My friend has forgotten the password for the root admin to her computer, and she has misplaced the installation disks.

She, nor I are very technical so if possible can the response be as detailed as possible for us to understand.

We need to find a way of retrieving the password without using the installation disks as they are lost.

the version is 10.1

Please help us asap, thanks

You can't retrieve the old password. You can set a new password: http://linuxgazette.net/107/tomar.html

In very technical terms: You can't recover a lost password--you can only set a new one.

Sorry, that's what I meant.

She is having difficulty accessing the LILO prompt screen...I am not sure what to do?

Thanks for your help so far.

does anybody know how to get the LILO prompt screen??

After the BIOS messages press & hold CTRL ...


Cheers,
Tink

when she presses CTRL nothing happens?

With all due respect - over the past 5-10 days, we've seen a plethora of new users with less than 5 posts coming to this forum wishing to acquire or reset the root password, gain superuser access by modifying other accounts to superuser rights etc. See posts of kd5po, shifter and similar in this forum...

If it is your box, use the computer from which you posted this message to download and burn Slackware disk1 (or knoppix or anything else) and use that to reset the password in question.

-Y1

And, to be honest, not only do we have no way of knowing if they are "real" users with "real" problems or not, but anything we do tell them isn't going to get them any further than a Google search (probably less so, given some of the Google results I just came across for some simple test searches).

And there's just that possibility that, like most Linux newbies, they ARE using root after having installed as root and, because Linux usually demands root passwords whereas Windows doesn't, the chances are that a newbie would set a password and then forget it. So we stand a good chance of putting someone off of Linux weighed against an outside chance that there is someone who wishes to "hack" their friends PC, their school etc.

Additionally, in any place "where it matters" (i.e. schools, etc.), they will not be able to do any of the things we suggest (no physical access etc.). For anywhere else, a two-second Google will give them the information they require. Anyone with half a brain who wanted to gain illicit access to a system would probably not bother to ask on a forum (not only does it leave a record of their movements but it also takes days for replies) but would simply Google the questions. However, someone looking for some friendly help for a simple question would probably ask a "real" person online, especially if they are not sure how to explain the problem technically.

There's no security in obscurity (ick... old saying I know) so by NOT telling them how it's done, nobody gains anything, including someone who's potentially trying out a new system, trying to get it to work, getting frustrated by simple issues that won't bug them once they get familiar with the system etc.

Do you think that Windows forums "withhold" information on how to reset the admin password? Do you think that anyone who WANTED root on a computer that allowed them to (i.e. physical access) couldn't get it with a maximum of 5 Google searches?

There is no reason not to help this person. If they were asking "How can I break into a Linux server remotely?" then you can start questioning their motives. But for a simple question with a simple answer (see below), it's not *worth* questioning their motives when the information is EXTREMELY easily available anywhere.

Anyway, for root passwords, see the linuxgazette article posted above ("Reseting passwords by using a boot disk and editing the password file"), for LILO passwords you would need to boot from a boot disk (First Slackware disc/Knoppix CD/etc.), chroot to your hard drive (e.g. chroot /dev/hda1) and then reinstall LILO (run liloconfig, making sure to change your password before you install LILO!).

adam5 could easily clear this up by providing more detail. What exactly does happen when you boot the machine? "Nothing happens" isn't descriptive enough. Can you post error messages for us? Does it boot to Windows?

Both Y-1 and ledow are giving you good advice. Download Slackware.

I would suggest reinstalling though. Get a clean start. Then post specific problems that you're having and we can try to help.