How to remove Root password

tkedwards · 12-27-2005, 04:31 PM

Quote:

And the supervisor and user passwords I changed do absolutely nothing here.......I hate being ignorant!!!

Did you edit the /etc/shadow file like someone posted above? Try that link to reset the root password that was posted earlier too - its really very easy. Although it is probably best to wipe and reinstall a computer that you bought off some random person at an auction - don't even think about doing your Internet Banking or shopping on it until you've done that as the original owner could have installed any number of backdoors

Nelda Nolen · 12-28-2005, 10:30 AM

Thank you all so much. But, I have given up and am going to try to reformat the hard drive with windows, since linux is a complicated new
OS that I can't seem to 'get'. I am too old to learn new tricks, which
makes me an old dog..............

Oh well, I sure do appreciate you all
trying to help me, but, I can't make any sense of this OS.....
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!
Nelda

Anatida · 01-22-2006, 12:44 PM

I am trying to do some configuration on Mandrake 10.1 through my normal user account. It's been several weeks since I worked on learning this system... yes I'm a

. I managed to get logged in as Root and reset the PW for my user acct that had 'expired'.

The problem is, when I'm logged into my User Acct, & try to run the configuration console (KDE) it wants Root access and will not accept the root PW. I know the pw is correct, because I keep going back and forth & logging into a root session, but for some reason it won't accept the PW in the user account. (Yes I've checked caps lock, case sensitivity etc.)

I notice that when I enter the PW in the root login dialog box, that KDE encrypts it, but from the User acct it does not... surely that would not make a difference?

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you!

tkedwards · 01-22-2006, 04:36 PM

Quote:

I notice that when I enter the PW in the root login dialog box, that KDE encrypts it, but from the User acct it does not... surely that would not make a difference?

By 'encrypts it' do you mean it hides it by printing * or something like that? All the password dialogs in Linux should do that so if you're typing your password in and you can see what you're typing it might not be a password dialog

If, when logged in as yourself not root, you go menu->system->Configuration->Configure Your Computer and type the root password when prompted what happens? Does the Mandrake Control Centre popup after a short delay? What is 'the configuration console (KDE)'? What did you click on to get to it?

Anatida · 01-22-2006, 10:14 PM

It tells me Invalid Password (for root).

By encrypting the PW I mean it puts more **** than I type letters.

tkedwards · 01-22-2006, 10:32 PM

Quote:

By encrypting the PW I mean it puts more **** than I type letters.

If its just showing you back what you type then its not a proper password prompt, if its showing *** wether the same number or more than what you typed then its a valid password prompt.

If you open a terminal window and type su it will prompt you for the root password. Does it work then?

Anatida · 01-23-2006, 04:10 PM

No, it still tells me invalid password.

tkedwards · 01-23-2006, 05:02 PM

Login as root and run the passwd command in a terminal to reset your root password.

xweb · 11-04-2007, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BangorScott

Have 2006 installed without root password. Had to set a root password when installing driverloader which configures via a web interface ( it wouldn`t accept a blank password for root ). Would like to go back to passwordless root. Have tried blank entry in KDE configurator, but won`t save changes unless characters are entered. Also tried passwd in terminal, but again it will not accept just a return on password entry. Not the end of the world but any ideas ?

I believe I have the solution to this question.

Quote:

Originally Posted by perfect_circle

login as root and open /etc/shadow with a text editor.

"At the top of the file, you'll see a line starting with root. Right after
root, you'll notice the encrypted password information between two colons.
Here's how root's line in /etc/shadow might look:

root:EnCl6vi6y2KjU:10266:0:::::

To remove root's password, you use the editor to erase the scrambled text
between the two colons, leaving a line that looks like this:

root::10266:0:::::

Save the file and reboot the machine, and you'll be able to log in as root
without a password. The first thing you should do is set a new password
for root, especially if your machine is connected to a network."

This is from slackware-how-to but it should work for the vast majority of the distros.
Be careful when messing with those stuff, and I wouldn't advise you to stay without a root password at all. It's really dangerous.

