On 1/25/2005 9:47 AM, I believe that Fred Atkinson wrote:

> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Fred
>

Sorry, there is nothing you can do. No one has ever lost the root password
before. And I'm sure google would have no archived articles on how to
recover a root password. In fact, don't even bother searching google for
"linux lost root password" cuz you'll get no useful links, it'll just take
you here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=linux...utf-8&oe=utf-8
and the first article google displays is this useless link:
http://www.aplawrence.com/Linux/lostlinuxpassword.html

Man, I thought google would be more helpful than that...

Good luck in your search for help, though. Perhaps someone else can be of
more assistance...

Regards,
Tim

"Fred Atkinson" wrote in message
news:aqmcv05jofb1p4ajkl352ota2ubgeuhbhi@4ax.com...
> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.

What version of RH do you have and did you make an installation boot disk
before you did the original installation ?

If you do , then I have a detailed work around using the installation boot
disk , I have used this solution once before and it worked , but I won't go
into detail if you don't have the installation disk .

If the linux box is about 3 years old , then maybe you have RH 7.0 - 7.3
which were the last versions that used a installation boot disk.


--
Sandgroper
----------------------------------
Remove KNICKERS to Email
steveray@KNICKERSiinet.net.au

according to knoppix hacks #66, this is possible.
perhaps the debian group could assist you farther
http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/ht/124

good luck,
scott

> >
> > Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> > that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> > hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> > don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> > to.
>

try this link
http://linuxgazette.net/107/tomar.html


"Scott" wrote in message
news:ZnzJd.7021$Ob.708@edtnps84...
> according to knoppix hacks #66, this is possible.
> perhaps the debian group could assist you farther
> http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/ht/124
>
> good luck,
> scott
>
> > >
> > > Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> > > that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> > > hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> > > don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> > > to.
> >
>
>

Fred Atkinson wrote:
> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Fred
>

fire up a RH CD and choose rescue mode... mount the system disk and
edit the /etc/shadow file and blank out the root password. you might be
able to chroot into the system disk and just run passwd root. either
way should work... but of course i havent tried for Linux recently but
works for other UNIXen like OSF and Solaris.


--

Marco Benton - BOFH, BSMFH

BOFH excuse #65: The cause of the problem is: bit bucket overflow

Marco Benton - BOFH writes:

>Fred Atkinson wrote:
>> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
>> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
>> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
>> administrator access, either one would do.
>>
>> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know

No. Noone can do it (except trying all passwords and seeing which one
works. )
However, you can change it.

at the lilo prompt on bootup do
linux 1
Unless you put in a lilo boot password, this will bring you up in single
user (root ) mode. Now edit /etc/passwd to remove the password from root,
or use passwd to change root's password.


>> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
>> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
>> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
>> to.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>> Fred
>>

>fire up a RH CD and choose rescue mode... mount the system disk and
>edit the /etc/shadow file and blank out the root password. you might be
>able to chroot into the system disk and just run passwd root. either
>way should work... but of course i havent tried for Linux recently but
>works for other UNIXen like OSF and Solaris.


>--

>Marco Benton - BOFH, BSMFH

>BOFH excuse #65: The cause of the problem is: bit bucket overflow

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.redhat.]
On 2005-01-25, Fred Atkinson wrote:
> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.

Have you tried booting to single-user mode?

"linux 1" at the LILO: prompt...

--

John (john@os2.dhs.org)

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:47:50 GMT, Fred Atkinson wrote:
> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it.

Then you need to do a clean install of a new release because of all
the security updates you are missing. Also will allow you to have
better support from the linux usenet community.

Bit Twister writes:
>On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 14:47:50 GMT, Fred Atkinson wrote:
>> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
>> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
>> the root and my user password to it.
>
>Then you need to do a clean install of a new release because of all
>the security updates you are missing. Also will allow you to have
>better support from the linux usenet community.
>

Your advice assumes the OP has the machine directly connected
to the Internet, rather than behind a firewall. If he has it
behind a firewall, and the hardware isn't super-modern, he
can run Redhat 6.2 on it very successfully. 6.2 was one of
the most stable (until 8.0) releases of redhat.

What release of the OS one needs is dependent upon a multitude
of factors and there is no single right answer. Having the
lastest and greatest can often be the wrong answer.

As far as answering the OP question, more information would have
been helpful, like which linux distribution. With some distributions
you can add the "single" or "1" keywords to the kernel command line
in Lilo or Grub and the system will stop with a bash prompt early
enough that one can reset the password with the passwd command. Other
distributions will still ask for the root password before allowing
the bash shell prompt (e.g. Suse 9+).

Probably the easiest way is to use a live cd (Knoppix comes to mind)
and chroot to your system disk and use the passwd command to reset the
root password.

I don't recommend hand editing either of the /etc/passwd or /etc/shadow
files.

scott

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 02:37:05 GMT, Scott Lurndal wrote:

>
> Your advice assumes the OP has the machine directly connected
> to the Internet, rather than behind a firewall. If he has it
> behind a firewall, and the hardware isn't super-modern, he
> can run Redhat 6.2 on it very successfully. 6.2 was one of
> the most stable (until 8.0) releases of redhat.

