SUSE password on old computer
 

OK first off its an old laptop, I posted here as its more software then hardware issue.

I just got a new hard drive for my laptop, it cam with suse installed. Only problem is the root and user accounts were not given to me. I'd like to know if theres a way to reset or just remove then. There is a hardware issue you should know before replying.

*CD-Rom not bootable

If you have any helpful info thank you.

I've heard some rumours about how this is done...haven't tried any of them myself, however. I guess that if your bootloader is password-protected (you can't go into the "edit" mode, or get command line) you're quite out of luck.

I don't remember exactly how the thing was done, but there were some methods like these:

1) using bootloader to get the filesystem mounted into a temporary place, say /mnt/ after which the file /etc/passwd (after mounting /mnt/etc/passwd) should be edited so that from the first line, the encrypted password part was to be removed. however, no other changes must be made, just the right part removed, and after rebooting the password should be able to be normally re-set....

2) somekind of single-user booting was used to access the system, after which the password was cleared with passwd command...this sounds too easy to my ears, though :)

so, I'm not sure. try google, it's got loads of pages I guess....anyway, there is no guarantee that any of the methods work, or that they'd even be safe, so watch out. plus, if your linux's security level is high, your bootloader's command prompt is password-protected and you don't have boot floppys, I'd say you've got problems..

OK, if it's SuSE try following:

When Linux is booted, the program responsible for login is: /bin/login

Type in your GRUB boot screen as boot parameter:

init=/bin/bash

After Boot is finished you'll go directly into the shell and not into /bin/login

So far, so good. Now, you shall be aware that the root filesystem is
mounted readonly.

Now you need to remount the root (/) FS by typing

mount -o remount,rw /

then simply
passwd

to change the passwd and afterwards
reboot
to reboot.

BTW: The proc FS is also not mounted. So if you want to do
additional work, mount the /proc FS prior remounting the root FS.
mount proc -t proc /proc