Dont know root password - help !

Swordfish · 25 Oct 2010 at 20:58

I'm trying to resolve an issue here with a laptop with ubuntu 10.10 on it. A colleague of mine installed it for a friend but failed to tell him the root password, not my colleague is overseas for a few weeks and I'm left trying to resolve this issue.

Any ideas as to how I can change this password.

Xelene · 25 Oct 2010 at 20:59

Use a LiveCD, boot it from that, mount the root partition and reset the root password.

http://www.linuxforums.org/articles/howto-recover-root-password_54.html

whitecrook · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:00

does it have one? By default ubuntu disables root paswd and uses sudo

Try sudo passwd and enter one ?

whitecrook · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:02

does it have one? By default ubuntu disables root paswd and uses sudo

Try sudo passwd and enter one ?

VFM Addict · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:04

Don't know of any way to change the root password that doesn't involve knowing the current one. However, if your colleague didn't tell the friend what it was its unlikely to be a complex one. So it should be guessable. I'd tru the following.

1. root
2. toor (i.e. root reversed)
3. The friends name - all variations of first and last name.

Good luck,
vfm

whitecrook · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:10

yeah,
admin
password
pass

Swordfish · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:12

Got in via recovery mode

http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/08/change-root-password-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx/

and changed password that way

Now lets see if it works !

What is this 'keyring' in ubuntu ? Never heard of it

Trying to do something as simple as connect to wifi and it asks for the unlock password for the keyring "default" !

DampCat · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:20

its the log that holds the passwords for all wifi connections on your OS, so you only have one master password to unlock the keyring, rather than re-entering the pass for every connection when you roam.

Swordfish · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:21

Cool for that.

Still cant get the hang of this.

Can a desktop user install software and updates ?

Swordfish · 25 Oct 2010 at 21:32

Giving up on the damm thing.

Going to install fresh

FirebarUK · 25 Oct 2010 at 22:32

As already mentioned, Ubuntu has sudo configured out of the box so you shouldn't ever (in theory) need to use the root account. To perform superuser functions you type in "sudo commandname" and supply the USERS password. In-fact, can you even log in as root in Ubuntu?

squerble · 25 Oct 2010 at 22:35

I'm not sure about logging in as root, but you can run as root through the Terminal if you have the account enabled.

leezer3 · 25 Oct 2010 at 23:00

FirebarUK said:
As already mentioned, Ubuntu has sudo configured out of the box so you shouldn't ever (in theory) need to use the root account. To perform superuser functions you type in "sudo commandname" and supply the USERS password. In-fact, can you even log in as root in Ubuntu?

You need to set a root password, and then do a manual login

(Doesn't appear in the list of users in GDM)

-Leezer-

FirebarUK · 26 Oct 2010 at 08:06

leezer3 said:
You need to set a root password, and then do a manual login (Doesn't appear in the list of users in GDM)

-Leezer-

Thanks, I wasn't sure whether you were able to log into a session as superuser by default.