[SOLVED] Lost Root Password

[fsivada]

I just got a PC running Ubuntu 7.04. Unfortunately no one in my company (and I mean no one!) remembers the root password.

Do I absolutely need the root password to install new programs, or can I play games with sudo and get the job done?

Thanks much.

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome!
Ubuntu locks the root account, so not to worry......sudo will get you there.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

[D-cat]

If someone has set a root password (making sudo impossible without it), then there's no real way to recover it, but you can boot into the recovery console and change the root password.

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...-password.html

Note: note, this is not a recovery... I think "recover" should be replaced with "reset", but you get the idea.

[kewlharsh]

Type this in the console -
sudo passwd
and use the normal user password to change the root password.

I am not sure, if it would work for you, but it might be worth the try.

Cheers,

[blinky]

On boot press the tab or space (to get the grub menu up). On the menu select the line begining "kernel ...."

press e (for edit)
add "single" to the end of the line and hit the enter key
takes you back to the grub menu now hit "b"

(The instructions are there when you get into the grub menu)

This will boot into single user mode and should not require a password, now you can reset the password.

Works in most ditributions but I hav'nt got a Ubuntu installation in front of me to verfiy it, but have 99% faith in it working.

[larryfroot]

oooh blinky, thats well cool. Will copy and paste that into my Text File of Useful Things.