Two weeks late to the party, I agree with Judah, and do exactly that. (Well, I usually chroot and run passwd, as opposed to directly editing important files, which is what I assume Judah means by the "incorrect/bad" way.)
Ben On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 04:25:26PM -0400, Judah Milgram wrote: > When I need to do this I boot from a live DVD (in my case whatever Slackware > install DVD I can put my hands on first.) > > Then mount the "real" root drive on /mnt/hd or something. Then I think the > correct way to do it is with chroot or /usr/bin/passwd -R > > Haven't actually tried chroot or passwd -R, but in the future will try that > first. The incorrect/bad way I've been doing it works but could cause > problems. > > > > On 6/24/20 3:57 PM, Moshe M. Katz wrote: >> Hi Howard, >> >> I have three possibilities for you: >> >> First, on Ubuntu, it is likely that root has no password at all and all >> such access must be done with sudo as the regular user. (At least that's >> how every Ubuntu machine I've ever set up has been.) Older versions of >> Ubuntu actually did autologin by removing the password (the equivalent of >> running `passwd -d`). While "passwordless sudo" is a thing, "sudo by an >> account with no password" doesn't work in my testing. If you run `passwd` >> as the regular user, does it prompt you for the old password or just let >> you enter a new one? If it just prompts you to enter a new password, enter >> one and you will then be able to use `sudo`. >> >> The other two only work assuming that the disk is not encrypted. >> >> You can boot into Single User Mode and it is as if you are root. I don't >> remember the steps for 14.04 offhand, but this should be helpful: >> https://askubuntu.com/questions/132965/how-do-i-boot-into-single-user-mode-from-grub >> >> You can boot the machine from a Live CD or Live USB, become root there, >> and then have root access to the local disk as well. >> >> >> Moshe >> >> -- >> Moshe Katz >> mmk...@umd.edu <mailto:mmk...@umd.edu> >> (301) 867-3732 >> >> >> >> On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 3:25 PM <linux-au...@terrier.ampexguy.com >> <mailto:linux-au...@terrier.ampexguy.com>> wrote: >> >> I assure you that what follows is legit. >> >> One of my oldest friends died in March (of a massive stroke, not >> corona virus). I inherited his three laptops, one of which is an IBM >> Thinkpad running Ubuntu 14.04LTS. I can produce a copy of his will, >> and, given a day or two to catch up with his executor, a copy of the >> death certificate, if needed. >> >> It automagically boots "Authorized User" with no password needed. This >> is not the same as root: I opened a terminal window and typed >> "adduser," which you have to be root to do, and got my wrists soundly >> slapped for my efforts. >> >> So is there a way to determine or at least re-set the root password on >> this machine? I'd like to create another user (i.e., me), and set the >> password for "Authorized User" to something I know. >> >> If it helps, I'm positive he bought the machine from PC Retro in >> Beltsville a few years ago. Do they use the same root password on all >> their Linux boxes? >> >> Any suggestions will be most welcome. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Howard Sanner >> >> You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux >> User's Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to >> unsubscribe from this list, simply send an email to >> lists...@listserv.umd.edu <mailto:lists...@listserv.umd.edu> with >> the message signoff UM-LINUX in the body. >> >> You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux User's >> Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe from this >> list, simply send an email to lists...@listserv.umd.edu with the message >> signoff UM-LINUX in the body. > > > -- > Judah Milgram > milg...@cgpp.com > 301-257-7069 > > You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux User's > Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe from this > list, simply send an email to lists...@listserv.umd.edu with the message > signoff UM-LINUX in the body. -- Ben Stern This space intentionally left blank. You received this email because you are subscribed to the UM Linux User's Group (UM-LINUX) mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe from this list, simply send an email to lists...@listserv.umd.edu with the message signoff UM-LINUX in the body.
