wrote:

> I went to your linux site and found the content very
> beautifully explained.I am using suse linux and would
> like to know how to change the root password as I have
> forgotten it.
> There is no floppy drive on my machine

Hmmm ... forgetting the root password would tend to make things just a bit
tricky since that means you won't be able to gain root priviledges.  You
do have physical access to the machine though, so the thing that comes to
mind would be to power it down, and load a rescue or install disk.  Since
you say you don't have a floppy I'm guessing that means you have a CDROM?
  
The idea would be to load a file system such as done for the system
install that is not password protected.  You can often use your install
disk this way, just switch to a different virtual console or kill the
installation program.  You could then try to manually mount the disk
partition containing your password file and null out the root password
field.  If you get that far, rebooting the installed system should allow
you root access with no password.  You should then be able to change the
password to what you want it to be.

I'll crosspost this to the BLUG list in case someone has a better way.

- Wayde
  (wallen at its.bldrdoc.gov)




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