[SWLUG] Resetting root password

[Justin Mitchell]

On Fri, 2010-01-15 at 12:10 +0000, Neil Jones wrote:
> I have an ubuntu system which is new and it doesn't seem to recognise 
> what I thought was the root password.
> I am trying to edit the grub loader to append the word Single as several 
> websites recommend.
> pressing e in grub takes me to an editor but I don't know how to save 
> anything. I can go back to the grub menu but nothing
> is saved.

it doesnt get saved, your modifying it only for this time around.

you select the relevant kernel, edit it.
then choose the line that has the kernel file on it, edit it
append '1' to it. (or 's' or 'single')

i think its just enter to get out of the edit, then press 'b' to boot
it.

if single user mode isnt enough then you can get extra adventurous and
append 'init=/bin/bash' instead.  that starts almost nothing, remount
the drive 'mount / -o rw,remount' and edit the passwd/shadow file
directly.   dont forget to put it back to read only 'ro' before you
reboot.