Ubuntu - lost OEM account - NO admin power!
 

Hello! I created an account without giving it admin abilities and then i typed in terminal: sudo oem-config-prepare
and then i rebooted, then i tried to log into oem and it was gone!
any ideas before I have to reinstall ubuntu?

thanks!

Boot up with a LiveCD. Mount the / of your Ubuntu install at some arbitrary location:
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda
Assuming hda1 is your / and you created /mnt/hda:
mkdir /mnt/hda
Then:
cd /mnt/hda/etc
And:
vim /etc/passwd
And then remove the x from:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
Or from a user account.

Reboot, remove LiveCD, login and just hit enter if prompted for password.

Bam! (tm)

At least that *should* work, but because root is virtually dead on Ubuntu, I'm not sure how much luck you'll have with that.

Cool

That seems.......confusing. Anyways i geuss i can always reinstall it. Thanks for you time.

Did you already have the account that was created when you installed--or was "oem" the very first account you created?

The first account created on a Ubuntu install has "sudo" powers. Also, enabling the root account is easy:
sudo passwd root
enter user password
at the prompt, enter the new root password.

If this is a brand-new install, then it may, in fact, be easist to re-install.

yah... i just reinstalled... i realized that sudo oem-config-prepare deletes the oem account.
thanks a tonne anyways!