Re: Password

[Cajus Pollmeier <C.Pollmeier@gmx.net>]

Am Montag, 11. Dezember 2000 04:38 schrieb Anthony Ryan:
> Hi,
> 	I recently got a 486 with Debian 2.1 pre-loaded. I'm also
> just getting into unix for the first time, and want a machine to muck
> around with. The problem is, I don't know the password or login. I
> don't have the OS on an installer disk, so would rather not resort to
> wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch. If it comes to that,
> how big is it? Is there a work-around?

If it is booting via lilo, and lilo is installed without password 
protection/timeout=0, then you can simply put some stuff on the bootprompt 
like:

lilo: linux init=/bin/bash

You will get into a shell then. Just do:

# mount / -oremount,rw

Make a backup of your /etc/shadow, and remove the encrypted password between
the ":" for root.
Then:

# mount / -oremount,ro

and reboot. Your system now has an empty password ;-)

-Cajus