I disagree. There have been security updates to applications which
mean hiding behind a firewall is not the only way malware/crackers can
invade the system.

if you have grub installed, at the selection menu, select your boot
entry, press e to edit it, remove all non-necessary entries (rhgb, vga
etc) and replace them with 1 (yes just the number)

press Enter and then b to boot with this command (does not change in the
grub.conf file)

You will then be in single mode where you can change the root password
(passwd).

Restart, login as root with the new password and change the user
password from there.

Fred Atkinson wrote:
> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Fred
>

It is version 7.0.

No, I don't have a boot disk. I suspect it is stored in one
of the boxes in my storage room if I still have it.

I did get a copy of Tom's Linux from http://www.toms.net. It
is basically Linux on a diskette. You boot on the floppy and your
system comes up in Tom's limited version of Linux. You can invoke vi
and edit the etc/passwd file. You can set the root password in the
file by changing the encrypted value of the password to '*', which
represents a null value.

Now, I boot on this diskette and I get Tom's flavor of Linux.
User name is root. Password is xxxx. Type vi to get to the editor.

Now, I never used vi very much because it was so unfriendly.
I used pico a lot (I'm going to have to see if he has pico on that
disk, but I kind of doubt it). I'm told I need to mount the hard
drive (I remember something about mounting but it's kind of hazy now)
before I can edit the etc/passwd file.

Can anyone tell me how to do that?

Regards,


Fred

"Fred Atkinson" wrote in message
news:b47fv017lv8slo3t34n73c15o6svviperg@4ax.com...
> It is version 7.0.
>
> No, I don't have a boot disk. I suspect it is stored in one
> of the boxes in my storage room if I still have it.
>
> I did get a copy of Tom's Linux from http://www.toms.net. It
> is basically Linux on a diskette. You boot on the floppy and your
> system comes up in Tom's limited version of Linux. You can invoke vi
> and edit the etc/passwd file. You can set the root password in the
> file by changing the encrypted value of the password to '*', which
> represents a null value.
>
> Now, I boot on this diskette and I get Tom's flavor of Linux.
> User name is root. Password is xxxx. Type vi to get to the editor.
>
> Now, I never used vi very much because it was so unfriendly.
> I used pico a lot (I'm going to have to see if he has pico on that
> disk, but I kind of doubt it). I'm told I need to mount the hard
> drive (I remember something about mounting but it's kind of hazy now)
> before I can edit the etc/passwd file.
>

Version 7.0 , that makes it a bit easier , but I would have been better if
you could get a installation boot disk , which is the boot disk that you
made for Ver 7.0 so that you could boot to it before doing the installation
using the CDs
But anyhow , you have found another way to gain access to the file system ,
which should work with the way I was taught.
Yes , you have got the right idea , you will have to use a boot disk , gain
entry to the system without using your forgotten password , mount the file
system and then edit the /etc/password file and replace the password field
with a "*"
To answer your question you mount the HDD by using the command

mount -t ext /dev/ /mnt
Where is your hard drive.

I am a bit hazy about the ver 7.0 file system , it could be ext or ext2

Vi is a very easy editor to use , once you get to know it a bit , all you
need to do is navigate to the /root entry in the /etc/password file by using
the arrow keys and place the cursor at the "X" in the password field ant the
press
r # replace command
* # the char that is going to replace the current char at the
cursor

After you have done that you simply press
: # colon to invoke the command mode
wq # the command to write the buffer out to file and then to quit
the Vi editor


Let us know if that works , if it doesn't then there is still another way of
doing it.

--
Sandgroper
----------------------------------
Remove KNICKERS to Email
steveray@KNICKERSiinet.net.au

After much pain and sorrow, I gave up trying to crack in with
Tom's Net Linux. I tried another suggestion that you made.

I rebooted it, hit the escape key, and typed 'Linux 1' at the
boot prompt. It logged me in in single user mode. I typed 'whoami'
to get confirmed that I was in as root. So I used the passwd command
and changed the password.

I rebooted and successfully logged in under root mode. Now I
should be able to work out my problems.

Thanks,


Fred

Fred Atkinson wrote:
> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Fred
>
Boot a recent Fedora disk 1 specifying linux rescue. It will create a
ram filesystem and mount your disk filesystem on that. go in and edit
the /mnt/sysimage/etc/passwd or shadow file to null out the password on
root. Then reboot your system without the CD and reestablish your root
password.
KCA

Fred:
this is simple, if you can boot from a CD.
1) Boot Knoppix from CD, then you can takeover and change as you wish your
Linux system on you hard disk... and of course this requires a good
knowledge of Linux: you will have to modify (edit/rewrite) a few files
etc... /etc/passwd is one of them.

If you do not have a good knowledge of Linux, just using Knoppix as root,
save your data (this is simple) and reinstall Linux!
In any case 3 years is a long time, and the later Linux distros are a lot
better.

I probably would do an upgrade to the same distro if possible (for example
RedHat 7 to Fedora 3), then with some luck you may be able to save a lot of
what you like. In this case create a new user (different name) and leave
alone the "old user".

This should not be too hard.
- AFC3 -
______________
Fred Atkinson wrote:

> After three years on moth balls, I fired up my old Linux box
> this morning. I came to a very real discovery. I've forgotten both
> the root and my user password to it. As eithe would give me
> administrator access, either one would do.
>
> Does anyone know of a way to recover the password? I know
> that the likely answer is no, but I have to ask. I remember spending
> hours getting the software on that box exactly like I wanted it. I
> don't want to reinstall and wipe all that work out. But, I may have
> to.
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Fred