"forgot password" workarounds not working

[brownh@hartford-hwp.com (Haines Brown)]

I have sarge I installed on a new hard disk, and I can log in OK, but
I decided to see if I could log in without a password. I tried two
methods: 

1. I booted knoppix and opened a terminal. In it I tried to do:

   $ mount -t ext3 /dev/sda /mnt/hd

   in order to then run the chroot and the passwd commands, but when I
   tried to mount the disk I got the error "only root can do that". Is
   the only way out of this to know root's password?

2. In grub, I edited the kernel line for the disk I wanted to boot by
   appending to that line the words: "single init=/bin/sh". This
   brought me to a sh2.5-2b# prompt, but when I tried to issue the
   passwd command from there, I only got the "authentication token
   lock busy" error. When I have trouble with lock files I usually
   just delete them, but don't know where this one is or if I can
   delete it.

Any suggestions?

-- 
 
       Haines Brown
         KB1GRM
         ET1(SS) U.S.S. Irex SS-482