Re: Seeking assistance to preserve memories

I could help.

You could do this yourself, or have a Linux-literate person like me
help.

On the system you don't have the password for:

1. Reboot the system into recovery mode (single user mode).

2. Remount / read-write.

3. Edit /etc/shadow, which has 8 colon-separated fields on each line.

4. Find the entry for the user whose password is lost.

5. Change the second field to empty, that is. change a line like (sorry
about the folding, but it's really all one line):

walt:$6$JBOWINsf
$8tG83N1lhOeH11nugz0ZD6CJefsdYKrqd4zIkFEbCd6lxB17OUmTs0gxeqxIlUxDCD6.VhO7MgkGuxqsdbnW90:15197:0:60:10:::

to:

walt::15197:0:60:10:::

6. Save the file, and let the reboot finish.

7. Now the password for the user ("walt" in the example above) is empty.
Login and use the passwd command to change it.

Let me know if I can help. 

Walt Sullivan



On Sun, 2011-08-14 at 02:34 +0000, Kimberly Charette wrote:
> My spouse was the Linux person of the house, sadly with his passing in June most
> of that knowledge passed with him.  All of the systems in the house run Ubuntu.
>  I have no concerns using my personal system or losing data on it but our server
> is s different story.  It houses thousands of photographs and given recent
> circumstances those pictures are irreplaceable to me.
> This machine was also my husbands Mythbuntu box and it's raided.  I know the
> Myth software on this machine was having glitches before June.  My husband being
> the eternal procrastinator was going to fix everything eventually. I also have
> no idea what his password is and my account has absolutely no access to anything.
> My father in law tried to fix a few things but I think just made them worse.  
> 
> I would like the system to be operational with Ubuntu, Mythbuntu optional but
> not necessary. I of course have no idea how to accomplish this task and require
> the services of a knowledgeable and reliable Linux person in this matter.  
> 
> Thank you in advance.
> 
> Kimberly Charette
> 
> 


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