passwords lost
 

Hi all, I am totally new to Linux. Son in law gave me an oldish laptop and preinstalled lots of software for me to get on with.He also set some passwords and user name which we wrote down. Now this was some ten months ago, and, yes, we have lost the passwords and username.Is there a way to get into the system to change these or do I have to reload everything in again.(Son in law lives 75 miles away) The machine tells me it has Fedora installed and also Red hat? I thought they were the same.
I normally run a RISC OS machine.

Regards to all,

fredbear.

first of all reset your root (admin) password..
this topic is discussed many times in this forum..try following link.it might help
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ssword-755262/

All is not lost! You can reset the passwords.

Firstly, you need to set the root password, used when you are wearing your system administrators hat. There's a good illustration of how to do that at
http://linuxgazette.net/107/tomar.html

When you've followed the instructions and rebooted, you can set a new user password. Your user name is usually your first name in lowercase, but it's up to you. When you've logged-in as root, click on the Computer icon, then on File System and Home, and you can see what name has been used. If fred, then open a terminal window and use the command
passwd fred
to set a new password.

If you have a recent version of Fedora, it may not let you log-in as root user with the GUI. In that case, when it asks you to log-in, press CTRL-ALT-F2 and you will (after a few seconds) get a black screen where you can log-in. Then type
ls /home
to find your user name and use passwd.

Hi, I have tried to find the screen to enter the code given by
linux gazette, but find every time I press return I get an error 27. I don't seem able to get to the screen shown in the above instructions. I will try again tomorrow.

Dave.

The screen you need to see is the second one, headed GRUB. If you don't get it, the moment the BIOS screen (inviting you to press F2 to edit) goes blank, start tapping SPACE and that should reveal it.

If you have the original Fedora DVD, you could run that: instead of installing, choose the rescue option.

When you say 'we' lost the passwds, is that just you at home, ie have you asked your son-in-law if he can remember any passwds; the root (aka admin) passwd would be favourite, and I'd think he'd remember that one, if any.

Yes, If boot loader (Grub) is unprotected, you can resolve your problem with:

http://www.linuxforums.org/articles/...ssword_54.html

After several tries, I have a black screen, Typing 1s /home gives me
Another black screen with

Fedora release 8(Warewolf)
Kernel 2.6.26.6-49.fc8 on an i686
Local host login:
tried putting allsorts of things here and keep getting password
which I guess, and get log in incorrect.

According to son in law the root password in my name which I have tried without success.

Thank you for trying to help,my knowledge isnt helping a lot.

He says it is my name! Tried putting it in but no effect.have got that black screen with local host login but stumped as to where now? regards.

You just tell him to mail you the root password. As passwords are case sensitive you'd make mistake

Should he not start machine single user mode to reset the pass-word?

How do I start single user mode? and how would I recognise it if it did start?
Regards.

What is the very first basic stuff I need to read with Linux?

you mean reading files (configuration, text, etc.)? just login. Are you yet able to login?

0. Take a deep breath & relax
:)

1.
Get him to email/tell you the exact(!) root login details; should be

login: root
password: xxxxxxxxxxxx

where xxxxxxxxxxx is the root user's passwd. Both username & password are case sensitive(!) in Linux; in fact everything is case sensitive at the cmd line level.

2.
Basic Linux manuals:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html

3. If you've got the installation DVD/CD, you can rescue a system from there, but you prob want him to talk you through it over the phone.

HTH