[Gllug] I have forgotten my root password, I am a muppet.

[Xander D Harkness]

on a redhat box you would just 'type linux 1' at lilo and boot to single 
user mode.

this gives a root prompt; type passwd and job done.

Cheers
Xander

John Hearns wrote:

> will wrote:
>
>> Hello again.
>>
>> As the subject line implies I have forgotten the root password to an 
>> old 486
>> box that I was playing around with at home.  It is a fresh install of
>> mandrake 7.1 and it is just that the usernames/passwords are 
>> different to
>> the ones I entered on install (I had had a few beers, that might have
>> something to do with it).  I managed to get in using a user account 
>> but this
>> has no priveliges to do anything outside it's home directory.  I have a
>> tomsrtbt disk and have booted up using that, but don't know what the 
>> hell to
>> do next. 
>
> I had to do this once (legitimately).
> A colleague of mine called me in to look at an SGI O2 we had bought 
> second hand
> from a bankrupt company in the States. Root password unknown.
> He was might impressed when I walked back in half an hour
> with a big cheesy grin and told him the password.
>
>
>
> What you need to do is, as you have already done, boot it with a 
> rescue disk.
> Get a hold of a copy of the password file, or /etc/shadow.
> Transfer this to another system - even just by writing the root entry 
> down on paper.
> Then run Crack on it, or even better John the Ripper
> http://www.openwall.com/john/
>
>
>
>
>
>



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