Hello Everyone, I have never used Linux before and like a complete fool I put down a user name and P/W then completely forgot what it was! LOL yer I know! Anyway is there anyway I can retrieve my root password or how do I reinstall linux so that I can reinstall it and put down a user-name and password I can remember

Welcome to LQ.

It depends on what bootloader you are using - you need to append " single" to your kernel arguments at boot - for grub:
1) Reboot your computer.
2) When the grub bootloader appears on the screen select the entry for your linux system - it may be the only one.
3) Press the "e" key to edit the entry.
4) Select the line beggining with "kernel".
5) Press the "e" key again
6) Type " single" no quotes
7) Press enter
8) Press "b" to boot
9) When the prompt appears type "passwd" press enter
10) Enter a new password when prompted
11) Reboot by typing "shutdown -r now"

Does this procedure apply for Red Hat 9as well?

Those instructions are OS/distro agnostic - so "yes".

k have 3 options for loading linux

1) linux
2) linux secure
3) failsafe

I tried "When the grub bootloader appears on the screen select the entry for your linux system - it may be the only one.3) Press the "e" key to edit the entry."

but nothing happens! How do I find out what grub I have?

had same problem(me dummie),looked and found this:MDKwiki-Admin Arecov 4 under kb.mdkclub.com/index.php/AdminArecov4 . two methods:
1. System Recovery1
2.Emergency recoveryIV;ScenarioIII: Login Fails
2nd looks simple asap try will post results. newby`s ,newby`s tsh tsh tsh
oh well we`re learning and fast! Amen.

I reinstalled Linux last night and wrote down my user names and pw so that I would be sure what I wrote! But when it ask's for localuser it will not accept any username and password I put in! Im I being a complete ? or is there something wrong?

kengouk,

Can you log on as root? What choices do you have at the login screen?

I don't think you can do this mad 'anybody can completely take over the computer' thing on Debian can you??

Thats why its possible to add a password to grub, to stop anyone from rooting you.

Hi sorry been working too many long hours lately too work on Linux, anyway the options I get are:

Linux
Linux -nonfb
failsafe
windows
floppy

hope someone can help me!

kengouk; those (4) opt,s are how u can boot on,depending how u installed
is the first to boot then nonfd which is without floppy,failsafe is like safemode(w),windows,last via floppydisk. u r choice.

That's why my lilo kernel-images are set to restricted in
Slack ...

Mind you, Slack by default won't come up password-less
with "single" in the first place ... but you could always override
init with a /bin/bash and tackle it from there ;)



Cheers,
Tink