[jaygor]

H iGuys

A complete linux novice here. I loaded Suse 8.0 on my pc which has win2000 sometime last year. Linux settled in just nicely. Everytime I boot Linux allows me 30 secs to choose win2000 otherwise SUSE Linux will load up.

I never really got around to playing with Linux but now I have forgotten the password. Is there a way of getting around this?

jaygor

[tsunam]

yep when you go to boot you need to use the e key if you use grub and add single to the end of the kernel line. Thill will allow you to change all the passwords for the linux accounts.

[dago]

Grub prompt, select linux option, press "e", then add "init=/bin/bash".
That will give you root access without password.

Type "passwd" to change root's password and "passwd anyuser" to change the password of somebody else

[joedokes]

I'm still lost with the answer to lost password (obviously I'm having the same sort of problem with SuSE). When I log onto Linux from grub, I get a dialogue box straight away that wants my user id and password. No pause, no nothing except a straight jump to the user ID/password. Where or when do I hit 'e'?, because there's no stop or anything when I do that. Then do I get a dialogue box or do I end up in some sort of command screen? And what will the prompt say asking me to type the init=/bin/bash command?
As you see, your answer just leaves me completely at sea. this is what happens with newbies.

[Whiteskin]

You get a grub box that says :Linux
Windows

right? If so, then highlite linux. Hit e. then go the the kernel line, hit e again. go to the end, and append the word 'single'. then, hit enter, and then b to b(oot).

[jaygor]

I must confess I was not sure what is grub, I guessed it was the screen with a choice of operating systems listed on one side, in my case win2000, suse lunux, safe linux and one other I can't remember, and then there is a stack of white horizontal bars which one by one all turn green in 30 seconds. I have 30 seconds to select win2000 otherwise suse linux will load up.

It is here that I tried to press 'e' instead of selecting linux or win 2000 and nothing happened, linux started loading up and I was faced with this window which wants my username and password.

To you linux guys I am security conscious about my pc and the internet, but without this password I can't even get to play with linux for fun. Frustration has set in and I am about to get rid of it. It hogs half my hard disk space. But thanks for your prompt help. I just don't understand the jargon.

jaygor

[joedokes]

Thanks for your quick help, I finally figured out the 'e' business and getting to bash. BUT, once I got into the change password command line, nothing seemed to work. I tried a password, retype password, and I got "cannot change password--already locked" "Authentication error manipulation error". I tried another password, and the message was "too simple". And so on, trying various combinations. I'm back to square one and a half.

[Squashman]

Get a L.O.A.F disk. (Linux On A Floppy) or a Knoppix disk. Boot up with one of those disks, mount the hard drive and edit the password file. This probably sounds pretty complicated because you do not know linux yet. I am searching for an easy to follow tutorial for you. If I cant find one, I will try and find time to write one.

[dago]

Listen joedokes, everybody was newbie once, but try using good sense in your posts, for example, it would help a lot if you inform us your Suse version. I'm using 9.1, and if you do so, I know I can give you precisely correct steps to follow. Would be nice, hu?
One more thing: what password have you lost? Is that an user password or a ROOT password? You're in trouble just for ROOT password, any other is easy to fix.

*OK, you said now you know what's GRUB, right? For Suse: the light blue screen that appears for 8 seconds after powering up (it has a chameleon on the right upper corner)...

*Well, to stop the 8 seconds countdown press any key but 'Enter'. You cannot press 'Enter', doing so you're going to boot.
At Grub, you see Linux, perhaps Windows, Failsafe, Floppy and Memory Test. Can you see 'Boot Options' at bottom? Well, having 'Linux' highlighted, type 'init=/bin/bash' in 'Boot Options' and press 'Enter'.
(in Suse, there is no need to press 'e' what is ridiculously unsafe! I took my measures to avoid that...)

* So far, so good. Now, you're going to see things happening, lots of messages... and then, your prompt will be

(none):/#

Did you get till this? Are you at this point?
Good, now type 'mount -o remount rw /'

* Done? Fine. Now, and only now... type 'passwd' and change the ROOT password to whatever you want.

Like it?
I do it's very funny!!

[joedokes]

Well, I kinda thought that, at a command line level, there wouldn't be very many differences in versions of SuSE, especially something as basic (I thought) as passwords, but it's version 9.0. It's a dual boot system, as you know, and when I first installed it, SuSE worked fine. Then one fine day it booted into a blank screen, and I couldn't do squat figuring it out so I let it ride for a few months.
Or until Windows starting doing strange things too, like crashing suddenly, forcing constant rebooting into the system or just plain blackness on a daily basis. Whoa! Both OS's doing the funky chicken? There's a hardware problem here, which was solved finally with a new video card.
Now I'm going back and picking up some pieces, like reinstalling SuSE, and it's been so long since I've even tried to work in Linux that I forgot the password and the location of the little piece of paper I wrote the password on.
But I digress.
I did get to the prompt, but no one mentioned the "mount . . .remount" part until just now. It's little things like that that make this an adventure. And I thought DOS was fun.
But thanks for the help. I'll probably be moaning again about some dumb thing as obvious as, well, the letter "e". What the hell is so dangerous about "e"? I thought it was just a vowel. Is Vana White gonna come over to my house and slap me around for using an "e"??

[Whiteskin]

It can be unsafe, if people have physical acess to your box and you need security because it allows people, (IE the admin or the badasshacker) to bypass all password protection on the box. Usually a bios password will stop that fairly quickly, though grub/lilo password protection is also a good idea.

[dago]

Hi there.
Well, at command line things are pretty same, you're right. But you are a newbie on Linux, so it's just my advice. In my opinion, "good sense" is not a waste of time and I feel more comfortable asking people to do so. As I said, it was just an example, nothing to take it personal

About your Linux installation, I didn't get it... did you give it up? I mean, are you re-installing Suse? My tip was too late?
If so, sorry for that. I'm not a regular poster, I just check the forum ocasionally...

I'm a consultant on my country, and I use to deal with Solaris. At enterprise level, people is very conservative, that means Linux is almost zero.
I've never forgotten my ROOT password and the last time a customer running Linux with that problem was in 1998.
At that time, there was no need for the "mount ... remount" stuff.
When you post the warning, I repeated the steps to realize what it was. So, the "mount...remount" stuff was new to me also.

Whitesking has answered the 'e' security concern. To get more details see
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...topic=5621&hl=

I'm Brazilian, so I don't have a glue about who is Vana White but I hope she/he will not come to slap you...

[jaygor]

hey Dago!!

ha! ha! )
maybe I wont get rid of linux .... it just leaves me frustrated but give me few more weeks I'll have a go again and get that password fixed.. hope you are around in the electronic ether ANNNND all the rest of you good people on HOTN...
I'll be back!!!

jaygor

[Squashman]

I guess I just like using my Tom's RTBT boot disk and mounting the hard drive and then editing the shadow file manually. That is the way I was first taught to do it.

[joedokes]

Ah Vana, girl of my vowels. She's the one who turns over the letters in that forever popular game show, Wheel of Fortune. I wonder if there's a Brazilian version of that.
To back up a bit, Once I got my screen back when I installed my new video card, I found myself unable to boot into the OS, so the new install. Now that it seems to be working, I can't get into it--or at least not yet. I still have to try the remount. Can I still buy a vowel?