[Gllug] tips and tricks...

[Vincent AE Scott]

John Edwards(john_ed at cornerstonelinux.co.uk)@Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 01:27:28AM +0000:
> On Fri, Feb 08, 2002 at 12:33:35AM +0000, Nix wrote:
> > On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Michael E. A. yowled:
> >> Its amazing the kind of tips/tricks you can learn at a LUG meeting.
> >> Just the other day i decided to boot into my SuSE Partition to do a bit
> >> of 'Spring Cleaning', when i realised i had forgotten my root password.
> >> 
> >> I was contemplating a reinstall when i just happened to mention it to
> >> 'Matt', at yesterdays Lonix Meeting.
> >> I was adviced to mount the partition using 'tomsrtbt' (or similar) and
> >> edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files.
> > 
> > No need to do that.
> > 
> > Pass
> > 
> > init=/bin/sh
> > 
> > to the kernel via the LILO command line, &c.
> > 
> > Bingo, instant root prompt.
> > 
> > (Of course you need physical access for this so it is not a security
> > hole; someone with such access can already do anything.)
> 
> Unless your boot loader (LILO or GRUB) has a password set.
> 
> (Yes I pretty much locked myself out of a box once, it required moving 
> the hard disk into another machine to fix it).
> 

couldnt you just boot of a CD?  or was there no drive?

i've only had to do this a few times, more often than not to repair
something which caused the kernel to not boot correctly, or the OS to
not initialize.

hey, you could even burn off one of them cute linuxcare CD's.
like some nice chap at lonix had...
cheers mate.


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