Lost my password

dlandsurveys · 01-26-2003, 04:18 PM

I just loaded Slackware and everything appeared okay even through the initial boot but when I went to login it won't accept my password. I must be giving it the wrong password. How do I find out or change the password?

DavidPhillips · 01-26-2003, 05:41 PM

At the boot screen you will see a list of installed images (kernels) on your system and a boot: prompt

you need to type the image name followed by init=/bin/sh

like this

linux init=/bin/sh

If you have a custom name for the image it will be something like this

Linux-2.4.19-lq4 init=/bin/sh

Bluesuperman · 01-26-2003, 10:46 PM

That is a cool trick, I have never tried that. The only way I know how to to boot off the cd, mount the drive, vi the passwd file, remove the "x", save the file and reboot. Now root will not have a passwd, it can login in with out typing one. Then you have to provide it a passwd again.

DavidPhillips · 01-26-2003, 11:03 PM

right, this way you are in a root login without logging in. then you can set the password using passwd.

On some systems you can boot into single user mode, but some of them still require a login for single mode. Slackware will still bring up a login prompt if you use "linux single", but "linux init=/bin/sh" works

dlandsurveys · 01-27-2003, 11:27 PM

Well, it didn't work. The problem is, is that I typed in the wrong password and it wouldn't work. I confused my uppercase letters with lower case. But anyhow I just reinstalled and I took extra careful with the password and now it works. Thanks anyhow.

DavidPhillips · 01-28-2003, 08:25 AM

if "it did not work" then you did not use the correct image name

it always works

membrax · 01-28-2003, 08:46 AM

Normally, your password should be : *******