Forgot root password

guy_ripper · 10-31-2006, 01:31 AM

Hi,

Need help.... Is there a way how I can get my root password?

Nathanael · 10-31-2006, 01:46 AM

best thing to do is to google on this one - i don't want to post an howto on LQ!

Quote:

LQ rules
Posts containing information about cracking, piracy, warez, fraud or any topic that could be damaging to either LinuxQuestions.org or any third party will be immediately removed.

reddazz · 10-31-2006, 04:11 AM

If you search on this site and on google for "lost root password", I am sure you will get lots of useful info. Is the lost root password for your own system?

iceman47 · 10-31-2006, 05:29 AM

Jeez, is it so hard to help? I'm sure you all forgot your root password before.
It's not like this is classified information and whatever he plans to do with it is his responsibility, not yours. Hence, this has nothing to do with "cracking, piracy, warez, fraud or any topic", Moderators, correct me if you feel I'm wrong here...

guy_ripper: boot your kernel with the appended option init=/bin/sh.
You'll find yourself having a nice shell where you can change your root password with the program passwd.

Nathanael · 10-31-2006, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman47

Jeez, is it so hard to help?

so telling somebody where the answer can be found is not 'help'?
are you saying that if somebody tells you to read a certain man page - to google for something or to search the previous posts on a board for a given phrase/term is not help?

It is a pretty good hint and I think expecting people to do some own research is asking too much.

everyting is the users own responsibility - does not mean I have to tell the user how it works - not on LQ. the internet holds more than enough info and simply that the question has been posted shows the user has not done any research of his own beforehand!

r³nd³rª · 10-31-2006, 05:56 AM

OMG! Does that mean that anybody with physical access to your compu can change the root pw? Just slap in a live-cd, edit the bootloader and off you go? How to harden a system against this?

Nathanael · 10-31-2006, 06:01 AM

if your system has not been secured - yes it does!

you can secure your system by setting a bootmanager password , a bios password, and not allowing the system to boot from a cd or any other device but the hdd

iceman47 · 10-31-2006, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathanael

so telling somebody where the answer can be found is not 'help'?
...

Nathanael, you're trolling.
I don't want to go further on this one, but the reason why you didn't post the sollution wasn't because you wanted to point in the right direction, it was because of this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathanael

Quote:
LQ rules
Posts containing information about cracking, piracy, warez, fraud or any topic that could be damaging to either LinuxQuestions.org or any third party will be immediately removed.

slantoflight · 10-31-2006, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r³nd³rª

OMG! Does that mean that anybody with physical access to your compu can change the root pw? Just slap in a live-cd, edit the bootloader and off you go? How to harden a system against this?

Physical security for physical hacking. Laser grids and machine guns usually work best.

reddazz · 10-31-2006, 09:42 AM

Pointing some to where they can find the solution is actually helping them. This topic has been thoroughly discussed here and elsewhere so if someone makes an effort to search first before starting a new thread, they can usually find an answer in past threads.

I am sure Nathanael was trying to make sure that the information given would not be used for malicious purposes and thats why he mentioned the LQ rules. Its perfectly fine to show someone how to retrieve their lost root password, but who knows whether the info is going to be used for malicious purposes or not, so I can understand why some people are unwilling to answer such questions or will only provide detailed info if they know that its not going to be used for the wrong reasons.