forget mandrake 9.1 root password ppc
 

how can i recover my root password? I tried sudo, but apparently i am not in the sudoers file, so sudo doesn't work either.
can't view / edit passwd, shadow, sudoers
Need help

"how can i recover my root password? I tried sudo, but apparently i am not in the sudoers file, so sudo doesn't work either.
can't view / edit passwd, shadow, sudoers
Need help"

Over the years the Linux developers have put a lot of effort into keeping the root password secret. If anyone discovered a way to recover the root password then a patch would be created immediately to fix the problem.

You will have to reinstall.

___________________________________
Be prepared. Create a LifeBoat CD.
http://users.rcn.com/srstites/LifeBo...home.page.html

Steve Stites

shouldn't there be a way to use a live distro to fix this problem? i've heard people mention using knoppix when they have similar problems, although of course it wouldn't be applicable in this case since he's using a ppc

You can use knoppix or another live distro to remove the encryped password from /etc/passwd this only works locally

Boot up with the first disk and press F1 and enter the option "rescue".
Select the Mount Partititions on /mnt.
At this point, you are the root user.
Change the root dir to /mnt:
chroot /mnt.
Note, If as a normal user, you can run: init 1
this may be quicker.

Now you need to delete the old encripted password from the /etc/shadow entry.
Here is the rest of the instructions copied and pasted from a mandrakeuser.org howto. Note that if you are using the rescue mode, you may need to use vim-minimal rather then vim.
...
I hope this helps.