lost root password

Hello, I have lost my password of user root in a installation of Mandrake 9.2 with kernel 2.4.22-10.mdk

I have been told to fix it to create a boot disk, start the computer with that boot and change the password of root with passwd.

I have just a no administrator user to get into the system. With that one i am not able to mount the floppy. I didn't try but i guess i am not able to use /sbin/mkbootkdis --device /dev/fd0 2.4.20-8 as i was told.

Then i have no options to create that bootdisk from Mandrake, or yes?

Does anybody know how to create the disk from either Windows with CD-Installation of Mandrake or web?

Thanks.

.

nicely answered, Equinox !

I don't see why you need a disk.

If you have lilo, boot into 'linux single'. This gives you root access. Then do 'passwd root'. Then do 'init 5' to go back to your regular runlevel. I'm not sure how grub works, but it should be similar.

If this is not enough help search here (or google) for 'linux single root passwd'. This is a pretty common fix.

why don´t u format ur hdd then re-instal it... that could resolve probelm but u 'll lost ur files...

Good luck

Cheers

You will not necessirily loose your date. For instance, with Mandrake, the install program asks you which filesystems should be formatted or not. If your user data are in the /home directory, you may ask not to re-format the /home directory, and your date wil be kepkt untouched.

But why reinstall, when you also could a boot disk where linux is on. or you can boot in single user mode... (No I didn;t know it either, the first time I did reinstall linux to )

There is absolutely no reason to reinstall. Frankly, that's pointless overkill.

Try to linux single with lilo or in GRUB boot loader pres a and type single at the end of the kernel line

kernel /vmlinuz-x.x.x bla bla bla single

to boot into single mode

then change password with passwd.

Is booting from CD not an option?

there is a way for creating a bootdisk with windows and Mandy CDs. Search the web for a program called rawwritewin and find bootdisk.img on the first Mandy CD.

Dooesn't the single mode startup ask you for the root password in Linux ?
On AIX system you cannot enter single user mode if you don't have the root password.

yes, if you have password protected your GRUB loader, you will have to enter root password to enter extra parameters at boot.

If this does not work, use Linux rescue to boot into superuser mode with a bootdisk or boot CD.

This may or may not work, depending on the default security settings for your distro. If you've got LILO set up to boot into a text mode OS selection, simply type

linux init=/bin/sh

to boot into a root shell. You can then change the root password as normal. If you've got LILO set up to boot into a graphical install, you could always try to boot up using your install disc and do the same.

I need a help, because I cannot install internet in my computer with mandrake10.0 system, because I do not know the passwd of root. So I eed solution, the directory root is close.

Thank you.