On Sun, Oct 10, 1999 at 10:45:56PM -0400, David Tiefenbrunn wrote:
> Hi, all, I bought a used hard drive today. When I tested it, the first
> thing that came on the screen was LILO . Just as I was thinking "isn't
> that something to do with Linux, and cool, now I can see what it is like
> / mess with it without installing everything, more stuff came up that made
> it clear. Anyways, after a whole bunch of "starting this and that" type
> messages, it finally prompted: LOGIN: and wanted a password. Of course,
> I have no idea what they are.
OK. what you want to do is....
1.reboot the machine
2.When LILO appears, hit right-shift.. you should
get a prompt 'boot:'
3.Hit tab, and You'll get a list of names ( maybe only one )
4.type the name of the first entry init=/bin/sh
example:
LILO boot: [tab]
Linux TestKernel
LILO boot: Linux init=/bin/sh
5.you should now see a prompt '#'.
6. type 'vi /etc/shadow'
7. you should see a whole bunch of entries like:
root:824u23kj4hf8:0:99999:6:::
^
8. find the one labeled root, and use the arrow keys
to put the cursor on top of the first character after
the first colon, then repeatedly push 'x' until it looks
like this
root::0:9999:6:::
9. type escape(the key) followed with ':wq' enter
10. type 'shutdown -r now'
11. when the login prompt comes up again, login as root
12. fiddle around for ten minutes
13. come back and ask more questions :-)
enjoy
> Is there a way to get around the password by editing a file from dos? (I
> could boot from a floppy)
no. DOS doesn't understand linux partitions, and consequently
can't see the file.
>
> Or is this just a waste of time, and I should put the CDrom in and do it
> right?
maybe
>
> Thank you,
you're welcome
> Dave
>
>
> Dave Tief. N1WWY
> Addie Tief. N1XQP
> Tribble, Smudge, Noodles, Cecil, Bandit and Scooter.
> Visit our web page at http://pages.cthome.net/dandahp
greg
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