What perfect_circle said was essentially right. however i am currently running Kubuntu without a root password so I examined my /etc/shadow file to see how.

Code:

$sudo cat /etc/shadow | grep root

This is what I got...

Code:

root:!:13224:4:893999:7:::

(Note: some of the text above has been changed to protect the innocent, namely my computer.)

It looks like the password section of the line was replaced with "!". My assumption is that the "!" negates root login with out a password.

I found this thread because i just installed webmin and i need to login as root to setup webmin based user accounts. my plan is to backup the shadow file before giving root a password.

Now to test my hypothesis I will first try to replace the root password with the "!" character to see if it will return my system to a password less root configuration.

I'll be back to share the results.

xweb · 11-04-2007, 04:21 AM

I believe my little experiment was a success!

Heres the details...

First I backed up my /etc/shadow file.

Code:

$ sudo cp /etc/shadow /etc/shadow.webmin

Then changed my root password.

Code:

$ sudo passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
$ su
Password:
# exit
$

At this point I have a working root password.
I logged into wemin using my root password.Then immediately went to create some non root user account. However i discovered webmin has the option to allow any user who can run all commands though sudo to login as root for webmin. so in the end i did not need to create the root password.

Way to go webmin!(just wish i new in advance.)

Now that im done with the webmin stuff lets fix that password.

For this experiment i chose not to restore my /etc/shadow file but instead to edit it and see if replacing the encrypted root password with "!" would remove the root password and not allow me to log in as root without a password.

edit /etc/shadow

Code:

$ sudo vim /etc/shadow

changed from this

Code:

root:$1$OFmDEm.7$KL7uI1yTIVIiTS5jmNVif0:13224:4:893999:7:::

to this

Code:

root:!:13224:4:893999:7:::

now the test
(first with the password i created earlier then blank.)

Code:

 
$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure
Sorry.
$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure
Sorry.
$

Looks like it worked!

paul_pogi · 06-08-2012, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perfect_circle

login as root and open /etc/shadow with a text editor.

"At the top of the file, you'll see a line starting with root. Right after
root, you'll notice the encrypted password information between two colons.
Here's how root's line in /etc/shadow might look:

root:EnCl6vi6y2KjU:10266:0:::::

To remove root's password, you use the editor to erase the scrambled text
between the two colons, leaving a line that looks like this:

root::10266:0:::::

Save the file and reboot the machine, and you'll be able to log in as root
without a password. The first thing you should do is set a new password
for root, especially if your machine is connected to a network."

This is from slackware-how-to but it should work for the vast majority of the distros.
Be careful when messing with those stuff, and I wouldn't advise you to stay without a root password at all. It's really dangerous.

after editing the shadow file, i can't login on ssh using putty
someone please help

pixellany · 06-08-2012, 06:42 AM

Welcome to LQ!!

Normally, you should start a new thread rather than re-open one that is 5 years old. In this case, it's OK--topic is relevant.

Try booting the machine into single-user mode (runlevel 1), and then resetting the root password from there.

If that does not work, then boot up from a Linux Live CD and edit the /etc/passwd file (not shadow), to remove the "x" between the first 2 colons. then reboot normally, and you'll be able to login as root with no password.

gchen · 07-20-2012, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perfect_circle

login as root and open /etc/shadow with a text editor.

"At the top of the file, you'll see a line starting with root. Right after
root, you'll notice the encrypted password information between two colons.
Here's how root's line in /etc/shadow might look:

root:EnCl6vi6y2KjU:10266:0:::::

To remove root's password, you use the editor to erase the scrambled text
between the two colons, leaving a line that looks like this:

root::10266:0:::::

Save the file and reboot the machine, and you'll be able to log in as root
without a password. The first thing you should do is set a new password
for root, especially if your machine is connected to a network."

This is from slackware-how-to but it should work for the vast majority of the distros.
Be careful when messing with those stuff, and I wouldn't advise you to stay without a root password at all. It's really dangerous.

Truly it is, these information solve my issue about it.

Thanks.

: )