A friend of mine can't remember her password for the computer.When the computer starts it automatically loads her user profile, i can't create any new users, and i cant become root with sudo, i looked around on the forums and some stuff was very helpful in teaching me more about linux, but without being able to change, or remove the password i cant update.
the laptop is a dell 910 mini.

At the terminal, instead of being: User@localhost, it's : name@name

Please help

You can only become root with su, but need root password.
Sudo only gives superuser(root) power each time sudo is used, but you need user password.
If neither of you knows password you'll have to create new root password before you get to login window. After you create new account you can view & create a password.
I hope you have permission to do what you're doing. I don't know exactly how it is with ubuntu but I know that it can be done om mac. You'll have to google for the exact recipe.

@EDDIE - There are many ways you can become a root.
@OP - Your best bet is booting into single user mode. Perhaps you can see that entry below the normal grub entry that you hit enter on. In case you do not find it just add 'single' or '1' at the end of the line that says kernel. The pc will boot up and come to the shell you can type 'passwd root' or 'passwd <user>' there and get the password changed.
If this helps tell us - if not we would give you further (more hackish) instructions.

Ok, i will give it a try, but, could you tell me how to get to this grub menu?

its very simple to reset the password.

1.) switch on the laptop and capture the grub label menu
2.) press space bar or any key to cut the boot option count down time
3.) below the grub window you can find the instruction to go to the grub prompt.
4.) After reading the understanding the instruction, press "e"
5.) now you will be automatically switched edit window with the grub boot options.
6.) move the arrow key and point it to the second line (start's with kernel)
7.) again press "e" and go the last line. give a space and type 'S' (uppercase alphabet)
8.) now press "ESC" key and type "b"
9.) now the system will boot to single user mode and you will get a '#' shell prompt.
10.) type the command "passwd" and press the enter key.
11.) the shell will prompt for new password and you can enter the desired password.
12.) now exit from the shell and the OS will reboot to the default runlevel which is mentioned in the /etc/inittab
13.) After receiving the prompt or GUI window try root login with the new password.
14.) now a days GUI root login is not allowed in most of the Linux flavor.


Note: This password reset option will work only for RH/Fedora/CentOS/SUSE/Wind river Linux

Best Regards,

The only thing I can get to load is:

Boot Menu
hard drive
cd/dvd/cd-rw
network boot
diagnostics
<enter setup>

would either of these help?

Select boot menu where you'll get the GRUB label and follow the same procedure.

reg

I've got a black screen, :

Ubuntu 8.04.1 name tty2

name login:


what do i do with this??

Sorry, I'm not a Ubuntu user. please follow the link

All the Best,

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