Scott Ferguson wrote:
On 15/03/14 22:29, Tom Furie wrote:On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 10:09:33PM +1100, Scott Ferguson wrote:On 15/03/14 21:45, Richard Owlett wrote:If another OS had not been available but I knew the root password, is there some way I could have gained access as root?# passwd `grep 1000 /etc/passwd | cut -d : -f1`That doesn't help him until he's logged into the system.Richard has clearly said "if I knew the root password" "as root" So he *can* login to the system. Why he didn't, is the question. ;) Perhaps he tried from a GUI login which only permitted a userlogin (but didn't prompt with the username and didn't, or couldn't (Crtl+backspace etc) didn't work - still wouldn't explain why he didn't just boot into the rescue console. Perhaps his fu was low?
"Fu"? Evidently I had no fu to be low on.
Sequence was:
Do full install install of Squeeze to sda1. Only non-default was
size of install partition.
Do very minimal install to sda7 - i.e. no GUI, CLI only.
Do nothing for a week thus forgetting the "user name"
associated with install on sda7.
I thought I had tried to respond "root" at the "login:" prompt and not being surprised that it didn't work. I thought that was what happened several months ago in a similar situation - that time I just wiped the disk and started over.
To other questions raised explicitly/implicitly:1. I accept all defaults except allowing networks, size/location of
install partition, and what packages installed.
2. The user name for the install on sda1 is always "richard".
I "users"
share the same password. "root" on all partitions share the
same password.
I'm the only one to have physical or electronic access ;)
3. My boot system is Grub 1.98 .
4. Ralf was correct saying "IOW the OP remembers the password
for UID 1000,
but not the name for UID".