On 0, nate <debian-user@aphroland.org> wrote:
Matthew Daubenspeck said:
I have acquired a "hand me down" debian potato box that I need to do some
serious overhaul work on, but the old admin doesn't remember the root
password.
Does anyone have a quick and dirty FAQ or doc on how to reset/change the
root password?
if its using lilo the easy way is when you see the LILO prompt hit shift
then type
linux init=/bin/bash
then once the system is up do
mount / -o remount,rw
then 'passwd'? Or is there some reason that doesn't work?
Tom
then edit /etc/shadow and delete all the stuff between the first and
second colons,
then
mount / -o remount,ro
reboot
when it comes up login as root(you shouldn't be prompted for a password.
another way is to boot with a boot disk and mount the drive and edit
the file
nate