[vox-tech] Re: [lugod lert] need to reinstall Red Hat Linux

[Henry House]

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På tisdag, 28 oktober 2003, skrev Ivor Bradaric:
> 
> Dear Dispatcher,
> I installed Red Hat Linux onto my computer during the installfest at UC 
> Davis on October 5. As I was not able to access any sites on the Internet 
> other than the Red Hat home page using the Mozilla or Galeon web 
> browsers, I now have to change my settings in order to access the 
> Internet via Red Hat Linux. However, when I installed Linux, I either did 
> not receive, did not remember, or mistyped my root password, and this is 
> a big problem because I cannot change any of my settings without the root 
> password. When I visited the Linux support office to see if they knew a 
> way to fix this problem, the only suggestion they could give me was to 
> reinstall Red Hat Linux because there is no way to change the root 
> password without knowing what it is in the first place. They told me that 
> I could possibly reinstall Red Hat Linux during an arranged time rather 
> than going to the installfest again to reinstall it. Please tell me if 
> this is possible and at what time I could come do this.

It is possible and fairly easy to change the root password iwhtout knowing
it, assuming that you have not done anything unusual to secure they system
(such as an encrypted root filesystem or a BIOS password.) Method:

1. Boot up using a recovery CD-ROM or floppy set. The Debian floppy set works
   nicely.  I do not recommend the Red Hat CD-ROM; Knoppix is a better choice.

2. Obtain a root shell.

3. Mount your root filesystem under some available mountpoint.

4. cd to that mountpoint

5. Run 'chroot . /bin/bash'

6. Run passwd and enter a new password

You can download Debian boot floppies from http://http.us.debian.org/debian,
or you can borrow a Knoppix CD from the LUGOD library.  Please let me know
how it goes! 

- -- 
Henry House
The unintelligible text that may follow is a digital signature. 
See <http://hajhouse.org/pgp> for information.  My OpenPGP key:
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