Lost Password
The following applies to most linux boxen. It can be used on an Ubuntu box (which has no root password) to recover the user password.
Generally it is easiest if the adopter brings the box in, but alternatively you can walk the adopter through the following:
GRUB method
Edit the grub boot commands.
- start the computer booting up
- at the GRUB screen enter "e"
- edit the line starting with "kernel" by selecting that line and entering "e"
- delete "quiet" and "splash" at the end of the line (if there)
- change "ro" to "rw"
- add "init=/bin/bash" to the end
- enter to make the changes
- enter "b" to continue the boot process
- the boot will go to a root prompt.
The prompt will be something like "root@(none)"
the passwd command can be used to change the root password on a debian box
If this is an Ubuntu box, you will need to change the password of the first user. Use "ls /home" to find out the name of the user
The password for a user account can be changed at this point.
passwd <username>
See how insecure the box is if you have physical access to it?
live CD method
If the box does not use grub to boot, one can boot the box using a knoppix cd, a rescue floppy, or a Toms Root Boot disk, then login as root and proceed as above.
- "mount /dev/hda3 /mnt"
- "chroot /mnt"
- "passwd"
- change password
- "sync"
- reboot
The procedure can be used for distributions other than the freekbox2 or 3, but you first need to determine the name of the root partition for the mount command.