Comments on: how to change root password in debian

By: Cytaty

Cytaty — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:05:37 +0000

fdisk -l
mount -l
mount -t ext3 -r -w -o remount /dev/sda /

By: palsyboy

palsyboy — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:51:18 +0000

It would be great if you knew how to use apostrophes.

By: dysphonia

dysphonia — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:12:22 +0000

Hello I am running Deb 504 as a nx cherry and recently after running a bunch of package installation in synaptic and security updates in a gnome desktop I found my user password changed and so I used rescue disk and changed it back. Next time I ran deb full I found my root changed as well (!?) So I tried editing shadow with vi using rescue cd , bash on assumed root and saved and no joy… whats left? Should I use a liveCD other than the debian?
Any idea is appreciated as I’d have to go to square 1 for the 4th time.

By: Devian

Devian — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:47:49 +0000

if u have ur user with sudo rights u can do a simple
sudo passwd root
im saying this cause whenever i install a system the first thing i do is give sudo permission

By: l33tmyst

l33tmyst — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:07:51 +0000

What about if it’s a VPS (accessed by SSH?)

By: rjc

rjc — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:50:13 +0000

The file in question is “/etc/shadow” unless you explicitly disabled shadow passwords during installation.

By: mgh

mgh — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:32:05 +0000

- backspace over the field containing the encrypted password

I do not see a password. I see
and see no user names at all.

How can I change?

Installed Debian and con not log in as user or root, so do not no how to use passwd command, as I can not get to root terminal.

Thanks.

By: Dino

Dino — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:07:37 +0000

I have found that the best way to change a root password on a NIX box is to:

- boot up with a “Live CD” such as KNOPPIX
- mount (rw) the partition that contains the /etc folder
- open the passwd file in a text editor of your choice
- find the line for the root user
- backspace over the field containing the encrypted password
- save the file
- remove the CD and reboot

Now you can login as root without a password ans run passwd to reset it.
KNOPPIX has many valuable uses. Get yours today at http://www.knoppix.net/

By: Sachin

Sachin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:18:25 +0000

As long as you ‘ve physical access to the Linux box, you can crack in to any Linux box irrespective of which flavor of Linux use. So i don’t really believe with you - Debian is special and you can’t easily crack in to it.