Grub/Password Reset
 

Anyone up for a challenge? I have very little Linux experience and have a backup controller running Linux. I am trying to get to grub menu, just 1 step towards resetting the root password, instructions from other site.

After it runs post the screen ends up at a login which I do not have the account.There is no documentation for this unit and I have tried to use the left shift and or the ESC key to enter grub w/o luck.

I get a “grub loading stage 1.5" message. Then “Grub loading please wait”, but it just goes striaght to the login screen.

I do not know what flavor of Linux this controller is running, hence the challenge.

As soon as you see the Grub Menu appear hit the "c" key. That will give you access to limited bash commands. [Hint]As soon as the Grub Menu appears hit the down arrow key to go to another menu item. This will take away the time pressure[/Hint]
jdk

Tried many times, no luck.Chose ESC to bring up the Grub is loading message and kept the C key pressed when I saw the message.

I don't understand. Why the ESC key? Doesn't the grub menu appear automatically upon boot up?
jdk

Not getting grub menu

Whatever os that is installed is set to default with no appearance of grub
http://askubuntu.com/questions/87409...up-during-boot
Try tapping the C key right after boot just keep tapping on it, maybe you can get grub to display on boot.
If not use a live-cd & make the changes necessary in the above link.

Must be something in the grub.conf file because unless I hold down the esc key after post detects HD's I won't get anything that says grub. The screen bypasses the constant clicking of the key c and goes straight to a login:

I will use Knoppix tomorrow, can anyone provide a quick and dirty cheat sheet to accomplish changing root password so I can login to the controller and what to delete/add to the grub.conf so that I can see it when booting tp?

What kind of loony distro doesn't show the Grub menu? How do you choose among different kernels or the repair mode if you don't want to boot directly into your desktop environment?
jdk

Can you boot from a live CD or USB stick? If so, you could boot, say, SysRescue, mount your hard drive, and edit your menu.lst or grub.conf file in the /boot directory. Or just do a chroot to the correct partition on the HD and change the root password, user password, or both.

If you know what distribution is on your HD, and that distro has either a LiveCD or an install disk with a rescue option, using that might be a better option than using a generic "rescue" disk.

use a live-cd & make the changes necessary in the above link.

Downloaded different live cd's, gonna use one this morning and attempt to edit grub and reset root password. Is there anything once inside that will tell me what flavor of linux is running?

jdk

wow and I mean WOW! Went through 4 live cd's. I could set root password and assign ip/netmask/gw for eth0 but when I reboot everything was not assigned and I cannot use root with new password to login. Some cd's were GUI base, others CLI. I was able to find out the accounts that are present and chose only to change the password for root. I believe it is something called gentoo linux.

Gui will not have a root login you have to either boot into rescue mode & either change password on 1 of the user accounts or create a new user, to login to gui.
You can also try going to terminal when you get to login windows by using Ctrl+Alt+F1 or Alt+F1

Yes when using knoppix I chose linux single linux single at the boot prompt. I changed the root password but when rebooting the server I end up at a login prompt and it does not recognize the password. Also, grub does not have any hidden entries or passwords. I set the timeout to 10 seconds and now get a blank screen for 10 seconds.