Netbook/Ubuntu 1

[dljohnson19]

I have a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with Ubuntu dist on it. It's my daughter and she does not remember setting nor can we crack her admin password to make config changes. There is no CD drive on the mini. Is there another way to crack it? Can you run Knoppix or BartsPE from a USB?

 

[danomac]

You should be able to boot from a USB key or a USB CDROM drive.

 

[dljohnson19]

Thanks! So can you just copy the files that are on a Knoppix CD over to the USB, change the boot order and then it behave just like the CD? If so, how do you go about changing the admin password once in?

Thanks!

 

[danomac]

There's a procedure (which I personally haven't tried) that you'll need to follow - more here.

Once you are in, you'll need to chroot into the local installation and manually reset the password.

 

[dljohnson19]

Thanks, we are in the machine now just not sure how to proceed with the chroot suggestion. Can you provide more detail or a link?

Thanks!

 

[dljohnson19]

Thanks, we got into it and got it reset. Thanks for assistance.

 

[IPGuru]

just a tip, some may like others wont
Ununto does not set a root pasword & relies on sudo
if you want a root password as well one can be set with the following sequence

sudo bash
passwd

I have a mix of buntu & Fedora systems so I set as above but also enable sudo of Fedora so I can use either method.
(sudo for single commands & switch to route if i need to to a lot)

 

[geirendre]

Shure You need any root-account on your Ubuntu-box?
sudo should do the trick.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

 

[Noway2]

The first, or rather default, user account that you create is one that has administrator capability. To access the capability you need to use the sudo command, which will prompt for the password. Subsequent user accounts are created and unless specified, don't have the ability to do sudo commands. If an attempt is made with such an account the command will fail and the user will get a nasty error message about the attempt being reported.

 

[danomac]

I did intend to reset the user account password. Seems that sometimes reply notifications don't get to my mailbox for some reason.

 

[IPGuru]

The reson I set a root account as well is because sudo is not always as convinet.

I like to have both options open so I set a root password on ubuntu systems. my main systems are fedora which does not enable sodu on users by default whichh I also manualy enable.

I also reconfigure sudo so that it asks fro the target user password (root) rather than the current user, this means that any attacker would need to crack 2 passwords not 1.

this is of course personal taste, the thin i like most about Linux is the ability to configure almost anything to work the way I want not the way some faceles suit has decided i should