ok here's the deal. I have yellow dog linux on my ps3. I've had it for a while. At first I couldn't get on because i was using a wireless connection at the time and i did not have access to the next update. I recently got hard wired. I attempted to boot up the Linux and it worked i had a connection!! The only thing was that i couldn't remember my password and username. I'm stuck at the blue screen and i don't know what else to do. Please help.

If you have a liveCD distro, boot that. Then mount the yellow dog partition. Look in file /etc/passwd to find the user name. The password is probably encrypted in /etc/shadow, so there is no retreiving that.

Once you have the user name from /etc/passwd, boot yellow dog to runlevel 1. Then, as root, run 'passwd -u -e <username>' to unlock (-u) the user password, and to force the user to set a new password at next login (-e). Then either reboot, or 'init 5' to go to runlevel 5.

See the man page for passwd for more inof.

I am a total newbie and i'm sorry that i don't know to much about Linux at all but, what is the livecd bistro? If you mean the info that i used to boot up the software on, then i do have that. Again thank you for help

freezola75, I never use Yellow Dog, but for "blue screen", do you mean a login prompt? (something like: username: _) You said you forgot the username and the password, do you mean you forgot the password for user named "root"?

I am happy to see someone using Linux on a PS3! May I ask why you want to do so? can you boot your PS3 by a CD or DVD just like a PC?

..........and I've had my ps3 since day 1. I am by far the least computer savy save for the very basics. Anyway upon reading about Fedora and YDL, I immediately had a friend who was way more computer literate than i, to help me download Linux to ps3. A fairly easy thing to do I might add and when we finally did it, I didn't realize that it was the YDL 5.0 which only operated off of a wired signal. My main thing was to utilize the other OS for the ps3. I wanted to have a computer! I must say I know next to nothing about YDL but here I had it on my ps3 and not using it. Until last night....

As far as being able to boot up I did so using the cd we downloaded and the flash drive as well. I hope that answered the boot up question. Now that the program is on though, I don't put a cd in to boot up. I can boot up from the ps3's settings
and switch back to the ps3 instantly from the YDL settings. I didn't know that at the time either.

As far as the Blue screen goes... that is the username and password prompt. I just can't seem to remember them. Which really sucks because since i'm wired now my YDL is connected. I'm not sure what to type in. I've typed in root under password, but i can get no further.



QUOTE=I_like_TUX;2910040]freezola75, I never use Yellow Dog, but for "blue screen", do you mean a login prompt? (something like: username: _) You said you forgot the username and the password, do you mean you forgot the password for user named "root"?

I am happy to see someone using Linux on a PS3! May I ask why you want to do so? can you boot your PS3 by a CD or DVD just like a PC?[/QUOTE]

I assume you do not have much command line experience. Resetting root password is not an easy task for a beginner although it is not that hard either. If the YellowDog you have on your PS3 harddisk is a clean/flash installation, then why not spend time to re-install the whole thing (and remember the new root password)?

Generally, if you want to fix it without re-installation, you need to boot the PS3 with a Live/installation/rescue CD/DVD (basically, CD/DVD with a working Linux OS on it), then let the OS on the CD/DVD to "connect" to your harddisk (we call it mount the harddisk). After that, you need to use an editor (often it will be vi) to remove the encrypted root password from a file called "shadow" in the /etc directory. Finally, reboot PS3 without the CD/DVD and user root should have no password protection. After you login as root, set your password immediately.

your assumptions are correct, i have no command line experience, but this information is very useful. I'm gonna be working at it soon. Thanks again for your help. You rock doode! I'll be posting up back here soon to tell you how things went. We should be friends holla.

You are welcome. If you don't mind, keep us (at least I am interested) updated in your progress. I don't have money to buy a PS3 yet but I am really interested in how useful is Linux on PS3. You may also be interested in reading the Linux section of the PS3 article from Wikipedia.

yo i'm gonna check that wikipedia stuff out fam thanks again

This procedure should work on most linux systems (assuming it uses grub to start)

http://systemnotesorg.blogspot.com/2...-get-into.html

Boot to single user mode
At blue grub screen
a
1

after bootup
passwd

or
useradd someuser
passwd someuser

or if you know the username
passwd someuser

you guys are very knowledgeable about this Linux stuff i have to wait until 1 of my more computer savy doodes to come thru to help me do this correctly. I'm gonna check out that link. I appreciate any and all info i recieved from you guys. I'm just sorry i don't have anything to offer y'all. But thanks again