Problems with root password

I had some problems during the Linux installation. I canceled the installation at the moment I had to enter the root password. The next time, I continued the installation, but the system didn't ask me to enter a root-password anymore :-(

Now, you probably know my problem: I do not have (or know) my root password!. If I want to change the password, the system ask for my previous password (which I don't have/know). Now I've got 2 questions:
a. Does a default root-password exist?
b. is it possible to reset the root password (without using the previous password)?

Many thanks in advance!

 

Is this with Linpus or another OS?

As I understand it, the root password on the Linpus Lite install is your user password, or at least it was with mine.

Try that, see if it works

 

yes, it is linpus
no, I also don't have an user password (it logs in automatically) :?

 

I had the same problem.

Sometimes, many acers come like pre-used, that's my ase too. just do a recovery and the new password will be prompted. but remember: save all your data before oing this!

 

Let me get this straight - you've never given a password with your Aspire One, even when you first booted it?

If you have given it a password, this is what I am suggesting you enter.

If you bought it second hand, then I would do a recovery install as suggested above.

 

They all login automatically as the Linpus installed on the AAO doesn't utilize a login script. The big question at this point in time is what is the user password set to, since you killed it before entering one when you first ran the system? It might be that user has no password at all in this case? You could do this in a terminal:

cat /etc/passwd

and look at the last line in that file that is displayed. It should start with "user:" The first info following that should be an encrypted password for user. Is it there?

Cheers.

 

You can still use the root account though, right? As in, "sudo su" in the terminal still boots you into a root terminal session without prompting for a password, right? AFAIK I still haven't set a root password for myself, but that doesn't stop me from running around as root when need be.

 

Typing

Code:

sudo passwd

in a terminal will allow you to change the root password without knowing it.
Hail security.

 

thanks you the responses so far. Here are some answers:

I bought my acer new (so there was no previous installation of linpus on it)

Rbil: I entered "cat /etc/passwd" in the Terminal and indeed, the "user:" appeared, together with an encrypted code. So it seems to be, that a password is saved...but if I've left the box empty, what password does the system save?

Phil: with "sudo su", I get in the root without using a password. It now says: "[root@localhost user] instead of [user@localhost ~]

Grim: what kind of password is set @ the installation of linpus, the root password or the user password? If I'd like to change the password with the Password-program in the settings-menu (which I can't do at this moment), do I change the USER-password or the ROOT-password?

I'm quite new with linpus, but learning fast

 

IIRC, the password that is set is the user password. I believe however that it also sets that same password for root. The user is given sudo privileges, however, so I might have set the root password after I reinstalled awhile back and forgot that I did it, heh, but I believe when it prompts you for that password it sets both user and root.

Cool that you're learning Linpus so swiftly My opinion in this matter is that the old-fashioned pure-Linux way of doing things might be the best. Since you can go sudo, you could do this:

Code:

sudo passwd user

upon which it'll prompt you for what you want the new user password to be, without having to know what it is right now. Grim has already pointed out that just "sudo passwd" will change the root password, so now ya know how to change either

 

Well, that all depends on how sudo is configured. On Ubuntu, for instance, root does not even have a password and cannot log in directly (which is nice in a security sense). Only the users that have the privilege to temporarily log over to root can do so using sudo. Sudo is configured in a way that it then asks for the current user's password, never for root's.

So you can give root a password (probably making the machine less secure), but I do not think that stops "sudo su" working without a password.

Type :man sudoers
in a terminal window to find out more and just take a look at /etc/sudoers.

A real root's password is only needed when subsequent drive checks fail and you get a message to enter your "maintenance password". Anything else can be done with sudo.

 

Hi all experts here,

I am very new to Linux so my concepts and foundation are still very raw. I have tried to set the password for both user and root using

sudo passwd root

sudo passwd user

It seemed that I managed to get it changed as I got the following msg:

[user@localhost ~]$ sudo passwd root
audit_log_user_command(): Connection refused
Changing password for user root.
New UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

But when I tried to login by typing

login root

I got the following error:

[user@localhost ~]$ login root
Password:

Login incorrect

I am sure that I have typed in the password correctly.

As for the user account, I got permission denied. Please advice.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try tonight at home...I'll let you know later!

 

I changed my user pw .... and it worked!!

One small question: If I want to install some extra software, do I need the USER pw or the ROOT pw?

 

Cool!

It *should* be prompting you for your user password. I'm not 100% sure though, most modern Linux distros are set up by default to use sudo to access such stuff, I tend to install things via the terminal, where it's "sudo yum install blah", in which case it's your user password. I just went alt-f2 and ran pirut, and it asked for root, so in that case it was asking for the root password.

The login command doesn't do what you might expect it to do. For what I think you're trying, use "su" (for Switch User") instead.