david <[email protected]> writes:
> Can it be done?
Sure.
> All the instructions I've found on the net require installation of lvm2 - not
> sure this is practical on Live CD, even if it was connected to the net, which
> it isn't.
...it is practical, and works, but you do need a net connection.
IIRC, the live *DVD* includes a huge pool of standard packages which you can
use locally, or you could download the required .deb files to a USB key or
something and manually install them. Sorry.
> The computer belongs to a club (I haven't had direct access to it yet) - the
> "administrator" has vanished and taken the password with him and the drive
> is now at least partly corrupted and won't boot without a root password.
Wanna know a secret: your Linux box is almost certainly trivial to break.
Try booting the kernel with 'init=/bin/bash' on the command line, and then:
] mount / -o remount,rw
] passwd root # ...and give it a good password
] mount / -o remount,or
] sync; sync; sync
# wait thirty seconds, because paranoia never hurts
] sync; sync; sync; reboot
That should get you past the problem, at least as far as the next issue.
You can also run a fsck on the root volume or whatever at that shell. Just be
aware that you don't get a lot of nice things like, oh, some of the "flush on
shutdown" behaviour that you do in a normal boot. :)
Daniel
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