changing root password

Hi all,

Haven't been near my son's laptop for ever and forgot the root password.
Any advice? Have not done any updates for months.....

Thanks all for reading...

 

OS?, plus you could probably update it to circumvent any possible flaws

 

Hi,

If you are using windows 7, you can try some of the steps from this link - he recommends 2 different free softwares you can try. I have used the PC Login Now one. It basically will just blank out the password on an account (can do this for the admin account) so when you go to sign in, just type in the username and leave password field blank. The only downside to this software is it will make you do a checkdisk after you restart because it makes Win7 think there is an issue with the hard drive. After doing the check disk though, it is fine and doesnt ask to do it again. I have seen other tools that you can download for free that will basically crack all the user account passwords on the pc in case you have forgotten one. If you google windows 7 password recover tool you should be able to find others if you do not want to try the ones on the below article.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/reset-password-windows-7.htm

(If by root password you mean a BIOS password on the laptop before it boots to windows, unplug the laptop, take out its battery, and then take out the CMOS battery. This will reset the BIOS to defaults and remove any password protection from the BIOS)

 

come on, this is Saba, so I can pretty much guarantee it won't be Win7

well in Linux / Unix the root user is like an admin user and assuming a standard user has admin permission (OS dependent, usually preclude a CLI command with"sudo", also various Linux systems use different preclude CLI commands (e.g. KDE uses "kdesu" and GNOME uses "gksu")

as advice search google for "intro Linux" or use the google 4 Linux search page here

anyway Saba you will find the OS by typing

Code:

cat /etc/lsb-release

or maybe the browser agent ID

BTW: thank you very much Wildcard, this post is saved

 

Thanks guys...

Windows? Meh! Only kidding.
No, it is Debian with XFCE.

How will I do that if I cannot use 'su'?

The way I see it I have two options -

1. Find a way to change the root password - so far no luck in finding instructions on the net.
2. Re-install which I cannot really be bothered for at the moment.

It is really not a big deal. The laptop functions fine but I am sure there are probably tons of updates and upgrades...

 

Hi,

I found these methods you can try for resetting root password on a debian based linux system

http://www.debianadmin.com/forgot-root-password-or-reset-root-password-in-debian.html

 

Thanks Wildcard. much appreciated.

I will keep the forum updated!

 

well, personally, i use "sudo" because then access is granted with only the user password, not the /

if remembering the user password is a prob, create a new user & pass obviously adding the user to sudo group

[ot]tried XFCE, a bit minimalistic, but on old hardware it's fine unlike FluxBox[/ot]

 

one word answer? Rescatux http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/