Something happened to cause a system wide change of permissions in Mepis and refusal to take my root password.
I have typed '1' at the grub menu then passwd at the prompt, reset my password and it says Password successfully updated. Then 'init 5' and back into graphical mode.

However it doesn't work. It still says my password is invalid.

I looked at some other posts and tried to chroot from a live CD but I don't really know what I am doing in command line and had no success.

Here is an article describing how to remove the root password, then set a new one.

http://linuxgazette.net/107/tomar.html

Thanks for the link.

I have tried the methods listed with no success. Typing'e' at boot did nothing but this should just take me into single user mode which I have already done. With the boot disk/live CD method I get a 'cannot connect to X-server' error. This method changes the /etc/shadow root password which I can do graphically.
My problem, I think, is I am set on autologin?... maybe not relevant.

Would changing the /etc/password file help? I guess that's encrypted though and I still need to log as root don't I? I don't know how to change the auto log in setting from the live CD.

Here's a look at my password file anyway


root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh
proxy:x:13:13roxy:/bin:/bin/sh
majordom:x:30:31:Majordomo:/usr/lib/majordomo:/bin/sh
postgres:x:31:32ostgres:/var/lib/postgres:/bin/sh
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/bin/sh
msql:x:36:36:Mini SQL Database Manager:/var/lib/msql:/bin/sh
operator:x:37:37:Operator:/var:/bin/sh
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/bin/sh
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/bin/sh
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats/gnats-db:/bin/sh
sandy:x:1000:100:sandy:/home/sandy:/bin/bash

you have pclinuxos down .
can you simply reinstall the operating system ?
only format hda1 not hda6 anyway and your personal settings should all be there
i'm not going to tell you how to break into somebodyy elses system which is what it seems like you want to do
If you cant reinstall ,why not if you are root
the link actually tells you how to do it anyway

Yes, I can re-install but was hoping to avoid it.
I can get into the Mepis file system from both a live CD and the other distro but I don't know how to bring up the control centre to change the auto login which may not help anyway.
I have figured out what happened and it is a bit embarrassing.
I was setting up my storage drive to mount automatically in the other distro and when the mount points and fstab were set I used # chmod -R 777 /mnt/hdd2. I then set mount points and a noauto fstab for Mepis which are all fine but I must have used the chmod on this partition too (it was 1:30 in the morning). I don't remember doing it but I think I must have. Anyway that would change the permissions on every file on the operating system would it not?
As I said the methods described in the link did not work. I am the only user of the computer.
So its a re-install...sure hope the /home is OK but if I do have to wipe it its all backed up with pre-'accident' files.
Thanks for your help.