[SOLVED-SORT OF)Lost Password

[kubobbu]

I have an old IBM T23 Thinkpad, with a dual boot of Windows XP and Kubuntu that I gave to another user. They returned it to me because they could not get into the Linux install.

I absolutely cannot remember the password for the Kubuntu install; I've tried all my usual passwords as used on other machines and nothing works.
Is there any way I can recover from this without wiping and re-installing Or should I use GParted or something to reformat the Linux partition to a drive D: for Windows (NTFS??)

Thanks...

Bob
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Tried the suggestions given below, but no luck. Finally re-formatted the drive leaving Windows and a new data partition in place of Linux. Then used the Windows disk to repair the boot record. All working now.

Bob

[arochester]

Re: Lost Password

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

[kubobbu]

Re: Lost Password

Arochester... thanks for the prompt reply.

I have tried the procedure you suggest, and it appears that there is another problem... when I enter the command ls /home, the response is just another prompt... there is no user listed.

When I try to reset the passsword for bob, it tells me "user 'bob' does not exist.

Anything else I can try before a re-format

Bob

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Lost Password

Boot the system into the recovery console.

When the menu comes up, choose "root shell" (I don't remember the exact words, similar to that).

At the prompt, type:

passwd bob

it will prompt you for the new password.

Then reboot and you should be fine.

Note: the "ls /home" part is just to remind you what the available usernames are. If you remember your user name, no need for that.

Edit: Try this:

grep 1000 /etc/passwd

That should give you the name of the first installed user on the system.

If that, and "ls /home" both come up blank, then there are no users installed on the system.

That's just about impossible, unless the installation failed. If that is what happened, then a fresh install is probably the best plan, as it is impossible to tell what else might have gone wrong.