By: Bernard

Bernard — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:46:38 +0000

My way of solving this issue:
1. Start up the computer with a linux live CD (or USB key). Doesn’t matter if it’s a Debian, Ubuntu or probably any other distro - I used an Ubuntu 11.10 USB key.
2. Using the Disk Utilities available from your device, mount the partition that hosts your /etc folder (probably marked as bootable)
3.in a command line, go to ./etc under your mounted partition, probably in /media/[a long hd id-like number]. Notice the dot (.) before /etc; don’t go to “/etc”. You can check that you’re in the right folder with a little “grep -i [name of a user of yours (not root!)] shadow” If you get anything, you’re in the right folder and you can proceed to step 4.
4. Just to be safe, make a backup copy of your “shadow” file. I simply used a “cp ./shadow /media/[an inserted and mounted USB key]/shadow” command.
5. Using your favorite text editor (I used nano because I know it’s available on my key), edit your “shadow” file (“nano shadow”)
6. Locate the root line. It’ll look something like “root:[encrypted pw]:12345:5:99999:::” (figures are made up)
7. replace the [encrypted pw] part of the line with a single “!”. Yep, just an Exclamation mark with no double quotation mark. That tells Linux to authorize the mentioned user to access the system with no pw, so be cautious ! Your line will then look something like “root:!:12345:5:99999:::”
8. Save your changes and exit the command line
9. Back to your Disk Utilities program, unmount the partition you mounted in step 2 above.
10 Turn your computer off and remove all media, may it be USB key, CD, or whatever.
11 Restart your computer and, in the grub menu, choose “rescue mode”. You’ll find yourself in a command line of a root session with no pw.
12 change your pw with a “passwd” command. If you’re not sure, “man passwd” should help.

I know it’s somewhat lenghty, but it worked for me in a few minutes.

By: cleopatra

cleopatra — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:20:55 +0000

Indeed, it worked just fine on my cruncgbang. Thanx!

By: Oluype

Oluype — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:54:29 +0000

Clear and simple instruction. thank worked just fine for me…

Regards

By: lom56

lom56 — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:28:59 +0000

thanks, this article useful to me

By: johnathan

johnathan — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:33:35 +0000

I followed the instructions and they worked up until I tried to change the pw. I got

“passwd: User not known to the authentication module”
“passwd: pasword unchanged

By: Pisithanate

Pisithanate — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 11:46:12 +0000

When i press “b” is just boot up, i can’t type “mount -n -o remount,rw /”

By: Douglas

Douglas — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 17:12:34 +0000

I use this command, but it’s not recovery my password