I bought my daughter a hp notebook with suselinux10 installed. I ran the setup and entered a username and password as required. However I now find i can't logon to the notebook. The username and password is not recognised. How can I reset them?

Login in single-user mode and run 'passwd'.

There are a number of things you can try.

First try logging into a virtual terminal. Press CTRL-ALT-F2 to get there and try logging in. It is possible that there is a problem with logging in to KDE for example. If you end up back at the login but the system doesn't say the password is bad, that could be the case. The earlier versions of KDE sometimes had a problem with a runaway service filling the .xsession_errors file and you may simply have run out of disk space. From the virtual terminal, you can also login as root using the root password, and then run the command "passwd <username>". You will be prompted for a new password for the user.

If you add the boot option "S" or "single" to the kernel boot line when booting up, you may be able to log in as root without a password. Then enter "passwd <username>" to change the users password.

If you rerun the installation program, there will be a rescue system option (look at the bottom of the screen) on an early screen where it asks if you want to upgrade or install. This is after the time zone selection and before the disk formatting options screen. I don't remember, but there may be a url like line pertaining to users or booting where you may be able to fix it. If not, the boot disk will have mounted the drive for you and you can proceed with the next option.

You can boot the computer using a live distro disk. You will need to mount the laptops drive (some live distro's will do this part for you), or you can boot up to the installation disk and select the rescue option. You can press CTRL-ALT-F2 to get to a virtual terminal.

Then run "vim /etc/shadow". (note: another editor may be easier to use but not available in rescue mode. It may have "vim-minimal" or "vim-normal" instead as well. )
Cursor down to the line with the username. It will look like this:
Position the cursor after the first colon and press either DELETE or the "x" key to delete a character under the cursor. Delete the characters between first two colons. Press "[ESCAPE]:wq" to save and quit. This will give you a null passwd. Then reboot and log in without a password.

Check the contents of the /etc/passwd file. The users entry should look like this. It will probably be OK.
If you still can't log in. You could copy the characters between the colons in the sample line from /etc/shadow I provided and use the password "sample*sample". I changed my password temporarily for this post.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-General and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I have a stupid question.

Have you tried to turn ON a <CAPS Lock>? You might have had it ON when you added your username and/or password so try all combinations. Remember, Linux has case sensitive both usernames and passwords.

thank you for all your advice. Caps lock is not an issue. I can't log on as anything. Notebook does not recognise "root" in any form. Ctl/Alt F1 or F2 displays: "linux-lfpg login:". Any ideas? Linux is new to me.

"liniux-lfpg" is the hostname of your machine. You are to type "root" and when you get "Password:" to type a root password you have set when you installed SUSE. And that should be it for login.

thanks for info. Regrettably the notebook does not recognise any password?

Then you will have to boot from Installation or Live CD and fix password file. I have no time to learn what to do in SUSE.

Thanks for your help but getting nowhere fast. Notebook came with preloaded software. Am going to change to a more user friendly operating system. Thanks anyway.

Ah, don't give up just yet. That would be a shame. There is plenty of people here waiting to help.
Let's try a few things:
When you boot the notebook, there should be (right after the BIOS has stopped showing information about hardware) a screen offering a few choices. One of them should be to boot into single-user mode. Do you get this? If so, you should be able to use the arrow keys to select that option and then hit enter. This should boot into the operating system without the need to log on. If you can get this far let me know and I'll talk you through the rest.

After boot up a "HP invent" screen appears with 3 choices F9 = Boot device menu, F10 = ROM Based Setup and F12 = NETBOOT. I do not get an option to choose Single user mode. It then proceeds to the Suselinux desktop with the request for a username.

Ah, then either GRUB is circumvented or it is installed but has timeout at 0 seconds. You will have to use SUSE installation CD/DVD or LiveCD to try to fix this .

To reset the password, you shall boot with knoppix or sthg like this (url)
and remove the KLJDOIUG9878793 complex like from an user /etc/shadow (you can do for root) with unplugging ethernet. type login: root and it'll prompt no password. Do some and you are back again

thankyou for all your help and advice, but I have installed a new operating system. If it goes wrong I just have to reinstall. I have learnt one thing to not buy hardware with pre installed software and no installation disc. Best wishes to you all.