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It doesn't surprise me that you haven't found any documentation about this, since I believe this cannot be done at all!!

If you, as a regular user, can manipulate the root password it is of course a huge security risk, as you gain access to the whole system. So if you do not know the root password, I'm afraid there is no way to change it (that I know of...)

You have to boot into a single user system and change the root password as usual with passwd.

There should be a rescue option on the bootdisk or CD you installed from.

I think there is also an option to pass certian parametes to the kernel when booting by Lilo.

Cheers,
_

Quoted

Original von RobbiK

If you, as a regular user, can manipulate the root password it is of course a huge security risk, as you gain access to the whole system.

This reasoning is correct for a running system. But most
computers allow these security measures to be circumvented
if you have physical access to the machine (e.g. if you can
reboot it with a rescue disk or CD).
This is important in an emergency situation like this.
-> See also the reply by anda_skoa.

So you are running Linux, if you are successfully running KDE on Unix please let me know .
If you use LILO as your bootloader I guess you could check this out: http://www.hackinglinuxexposed.com/articles/20020702.html

Quoted

Original von boliati

Any way to boot to single user without a disk?

See
http://www.linuxadvisory.com/tutorial5.html
There's also a solution if you use grub as your boot loader.

Quoted

Original von boliati

I have done some digging around on some sites and have made it to Lilo ....
....
I am a totally new linux user (that's why I mixed up linux and unix i my earlier post!) so if you could, be as specific as you can in describing any solutions.

So you're using lilo.
I'm sorry, I can't try out any solutions for you and
provide a step-by-step descripion as I use grub.

Quoted

Original von boliati


I read something on the /etc/shadow/ and /etc/passwd/ files......is it that these may have been edited by the former user and reinforced so that accessig the root is not possible without the password?

Well, these are the files where the system stores user and
password information. In /etc/shadow you should normally find
the crypted passwords. That's where the passwd command writes to.

Your problem is that this file is only writeable by root (of course,
for security reasons) or via a command with special privileges
(the passwd command is "set uid root"). This special privilege
of passwd won't help in your situation because it's
the *root* password you want to set.
Doing so requires you to be root.
So in order to fix your problem you have to become root.
That's what all the suggested solutions were about...

Quoted

Original von boliati


Have also tried at Lilo typing linux single and I get to this prompt:
'Give root password for system maintenance'
I have to know the root password to get past this........Back to square one again.

Have you tried to just press enter at this prompt?
If it asks you for the real root password (the one you don't know)
then your system differs from the ones described in the article
linked above.




If nothing else helps there's at least two things that you could try:
1.
- write down where your /etc/shadow is located
(in the file /etc/fstab, look for the line that has a single slash in the
second column. that should be it, typically something like
/dev/hda<number>)
- since you don't have a system disk you
can get a copy of Knoppix on CD(-R)
- Attach a CDROM (you must be able to boot from it, or it won't work)
- boot it
- become root (no passwd)
- mount the disk the /etc/shadow is on
- make a backup copy of /etc/shadow
- edit the original and remove the crypted
passwd for the root user
(everything between the first and second colon).
Example:
original line:
rootADGFASgfde45§$dfgsdfgsdfg:11993:0:::::
new line:
root::11993:0:::::
- save the file
- reboot normally (remove the Knoppix CD!)
- log in as root with the now empty password
- use the passwd command to set a new one

2.
Physically move your hard disk to a different computer
where you are root (or one of your friends :-)).
Then mount the right partition and proceed as above.